In spite of a body of scientific evidence that vaccines do not cause autism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching a new study to look for a link. "As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed," the agency said in a statement, per ABC News. "CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening." Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services, has written books and given speeches for years arguing that vaccines are unsafe and tied to autism. The study is a request of Trump administration officials, the Washington Post reports.
The debunked theory connecting the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines to autism began with a study in 1998 that was later retracted. Its author was barred from medical practice in the UK and found guilty of professional misconduct. Dozens of studies since then have found no relationship, per the New York Times. The CDC was asked but did not answer about how the latest study would differ from others. About 1 in 36 children in the US have autism, a rate that has increased over time—though less than Trump and Kennedy have said. Part of the increase is attributable to improvements in identifying and diagnosing autism.
One opponent of again looking for a link to vaccines is the Republican chairman of the Senate Health Committee. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician, said last week that such a study would be a waste of money and a distraction from research to discover the real reason autism rates are climbing. "It's been exhaustively studied," said Cassidy. "The more we pretend like this is an issue, the more we will have children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases." Texas is dealing with a measles outbreak now. (More autism stories.)
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