CDC Plans to Conduct Study on Reported Link Between Vaccines and Autism
- by Amber Baker and Barbara Loe Fisher
- Published
- Vaccines
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning to conduct a study to explore persistent reports that there is a link between vaccines and autism, according to a Mar. 7, 2025 report first published by Reuters1 and followed by The Washington Post on Mar. 7, 2025.2 A Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spokesperson Andrew Nixon was quoted as making a pledge that the agency will pursue research to explore why there are unprecedented and ever increasing rates of autism diagnoses among children in America. He said:
CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening. The American people expect high-quality research and transparency, and that is what CDC is delivering.
The CDC acknowledges that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children in the U.S. has risen dramatically between 2000 and 2023, from 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 children today.3 Reportedly, the CDC will use the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD)4 created in 1990 and currently collaborating with 11 Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) to review patient database medical records for evidence that vaccines are or are not associated with certain types of serious reported poor health outcomes.5
There was immediate pushback from a number of vaccine developers and doctors, who were quoted in articles defending the safety of vaccines and opposing further research into vaccines and brain and immune system dysfunction labeled “autism,” including American Public Health Association Executive Director George C. Benjamin, MD; American Academy of Pediatrics President pediatrician Susan Kressly, MD; a former vice president of Moderna Richard Hughes IV, JD, MPH; vaccine researcher Greg Poland, MD, who is director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group; vaccine developer and mandatory vaccine proponent pediatrician Paul Offit, MD; Vanderbilt University professor and medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases William Schaffner, MD.6 7
Most of them reiterated that any association between vaccines and autism has been “thoroughly debunked” by studies conducted in the past. The majority of these studies, however, have focused primarily on the live attenuated MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine or the Thimerosal preservative in inactivated bacterial and viral vaccines and were not designed to evaluate the synergistic effect of repeatedly atypically manipulating the developing immune systems of infants and young children with dozens of vaccines containing varying amounts of bioactive toxic ingredients.8 Additionally, many studies use control groups, which are not given true placebos but instead are given another vaccine or, for example, an aluminum adjuvant, which confounds potential negative side effects of the vaccine being studied and skews outcomes.
Many medical and public health professionals attribute the autism increase mostly to greater awareness, expanded diagnostic criteria, improved screening methods, and standardized evaluations that lead to earlier and more frequent diagnoses, rejecting any real increase in autism prevalence. Some researchers also point to genetic and environmental influences as potential contributors, while one study even suggests that “maternal stress” may play a role.9
No Proven Link, But Unprecedented Autism Surge Demands Answers
Wilbur Chen, MD, a University of Maryland School of Medicine professor and former member of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, was quoted by Reuters as expressing concern that the federal government conducting a study into the reported vaccine-autism connection is enough to raise doubts in the general public about vaccine safety. “It sends the signal that there is something there that is worth investigating, so that means there must be something going on between vaccines and autism,” he said.1
Last week, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, MD pressed the administration’s nominee for director of the U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH) Jay Bhattacharya, MD on whether he would support investigating a potential link between childhood vaccinations and autism. Dr. Bhattacharya responded:
I don’t generally believe there is a link, based on my reading of the literature. But we do have a sharp rise in autism rates, and I don’t think any scientist really knows the cause of it. I would support a broad scientific agenda based on data to get an answer to that.1
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