More States Reject RFK Jr's Vaccine Lunacy

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He has now hijacked the CDC website -- and the CDC itself.

Liz Szabo at CIDRAP:

A growing number of states are pushing back against sweeping changes to the US childhood vaccine schedule.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an overhaul of the immunization schedule January 5, paring the number of universally recommended immunizations from 17 to 11.

Since then, at least 17 states have announced that they won’t follow new CDC vaccine schedule: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Instead, these states say they plan to follow vaccine guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which continues to recommend immunization plans approved by the CDC prior to the Trump administration.

 ...

Late last week, the AAP and more than 200 health groups sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers “to conduct swift and robust oversight regarding the abrupt changes to the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule.”

Autism Barbie

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss depictions of ASD in popular culture.  In 2022, Mattel, Inc announced  the introduction of Bruno, the first autistic character in the iconic Thomas & Friends franchise.

A release from Mattel:

Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) unveiled today its first-ever autistic Barbie doll created with guidance from the autistic community to represent common ways autistic people may experience, process, and communicate about the world around them. This doll invites more children to see themselves represented in Barbie.

Developed for more than 18 months in partnership with ASAN, a non-profit disability rights organization run by and for autistic people that advocates for the rights of the autistic community, this doll joins the Barbie Fashionistas collection, which features the most diverse range of skin tones, hair textures, body types, and various medical conditions and disabilities.

“Barbie has always strived to reflect the world kids see and the possibilities they imagine, and we’re proud to introduce our first autistic Barbie as part of that ongoing work,” said Jamie Cygielman, Global Head of Dolls, Mattel. “The doll, designed with guidance from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, helps to expand what inclusion looks like in the toy aisle and beyond because every child deserves to see themselves in Barbie."

In close collaboration with ASAN, the Barbie design team made intentional design choices for the autistic Barbie doll to authentically reflect some experiences individuals on the autism spectrum may relate to. The autistic Barbie doll features and accessories include: Body: The autistic Barbie doll features elbow and wrist articulation, enabling stimming, hand flapping, and other hand gestures that some members of the autistic community use to process sensory information or express excitement.Eye Gaze: The doll is designed with an eye gaze shifted slightly to the side, which reflects how some members of the autistic community may avoid direct eye contact.Accessories: Each doll comes with a pink finger clip fidget spinner, noise-cancelling headphones and a tablet.Fidget Spinner: The doll holds a pink finger clip fidget spinner that actually spins, offering a sensory outlet that can help reduce stress and improve focus.

Headphones: Pink noise-cancelling headphones rest on top of the doll’s head as a helpful and fashionable accessory that reduces sensory overload by blocking out background noise.
Tablet: A pink tablet showing symbol-based Augmentative and Alternative Communication apps (AAC) on its screen serves as a tool to help with everyday communication. Sensory-Sensitive Fashions: The doll wears a loose-fitting, purple pinstripe A-line dress with short sleeves and a flowy skirt that provides less fabric-to-skin contact. Purple shoes complete the outfit, with flat soles to promote stability and ease of movement.

“As proud members of the autistic community, our ASAN team was thrilled to help create the first-ever autistic Barbie doll. It is so important for young autistic people to see authentic, joyful representations of themselves, and that’s exactly what this doll is. Partnering with Barbie allowed us to share insights and guidance throughout the design process to ensure the doll fully represents and celebrates the autistic community, including the tools that help us be independent. We’re honored to see this milestone come to life, and we will keep pushing for more representation like this that supports our community in dreaming big and living proud.” - Colin Killick, Executive Director, Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN)

As part of the doll launch, Barbie is teaming up with advocates for the autistic community, including mother-daughter duo Precious and Mikko Mirage, autism advocate and creative entrepreneur Madison Marilla, and autistic fashion designer and visual artist Aarushi Pratap, to celebrate their lived experiences and lifestyles. The Barbie team filmed a unique video with them to capture and honor their personal experience with autism and delighted reactions to seeing the autistic Barbie doll for the first time. The video is available to view on the Mattel YouTube channel.

