On Thursday, RFK Jr. announced a new initiative to discover the cause of autism, a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. People who are autistic generally face difficulties in language, learning, social, and emotional skills. However, autism is considered a spectrum disorder as the symptoms vary widely from person to person.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will undertake a “massive testing and research effort,” which will be completed by September. During a televised cabinet meeting, the HHS secretary shared the plans with President Donald Trump, who also shared his anti-vaccine views. RFK Jr. has long been pushing the theory that routine childhood vaccines cause developmental disability in children.
Although this theory has been discredited by science, Trump also shares the same sentiment, blaming vaccine shots for autism.
“There’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this. If you can come up with that answer, where you stop taking something, eating something, or maybe it’s a shot. But something’s causing it,” the Republican leader told Kennedy during the cabinet meeting.
However, despite Trump and RFK Jr.‘s opinions, decades of research show that it is unlikely that there is a link between vaccination and autism. Leading autism advocacy groups like Autism Speaks agree that according to science, childhood vaccines don’t cause this developmental disability.
In fact, extensive research shows genes could play a large role, while some environmental factors could also pose some possible risk of autism. The National Institutes of Health spends over $300 million yearly researching this spectrum disorder. According to them, these risk factors include extreme prematurity or low birth weight, prenatal exposure to pesticides or air pollution, parents conceiving at an older age, or certain health issues of the mother.
The health secretary refrained from mentioning how the HHS research would be different than the existing ones. He also didn’t reveal what researchers will be included in this initiative. According to the Washington Post, Kennedy has hired David Geier to head the research effort. His hiring is being deemed controversial, given the state of Maryland accused him of practicing medicine on a child without a doctor’s license. However, he is also someone who firmly believes there is a connection between vaccines and autism, something RFK Jr. is also keen to discover through this effort.
“Autism is caused by vaccines.”
RFK Jr: The CDC conducted a study in 1989, which showed a 1350% elevated risk for autism in the first 30 days among children who got the hepatitis B vaccine, compared to those who got it later, or didn’t get it at all.
“There are hundreds and… pic.twitter.com/9pk5yNbn0h
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) April 5, 2025
Meanwhile, the health community is not very satisfied with how the HHS is going about this autism research initiative. Kristyn Roth, the spokesperson for the Autism Society of America, lamented that the organization wasn’t included in the discussions. She also questioned Kennedy’s approach, “There is a deep concern that we are going backward and evaluating debunked theories.”
Both Trump and RFK Jr. expressed concerns about the growing rates of autism diagnoses. But it’s not happening because of vaccination, which research has already ruled out as the primary cause of the disorder. Some of this rising rate is due to the increased awareness in minor communities and also how the overall approach towards autism has changed.
For decades, only kids with severe symptoms were diagnosed, but now, milder conditions are also receiving medical attention as “autism spectrum disorder.” According to surveys, milder cases are far more common than extreme ones.
