CDC to Study Vaccines and Autism Despite Extensive Evidence Showing No Link

UPDATE March 26, 2025

The vocal anti-vaccine activist David Geier has been chosen by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to conduct its planned study on vaccines and autism, reports The Washington Post. Geier, who is listed in the HHS directory as a “senior data analyst,” is not a doctor. He was disciplined in 2011 for practicing medicine without a license alongside his father, Mark Geier, M.D., who administered non-approved medication to autistic children and later had his medical license suspended. David Geier has written widely discredited research papers linking vaccines to autism and is co-founder of a company that helps individuals sue the government for alleged harm caused by vaccines.

March 18, 2025

Numerous authoritative studies prove that no connection exists between vaccines and the development of autism. Still, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is planning a large study on the topic, reports Reuters. The plans come amid declining immunization rates resulting from vaccine skepticism, which have led to an increase in preventable illness. In West Texas and New Mexico, a measles outbreak has left more than 290 people infected and one unvaccinated child dead. This death is the first due to measles in the United States in a decade.

As an agency of HHS, the CDC falls under the jurisdiction of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has historically questioned the safety of childhood vaccines, making unsubstantiated claims that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is linked to autism. No details have emerged about the scope and nature of the forthcoming CDC study, or Kennedy’s involvement with it.

The news of the study has prompted criticism from the medical community. “We know from repeated research that there is not a link,” said President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Susan Kressly, M.D., in a statement. “Devoting more research dollars to answer a question that is already known does not add to our knowledge about the safety of vaccines.”

Tina Tan, M.D., President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America expressed additional concerns about the study in a recent statement. “It means that significant federal resources will be diverted from crucial areas of study at a time when research funding is already facing deep cuts,” she wrote. “CDC’s study on the safety of vaccines could drive misinformation, leading to lower vaccination rates, more serious, vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, and a significantly weakened public health response.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination rates for children across the nation have steadily dropped. According to the CDC, immunizations for MMR, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis have decreased in more than 30 states. In 2024, approximately 280,000 kindergartners remained unvaccinated for measles, compared with 180,000 before the pandemic.

Though Discredited, Study’s Legacy of Fear Persists

Fears of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism were first sparked in 1998, when a now-discredited study by Andrew J. Wakefield, M.D., was published in The Lancet. Wakefield’s research, which comprised case studies of eight autistic children and no control group, was found to be seriously flawed, and was retracted. In 2010, the General Medical Council (GMC) found Wakefield guilty of professional misconduct, including performing unnecessary invasive medical procedures on children and failing to divulge payment he received from attorneys involved in MMR litigation. Wakefield was subsequently banned by the GMC from practicing medicine.

Since the initial publication of Wakefield’s article, dozens of rigorous, large-scale studies have found no evidence of an association between the MMR vaccine and autism.^{1, 2,3} These include a large-scale Danish study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which involved more than 537,000 participants (all the children born in Denmark over a 7-year period)⁴ as well as a meta-analysis involving cohort and case-control studies and more than 1.2 million children.⁵

The clear consensus within the scientific community is this: Vaccines do not cause autism. What does cause autism remains the subject of scientific inquiry.

Autism, like ADHD, has been revealed to be a highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder, and more than 100 genes have been associated with the condition, but experts agree that genetics and environmental factors likely play a role. It is highly co-morbid with ADHD.⁶ A study of 3.5 million Medicaid-enrolled adults published in the JAMA Network last month found that 27% of autistic adults also had ADHD, a comorbidity rate confirmed by existing research.⁷ “While distinct, multidimensional, and complex conditions, ADHD and autism share a staggering number of traits and symptoms, and co-occur at significant rates,” wrote Karen Saporito, Ph.D. in the ADDitude article, “ADHD, Autism, and Neurodivergence Are Coming Into Focus.”

Controlling for a host of potentially confounding factors is critical in uncovering causes of autism, but this is often hard to accomplish. A recent study published in Nature Metabolism found a possible association between a Western diet pattern among pregnant women and the development of autism and ADHD in their children, though experts have raised concerns about inadequate controlling of genetic factors, which may skew results.⁸

“A Distraction from Critical Research”

Autism diagnosis rates have risen dramatically over the past few decades. According to the CDC, approximately 1 in 36 children is now diagnosed with autism — a four-fold increase in prevalence compared to 20 years ago.

While the explanation for this increase is still unclear, experts attribute much of it to better screening, heightened autism awareness, and a more nuanced understanding of the broad range of behaviors that can be associated with the condition.

This improved awareness is essential not just for diagnosing autism, but for supporting and empowering individuals with autism to thrive in school, at home, at work, and in relationships. Effective supports are often revealed in research, and it is exactly this kind of research that suffers when funding is diverted to studies such as that planned by the CDC, Kressly argued in the AAP statement.

President of the Autism Society of America, Christopher Banks, echoed this sentiment: “The continued promotion of debunked vaccine theories only serves as a distraction from the critical research needed to better understand autism,” he said. “The conversation must shift to the public health issues that actually affect the autism community: access, affordability, and quality of healthcare services.”

In combination with other advocacy organizations such as The Arc and American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the Autism Society called upon policymakers to broaden funded research priorities from the causation of autism to the unmet healthcare needs of the autistic community. These needs include early diagnosis and intervention, equal access to treatment, interventions for communication, mental health support, crisis intervention, and clinician training.

“The medical community has its work cut out for it,” said Saporito. “Neurodevelopmental conditions are not a standard part of medical training and many medical providers remain unaware of how to diagnose and support these conditions.”

It is critical, Saporito argued, to recognize the need for effective supports among people with autism while also using de-stigmatizing language to talk about the condition in a way that does not medicalize or pathologize differences in thinking and functioning.

“Autistic individuals are just that – individuals who provide tremendous value to our society and enrich our communities,” Kressly explained in her statement. “We encourage dedicating resources toward evidence-based best practices that ensure that every child receives the care and opportunities they deserve.”

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