US President Donald Trump, alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks about autism in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on 22 September 2025. Photo: SAUL LOEB / AFP
Even though he has been lambasted by doctors around the world, Donald Trump's pronouncements on health issues none the less add to the mountain of misinformation in this area.
Kiwi vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris describes the White House press conference on autism, vaccines and pregnant women as "batshit crazy stuff".
It is a similar sentiment to hosts of medical professionals around the world, who are ringing alarm bells over the US President's podium pronouncements of medical misinformation.
"Of course what goes down in the United States doesn't stay in the United States, so it's not something we can sort of close our eyes and pretend is just happening there," says Petousis-Harris.
"It certainly travels faster than any virus we've come across.
"Those narratives overflow to here, and distrust in academia, for example, can occur regardless of where you are."
Petousis-Harris says she did not realise when she became a vaccine specialist that she would also become well versed in misinformation, but vaccines have become a weapon in that world.
Today on The Detail she talks about New Zealand importing misleading narratives, and the bad actors trying to erode trust in institutions, and remove the voices of medical professionals.
We also talk to Isabelle Montgomerie, a post-doctoral fellow at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research based out of Victoria University in Wellington.
She works on developing mRNA vaccines in New Zealand, and the institute is part of a network of labs around the country working on building capacity to make vaccines here.
The work was established after the the Covid-19 pandemic, and Montgomerie says it is important New Zealand does its own research in this area.
That continues to be the case, especially given US funding cuts to health and science research.
The lab has developed more than 500 vaccines in just two years - although the testing process is a long one and none of them are on the market yet.
Of the noise coming from America, she says it's horrifying to hear but for many in her field, it is only served to make them more dedicated to the work.
"I think among a lot of people it's kind of like a rallying cry.
"It strengthens people's resolve that this kind of research is really important, that vaccines do save lives.
"But at the same time a vaccine is a drug that you give to a healthy person. It needs to be taken really seriously - the decision to recommend a drug.
"I know our health agencies and our government do take this really seriously, but ultimately there needs to be a really high degree of trust between the population and the government, in order for the population to accept giving a drug to a healthy person - giving a drug to a healthy child.
"The issue with this... runs quite deep."
Montgomerie says there are so many diseases that people no longer have any contact with, or understanding of.
"Measles, polio - people are so disconnected from them. The lifelong disability, the death that comes from these kinds of diseases.
"If they're led to believe that these vaccines aren't safe, or they aren't necessary, there could be really serious public health problems, and it could also leave us less able to deal with a future pandemic. If we can't vaccinate the population, then what happens?"
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