The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has ordered a reduction in childhood vaccines \u2014 publicly faulting the shots for an increase in autism cases \u2014 even as the nation\u2019s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has failed to produce evidence linking vaccinations to the disorder.<\/p>\n
While the executive order released Aug. 10 does not directly mention autism, Trump\u2019s demand to limit vaccine recommendations has puzzled leading medical groups, doctors, and political analysts alike. The directive landed less than 90 days before midterm elections, which Trump\u2019s own pollsters have warned could be jeopardized by anti-vaccine rhetoric.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe political timing, particularly for members on the Republican side in swing districts, is not good,\u201d said Larry Bucshon, a former Republican congressman and retired doctor.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s willingness to gamble on the issue underscores the president\u2019s impatience for his health secretary to deliver on a promise that he\u2019d pinpoint a culprit for the sharp rise in autism diagnoses.<\/p>\n
After more than a year, Kennedy and his close, anti-vaccine allies have blown past a deadline to turn up definitive answers in a multimillion-dollar research mission shrouded in secrecy, leaving the president to recycle debunked notions as he publicly assaults vaccines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about the most closed project that I\u2019ve ever heard of,\u201d Helen Tager-Flusberg, a renowned psychologist who runs the Coalition of Autism Scientists, said of Kennedy\u2019s autism research efforts. \u201cThey\u2019re treating it like the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. This is as opaque as it could possibly be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House did not answer questions about what research is informing the president\u2019s opinions or which vaccines he believes could be linked to autism.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health and Human Services said the president\u2019s action builds on the agency\u2019s January announcement that it was reassessing the nation\u2019s vaccine schedule and recommended reducing childhood immunizations based on peer countries\u2019 guidance. However, no other peer country separates the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine as the president has now ordered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the secretary said, HHS will examine every biologically plausible hypothesis, follow the evidence wherever it leads, and make findings and actions available as they are ready,\u201d HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email.<\/p>\n
Trump especially has been enamored with finding autism\u2019s cause, saying in August 2025 that it will be \u201csuch a big day\u201d after Kennedy assured his boss that he had identified \u201cclearly, almost certainly\u201d factors causing autism that would soon be publicly revealed.<\/p>\n
Decades of existing research and scientific studies show genetics is a leading factor. Environmental factors \u2014 including prenatal exposure to pollution, the age of the father, and maternal health \u2014 can also play a role.<\/p>\n
But Kennedy has flatly rejected that science, often calling autism a \u201cpreventable disease.\u201d As health secretary, he has spent millions of taxpayer dollars looking for root causes in a research effort that\u2019s offered no public status updates and few details about who, or even which agency, is leading the effort.<\/p>\n
Prominent autism advocacy groups, scientists, and researchers have not been consulted on the project. Nor have career scientists working at the federal health agencies, according to two officials KFF Health News is not naming because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the matter.<\/p>\n
Requests to meet with Kennedy on the issue have been ignored, said Delancy Allred, public policy manager at the Autism Society. Allred said that other federal agencies, such as the Department of Education, have engaged more directly with leading autism advocacy groups during meetings.<\/p>\n