The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning a study into the potential connections between vaccines and autism, according to two people familiar with the plan, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that there is no link between the two.
Autism diagnoses are on the rise in the United States — about 1 in 36 children have received such a diagnosis, according to data the CDC collected from 11 states, compared with 1 in 150 children in 2000.
Researchers attribute much of the surge to increased awareness of the disorder and changes in how it is classified by medical professionals. But scientists say there are other factors, genetic and environmental, that could be playing a role too.
Nevertheless, President Donald Trump and new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have repeatedly linked vaccines to autism.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, has disparaged vaccines for years. A previous Washington Post examination found that since 2020, Kennedy has linked autism to vaccines in at least 36 appearances, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.
Trump, who mentioned the rising rates of autism in his address to Congress this week, has previously linked vaccines to autism. In a 2012 call into “Fox & Friends,” he said “they go in, they get this monster shot — you ever see the size of it? It’s like they’re pumping in, you know it’s terrible, the amount, and they pump this into this little body, and then all of a sudden the child is different a month later. And I strongly believe that’s it.”
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The debunked theory traces to a 1998 study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism — a paper that was ultimately retracted. Study author Andrew Wakefield was barred from practicing medicine in Britain and found guilty of professional misconduct.
Years of research based on data from hundreds of thousands of patients has shown no link between vaccines and autism. A decadelong study of half a million children in Denmark published in 2019 showed the MMR vaccine does not increase the risk of autism, lending new statistical evidence to what was already medical consensus.
Public health and other experts have feared Kennedy would use his new authority to mislead the public on vaccines.
“It’s just so irresponsible that anybody in a position of authority would continue to raise this in this way. This is really misleading for the public,” said Richard Hughes IV, a former vice president of public policy at the drug company Moderna who teaches vaccine law at the George Washington University Law School. “The reality is that it’s been studied. There is no link, and it’s just irresponsible.”
“Vaccines do not cause autism. Dozens and dozens of studies have been conducted looking at vaccines and autism and they all show the same result: no relationship,” said Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds autism research. “This question has been asked and answered, and it’s time to ask new questions if we want to find the actual causes of autism.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who was a key vote to confirm Kennedy, pressed him during Senate hearings to address the extensive evidence that vaccines do not cause autism.
“If you show me data, I’ll be the first person to assure the American people that they need to take those vaccines,” Kennedy replied.
In return for his vote, Cassidy said he extracted promises that Kennedy would not change the CDC’s website to remove language saying vaccines don’t cause autism, among other pledges.
“I will watch carefully for any effort to wrongfully sow public fear about vaccines between confusing references of coincidence and anecdote,” he said in February.
Cassidy’s office declined to comment Friday. The Department of Health and Human Services and the White House did not immediately respond to questions.
Reuters first reported that the CDC was planning to conduct a study on the potential connections between vaccines and autism.
The CDC is planning to look at the connection between vaccines and autism using data from its Vaccine Safety Datalink, according to the two people familiar with the initiative, who described it on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it. Established in 1990, the database is a project to monitor the safety of vaccines and study rare and serious adverse events following immunization. The VSD uses electronic health record data from member sites to assess vaccine safety and detect adverse events in near-real time.
The CDC’s Immunization Safety Office collaborates with health care organizations across the country to review information from 11 sites that provide electronic health records and provide subject-matter expertise.
This story was originally published at washingtonpost.com. Read it here.