Trump's claim that unvaccinated Amish children never develop autism is debunked

Donald Trump reposted a graphic claiming that throughout the 330-year history of Amish settlements in the United States, no unvaccinated child has been diagnosed with autism, referencing a 2010 study. The study, conducted by the International Society for Autism Research, screened 1,899 Amish children and found seven cases of autism, but it did not correlate those cases with individual vaccination records. Moreover, the research only covered children in Ohio and Indiana during 2008-2009, not the entire Amish population or later years.

Critics, including psychologist Adam Omary of the Cato Institute, said genetic differences, not vaccine exposure, drive the lower autism rates observed among the Amish. Trump has previously linked low vaccination rates to low autism incidence in the community. The claim surfaced as a measles outbreak spreads in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where roughly 25% of the Amish are vaccinated against measles, prompting a dispute over vaccine misinformation.