“Dolls have always brought me comfort, stability, and joy. I’ve been collecting Barbie dolls since I was four years old, and now this autistic Barbie will be one of my favorites,” said Madison Marilla, Autism Advocate and Creative Entrepreneur. “My good friend said these words to me, let yourself out and don't hold yourself in, and it taught me how to educate people about autism. This autistic Barbie makes me feel truly seen and heard. I hope all the kids I’ve mentored feel the same when they see her, and I hope people who aren’t autistic feel educated and gain a better understanding of autism when they see this doll.”

Consistent with the Fashionistas dolls representing individuals with type 1 diabetes, Down syndrome and blindness, the autistic Barbie doll was named and created with the community’s guidance to allow more children to see themselves in Barbie. This doll, along with the entire Fashionistas collection boasts over 175+ looks, can help children better understand the world around them by encouraging doll play outside of a child’s own lived experience. It’s yet another step in making the Barbie brand a more inclusive reflection of the children who play with it.

Building on the importance of feeling understood and connected through play, beginning in 2020, Barbie set out to research the short- and long-term benefits of doll play through a multi-year study with researchers at Cardiff University, finding that playing with dolls activates parts of children’s brains involved in empathy and social processing skills. In recent years, the study has continued to build on these findings, suggesting that doll play could help develop social skills for all children, including those who display neurodivergent traits commonly associated with autism.

To celebrate the launch, Barbie will donate more than 1,000 autistic Barbie dolls to leading pediatric hospitals that provide specialized services for children on the autism spectrum, including Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), and Rady Children’s Hospital Orange County. This donation is intended to bring moments of joy, comfort, and representation to the community, reinforcing the power of play to foster connection and confidence.

The autistic Barbie doll is now available on Mattel Shop and from major retailers.

WHO Committee Reaffirms It One More Time: VACCINES DON'T CAUSE AUTISM

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He has now hijacked the CDC website -- and the CDC itself.

A release from the World Health Organization:

New analysis from a WHO global expert committee on vaccine safety has found that, based on available evidence, no causal link exists between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The conclusion reaffirms WHO’s position that childhood vaccines do not cause autism.

The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), established in 1999, brings together international experts to provide independent and authoritative scientific advice to WHO on global vaccine safety related priorities.

The latest analysis, discussed by the Committee on 27 November 2025, focused first on the relationship between thiomersal-containing vaccines and ASD, and the association between vaccines in general and ASD. Evidence based on 31 primary research studies, published between January 2010 and August 2025, including data from multiple countries, strongly supports the positive safety profile of vaccines used during childhood and pregnancy, and confirms the absence of a causal link with ASD.

The Committee also assessed the review of potential health risks associated with vaccines with aluminum adjuvants, drawing on studies conducted from 1999 through March 2023. In addition, it reviewed a recent large cohort study analyzing nationwide registry data of children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2018. In summary, the available high-quality evidence shows no association between the trace amounts of aluminum used in some vaccines and ASD, supporting the ongoing use of vaccines with aluminum adjuvants.

Following its review, GACVS reaffirms its previous conclusions from 2002, 2004 and 2012: vaccines, including those with thiomersal and/or aluminum, do not cause autism.

WHO advises all national authorities to rely on the latest science and ensure vaccine policies are grounded in the strongest available evidence. Global childhood immunization efforts represent one of the greatest achievements in improving lives, livelihoods and the prosperity of societies. During the past 50 years, childhood immunization has saved at least 154 million lives.

Legal Literacy and Section 504

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities. 

