Robert De Niro has publicly endorsed the controversial anti-vaccination documentary he pulled from this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and urged the public to watch the film.
De Niro withdrew Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe from the festival he co-founded amid mounting pressure, saying he had concerns over "certain things" in the film.
But on Wednesday, the Oscar winner defended his initial decision to air it during an appearance on The Today Show and demanded the medical community “find the truth” about any potential links between childhood vaccinations and autism.
While the 72-year-old veteran actor did not say he way anti-vaccine, he expressed doubts and urged scientists to explore their possible dangers.
“I think the movie is something that people should see...” he explained. “There’s a lot of information about things that are happening with the CDC, the pharmaceutical companies, there’s a lot of things that are not said”.
"I, as a parent of a child who has autism, I’m concerned. And I want to know the truth. I’m not anti-vaccine. I want safe vaccines,” he continued.
De Niro then went on to discuss his 18-year-old son Elliot who has autism, explaining his wife said he changed overnight. When asked if he remembered him changing, he said, "My wife says that. I don't remember. But my child is autistic. And every kid is different".
“For me to get so upset here today, on the Today show with you guys, means there’s something there,” the Goodfellas actor went on to say. “That’s all I wanted, was for the movie to be seen. People can make their own judgment, but you must see it...”
“I’m not a scientist, but I’ve seen so much reaction of just ‘let’s find out the truth’, so let’s just find out the truth,” he added.
Rather than being featured at the Tribeca Film Festival which is currently underway, the much-debated film will only be shown at small cinemas. Vaxxed’s director, Andrew Wakefield, was prohibited from practising medicine in the UK. After the former British doctor's 1998 study linking MMR vaccinations and autism was discredited and retracted from medical journal The Lancet, he struck off the medical register after being found guilty of fraud.
De Niro did not immediately respond to request for comment.
