Some anti-vaccine activists, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, believe some vaccines may cause autism, while others disagree.
By Catholics for Catholics
Remade by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a U.S. autism advisory board that will include vaccine skeptics intends to direct federal research spending toward probing causes of the condition, as well as other problems like co-occurring medical disorders, according to some new panel members.
A longtime anti-vaccine activist who has suggested the inoculations cause autism; Kennedy readjusted the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee in January with 21 new public participants.
More than a third of the new committee members have also promoted a link between vaccines and autism, according to a story by Newsmax.
However, some autism experts, including former committee participants, have said the new members could damage federal autism research.
This week, some former members formed their own alternative advisory board, the latest in a series of similar efforts by public health experts concerned about Kennedy’s overhaul of federal vaccine policy.
Scheduled to first meet on March 19, the committee will provide nonbinding guidance to Kennedy on federal autism research priorities, including recommendations on allocating hundreds of millions of dollars in research spending.
🚨 BREAKING: RFK Jr. says the CDC COVERED UP an internal study which found a 1135% INCREASE in autism risk from hepatitis B vaccine
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 30, 2025
Conspiracy theorists were right AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/yQpnBeEFp1
Nevertheless, Kennedy has pledged President Donald Trump he will identify the cause of autism, which most researchers suggest is linked in part to genetics and exposure in utero to pollutants or harmful contaminants.
Still, several of Kennedy’s supporters in the Make America Healthy Again movement — some of whom were named to the committee — also believe vaccines can bring about autism and advocate for fewer childhood vaccinations.
A psychiatrist and instructor at Harvard Medical School, Committee Chair Sylvia Fogel, told Reuters the committee will address gaps in autism research like causal triggers to better serve people with profound autism and their families.
“Autism is not monolithic. Federal strategy should reflect that complexity rather than flatten it,” Fogel said.
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