Decker, J. R. (2025). Hidden Disabilities: The Urgent Need to Increase Section 504 Legal Literacy. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 0(0). https://doi-org.ccl.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/10442073251393335 

Abstract:

The hidden disabilities of students and staff in schools—which include medical and psychological conditions—have increased. Therefore, it is imperative that everyone in education is well versed in the law that protects them, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). The limited research indicates that teachers, school leaders, and other school employees lack Section 504 legal literacy. This article aims to increase awareness of hidden disabilities by explaining what they are and emphasize their significance through a discussion of anxiety, asthma, and allergies. It also intends to address the problem of the lack of Section 504 legal literacy by answering frequently asked questions about Section 504. University instructors, special education directors, and others are invited to share this relevant legal guidance to increase the legal literacy of their students and coworkers. Overall, this article hopes to ensure that students and employees with disabilities in schools—who are not eligible under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—receive better support and lawsuits are prevented. 

 

Autism Tests

In The Politics of Autism, I explain:

When a pregnancy is under way, doctors can detect certain kinds of disorders, but neither amniocentesis nor any other prenatal test can currently tell us whether a fetus will become autistic. Suppose that such a test did exist. “The best case use of a prenatal test at the moment would be if you could say to a parent, your child has got an 80 percent likelihood of autism and so once the baby's born, we would like to keep a close eye on that child in case they need extra support like speech therapy or social skills training or some sort of behavioral approach,” says leading autism scientist Simon Baron-Cohen. But would the “best case use” be the most common? When amniocentesis indicates Down Syndrome, most mothers choose abortion. A study of autism parents in Taiwan found that just over half would abort if a prenatal test indicated that their next child would be autistic. We cannot be sure what the figures would be if such tests were available in the United States, but it seems likely that a large share of autism pregnancies would end in abortion.

Azeen Ghorayshi at NYT:

Academic research labs across the country are working to find biological markers that can predict whether a child is at risk of developing autism. And companies are rushing to turn the findings into commercial tests, despite limited evidence to back their validity, raising concerns that their results could mislead desperate parents.

They include one test that examines a strand of hair to rule out an autism diagnosis in babies as young as one month old. Two other tests just entered the market. One promises to predict autism risk based on skin cells collected as early as days after birth. Another looks for the presence of certain antibodies in a mother’s blood to determine whether her children, or babies that she might have in the future, are at risk of developing autism.

All the tests are based on autism research by scientists at academic institutions... But the new tests, largely aimed as a screening tool for the general population, are not yet reliable enough to be offered commercially, outside scientists familiar with the tests say, especially in a landscape where families are already inundated with incorrect or unverified information about autism. None of the tests has gone through large experimental trials or had its validity evaluated by a regulatory agency.

...

The new antibody test, which is based on the work of Judy Van de Water, an immunologist at the University of California, Davis, has perhaps the most research behind it of any of the measures.

The test looks for specific antibodies, known as autoantibodies, that mistakenly attack normal cells in a person’s body as if they posed a threat. Dr. Van de Water’s research group has identified eight autoantibodies that cross the placenta during pregnancy and can target proteins involved in fetal brain development.

...

Michael Paul, chief executive of MARAbio, the company selling the new antibody test, said that Dr. Van de Water’s research was based on “a very, very robust data set.”

“I would feel unethical to not bring it forward,” Dr. Paul said, “because we believe this is a test that families should have.”

Dr. Paul said the company hopes to limit the number of false positives by making clear to doctors and patients that the test is not intended as a screening tool for the general population. Instead, the company is marketing the test only to women who already have a child with an autism diagnosis and are deciding whether to have more children, or those who have a child who is exhibiting clinical signs of the disorder. The company is currently validating the test for use in the general population, Dr. Van de Water, who also is the founder of MARAbio, said.

The risk of false positives is also one reason the company is not yet making the test available to pregnant women — a group that Dr. Van de Water said has been asking her for a test like this for years. But the restriction, she added, also allowed the company to sidestep thorny debates about abortion and autism.

“We do not want to go there. And we don’t have to,” Dr. Van de Water added, noting that, unlike common prenatal tests that rely on detecting fetal cells, the antibody test needs only a sample of the mother’s blood on which to base predictions.

Trusting AMA Over CDC

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He has now hijacked the CDC website -- and the CDC itself.

