HHS said to have asked CDC to study vaccines and autism, despite robust evidence showing no link

A source says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study vaccines and autism. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study vaccines and autism, a person familiar with the situation told CNN, despite strong evidence that vaccines do not cause autism.

The agency will conduct the study using the Vaccine Safety Datalink, which monitors safety of vaccines and investigates rare and serious adverse events, The Washington Post reported, citing two people familiar with the plan. Reuters earlier reported the planned study.

The CDC has previously published several studies looking at a possible link between vaccines and vaccine ingredients and autism. None has found any evidence to suggest that vaccines increase the risk of autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.

“As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in an emailed statement late Friday. “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.”

Through the Vaccine Safety Datalink, the CDC collaborates with 13 healthcare organizations across the U.S., including 11 that provide electronic health record data and two that provide expertise. A source within the CDC spoke with CNN on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to share information.

Researchers in other settings, including other countries, have studied this question, too.

“Decades of research have shown no link between vaccines and autism, including CDC studies using very large data systems, like the Vaccine Safety Datalink,” said Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University.

Advocates for people with autism said the announcement was concerning.

“Even just the notion that the government needs to study this is harmful,” said Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, which maintains a list of studies on vaccines and autism.

“It will plant seeds of fear, particularly for new parents who may not be aware of the history of research on this,” she said. “Parents will withhold vaccines, and children will die.”

Singer said the government would be dedicating resources to the issue at a time when critically needed autism research is being cut all across health agencies.

During his confirmation hearings, under questioning from Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor from Louisiana, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – who has long questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccines and previously made statements linking vaccines to autism – pledged not to study this question if research showed that it was already settled.

“If the data is brought to you and these studies that have been out there for quite some time and have been peer-reviewed, and it shows that these two vaccines are not associated with autism, will you ask, ‘No, I need even more,’ or will you say, ‘No, I see this, it stood the test of time, and I unequivocally and without qualification say that this does not cause autism’?” Cassidy asked.

“Not only will I do that, but I will apologize for any statements that misled people otherwise,” Kennedy said.

President Donald Trump has also made comments linking vaccines to autism. In this week’s address to Congress, Trump did not mention vaccines but said it was a goal to get “toxins out of our environment” and spoke about the rise in autism prevalence in the U.S..

“We’re going to find out what it is and there’s nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you,” Trump said in his address, referring to Kennedy. “You have the best to figure out what is going on. OK, Bobby, good luck. It’s a very important job.”

However, experts say the rising prevalence of autism in the U.S. is largely a result of increased awareness of the disorder, changes in the way doctors diagnose it and increased access to specialty care.

Meg Tirrell and Brenda Goodman, CNN