A December release from the Annenberg Public Policy Center:

In late November 2025, for example, when the CDC website legitimized the discredited link between vaccination and autism, mainstream professional health organizations condemned the changes. Fueling the outcry were two additions to the CDC website, under the leadership of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The first declared that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” The second alleged that “studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.” These claims now appear as the first two key points in a box at the beginning of the CDC’s Autism and Vaccines page.

“Despite recent changes to the CDC website, an abundance of evidence from decades of scientific studies shows no link between vaccines and autism,” declared an AMA statement. Casting the changes as “reckless and harmful,” the Infectious Diseases Society of America argued that “this change is not driven by science but by politics and will only serve to increase mistrust in science and medicine.” The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics called on the CDC to remove the false information and “stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims …”

To determine what the public is making of the controversy, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania engaged SSRS to survey a nationally representative sample of 1,006 adults online from November 21-24, 2025. The survey has a margin of error of ±3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The survey, created by APPC’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute (AHRCI), asks about the public’s confidence that the CDC is providing trustworthy information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, how people react to conflicting cues about vaccine safety from the AMA and the CDC, and public views about whether vaccines and autism are linked.

The Annenberg survey finds that:

• By a 2-1 margin, the public would be more likely to accept the AMA’s recommendation (35%) on vaccine safety than the CDC’s (16%) if the two bodies issue conflicting recommendations;
• Regardless of party, Americans would accept the AMA’s recommendations on vaccine safety over the CDC’s;
• Half of older Americans age 65+ (50%) would be more likely to accept the AMA’s recommendations on vaccine safety over the CDC’s (13%); the only age group more likely to accept the CDC over the AMA are 18- to 29-year-olds, by 24% to 19%.

Blindsiding CDC Experts

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He has now hijacked the CDC website -- and the CDC itself.

Lena H. Sun at WP:

Vaccine experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were blindsided by a top deputy to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to unilaterally overhaul the childhood immunization schedule, according to current and former agency staff.

U.S. health officials took the unprecedented action Monday to narrow the list of vaccines that the federal government routinely recommends for all children, a shift that leading public health experts and medical organizations warned could weaken protections against preventable deadly diseases.

...

But the overhaul contradicted guidance from career scientists who prepared a presentation outlining how the U.S. vaccine policy is not an international outlier, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The Washington Post. Five career scientists and researchers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they are angered by the bypassing of expertise in Monday’s decision. That process to alter vaccine recommendations, they and several former health officials said, did not include extensive consultation with the agency’s subject matter experts or the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel that is usually done.

...

Deputy Health Secretary and acting CDC director Jim O’Neill, who unlike previous CDC directors, is not a scientist, said he signed a decision memo changing the schedule that was presented by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, according to an HHS press release. President Donald Trump, who ordered the review, and Kennedy, a longtime critic of the childhood vaccine schedule, also praised the change.

A Deadly Move: Changing the Vax Schedule

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He has now hijacked the CDC website -- and the CDC itself.

Lena H. Sun and Paige Winfield Cunningham at WP:

The Trump administration is overhauling the list of routine shots recommended for all babies and children in the United States, bypassing the government’s typical process for recommending vaccines and delivering on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-standing goals to upend the nation’s pediatric vaccine schedule.

Effective immediately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend every child be immunized for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A, according to materials released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services. Instead, the agency will recommend smaller groups of children and babies should get those vaccines only if they are at high risk or if a doctor recommends it.

...

Under Kennedy’s leadership, federal health agencies have upended and scrutinized childhood vaccination policies. They have launched reviews of the cumulative health effects of the immunization schedule. The CDC eliminated a recommendation for all newborns to receive a hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth, which researchers and health experts credited with a dramatic plunge in infections. Kennedy directed revisions to a CDC webpage that previously debunked a link between vaccines and autism to instead say health authorities have ignored evidence of a link and studies have not ruled out a purported link.

 Stephanie Soucheray and Liz Szabo at CIDRAP:

Public health experts immediately decried the change. Experts said there’s no reason to change a system that has prevented 1.1 million deaths over the past 30 years.

“Abandoning the U.S. evidence-based process is a dangerous and potentially deadly decision for Americans,” said Jason M. Goldman, MD, president of the American College of Physicians. “The evidence is clear that vaccines prevent deaths, hospitalizations, and spread of disease.”

...

“This is a very dark day for children and for their parents and for our country generally,” said Jesse Goodman, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Georgetown University, who spoke at a press conference of vaccine experts following the announcement.

Goodman compared the announcement to a “torpedo” blowing up vaccination policy. “There will be more diseases, more infection, more hospitalization,” said Goodman, a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief scientist and former director of the agency’s center for biologics evaluation and research.

Private Equity

The Politics of Autism includes an extensive discussion of autism service providers.  Private equity firms now own many of them.   After its purchase by Blackstone, the Center for Autism and Related Disorders went bankrupt.

A release from Brown University:

Private equity firms have acquired more than 500 autism therapy centers across the U.S. over the past decade, with nearly 80% of those acquisitions occurring over a four-year span, according to a new study from researchers at the Brown University Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research.

Study author Yashaswini Singh, a health economist at Brown's School of Public Health, said the work highlights how financial firms are rapidly moving into a sensitive area of health care without much public scrutiny or data on where this is happening or why.

"The big takeaway is that there is yet another segment of health care that has emerged as potentially profitable to private equity investors and it is very distinct from where we have traditionally known investors to go, so the potential for harm can be a lot more serious," Singh said. "We're also dealing with children who are largely insured by Medicaid programs, so if private equity increases the intensity of care, what we're really looking at are impacts to state Medicaid budgets down the road."
Study findings and national context

The findings of the analysis were published in JAMA Pediatrics and offer one of the first national assessments of private equity's growing role in autism therapies and services. Autism diagnoses among U.S. children have risen sharply in recent years, nearly tripling between 2011 and 2022, and the condition has been in the national spotlight amid political debate falsely linking autism to childhood vaccines.

The researchers, Singh said, did not evaluate the impacts of private equity ownership on access to treatment, quality of care or the experience of families seeking services. The findings do suggest that investment has been concentrated in states with higher rates of autism diagnoses among children and states that have fewer limits on insurance coverage.

The researchers identified a total of 574 autism therapy centers owned by private equity firms as of 2024, spanning 42 states. Most of those centers were acquired between 2018 and 2022, the result of 142 separate deals. The largest concentrations of centers were in California (97), Texas (81), Colorado (38), Illinois (36) and Florida (36). Sixteen states had one or no private equity-owned clinics at the end of 2024.

States in the top third for childhood autism prevalence were 24% more likely to have private equity–owned clinics than others, according to the study.

The scale and speed of acquisitions underscore the growing trend of private equity's entry into the market. According to Singh, researchers were prompted to investigate after hearing anecdotal reports from families and health providers about changes following private equity takeovers.

The primary concern is private equity firms putting money over families, said Daniel Arnold, a senior research scientist at the School of Public Health.

"It's all about the financial incentives," Arnold said. "I worry about the same types of revenue generating strategies seen in other private equity-backed settings. I worry about children receiving more than the clinically appropriate amount of services and worsening disparities in terms of which children have access to services."

To establish a baseline of where private equity firms are investing and why, the team used a mix of proprietary databases, public press releases and manual verification of archived websites to track changes in ownership. Unlike public companies, private equity firms and private practices are not required to disclose acquisitions, making data collection challenging and labor-intensive.

The team now hopes to examine how private equity ownership affects outcomes, including changes in therapy intensity, medication use, diagnosis age or how long children stay in treatment. They will determine whether these investments are helping meet real needs or are primarily a way to make money.

"Private investors making a little bit of money while expanding access is not a bad thing, per se," Singh said. "But we need to understand how much of a bad thing this is and how much of a good thing this is. This is a first step in that direction."

US Exports Misinformation to Canada

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

Olivia Bowden at The Guardian:

Canadian officials and public health experts are warning that US health and science institutions can no longer be depended upon for accurate information, particularly when it comes to vaccinations, amid fears that misinformation from the Trump administration could further erode Canadians’ confidence in healthcare.

“I can’t imagine a world in which this misinformation doesn’t creep into Canadians’ consciousness and leads to doubt,” said Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist and professor at McMaster University in Ontario.

Those fears have emerged as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has forwarded an anti-vaccine agenda. In December, a panel appointed by Kennedy voted to remove a longstanding recommendation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B.

The CDC also updated its website in November at the instruction of Kennedy to claim that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”, which top public health experts have decried as false.

The agency’s move toward misinformation and away from public health leadership makes it more difficult to combat distrust in vaccinations in Canada, says Bowdish.

...

A December poll on vaccination hesitancy by research firm Leger Healthcare found that while most Canadians (74%) have confidence in vaccines, hesitancy has increased primarily due to fears around safety driven by social media and government mistrust.

The survey also found that 17% of those who expressed a lack of confidence in vaccines say they get their information from US government websites.

 

On-Time MMR Vaccination is Down

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio. 

Liz Szabo at CIDRAP:

In another sign of growing vaccine hesitancy, a new report finds that the percentage of US toddlers vaccinated on time against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) has fallen since the pandemic.

The percentage of 2-year-olds given the MMR vaccine fell from 80% in 2021 to 77% in 2024, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open. The new study included nearly 322,000 children with regular access to care.

The researchers found that the strongest predictor of missing the MMR shot by age 2 was late administration of the vaccines recommended for babies at 2 months and 4 months of age.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends giving children a first dose of MMR vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age and a second dose at 4 to 6 years. Research shows that at least 95% of children need to receive both doses on time to keep measles from spreading.

Reduced vaccination levels have helped fuel ongoing measles outbreaks across the United States that affected more than 2,000 people in 2025. Two Texas children died after contracting measles last year.

William Vaillancourt at The Daily Beast:

Measles may have spread at a Noah’s Ark-themed creationist museum in Kentucky earlier this week, the state’s health authority said.

Visitors and staff at Ark Encounter in Williamstown are being encouraged to be on the alert for symptoms of the highly contagious—and vaccine-preventable—disease through Jan. 19, the Kentucky Department of Public Health explained, following a potential exposure on Monday.

“An unvaccinated, out-of-state traveler stayed at the Holiday Inn & Suites in Dry Ridge from Dec. 28 to 30, 2025 and visited the Ark Encounter on Dec. 29, 2025,” the agency said in a Facebook post. It then noted that “vaccination is the best protection against measles,” and that young, unvaccinated children are particularly at risk of developing complications.

...

Ark Encounter, which includes exhibits showing dinosaurs and humans living together, allows children 10 years old and under to enter for free. It reported 1 million visitors from mid-2017 to mid-2018, its second year of operation.

Iowa Lifts Dollar Cap and Age Limit for Insurance

The Politics of Autism includes an extensive discussion of insurance and Medicaid services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Kayla James at KCCI-TV in Des Moines:

A new Iowa law that expands insurance coverage for Iowans with autism, impacting families across the state went into effect Jan. 1. It’s one many are calling "life-changing," including a family in Ankeny.

The Lust family says the law, HF 330, has the power to make real change for so many people across the state. It updates state insurance rules to remove annual and lifetime dollar caps on autism coverage in group plans covered under Iowa law, meaning insurers can no longer cut off autism benefits once a family reaches a specific spending limit. It also removes an age cap.

Under the previous state law. coverage was capped at $36,000 per year, and Iowans with autism spectrum disorder were covered until they turned 21-years-old.

...

The law also adds limits on insurance companies. It prevents them from capping the number of outpatient visits for autism treatment or applied behavior analysis.

State Representative Eddie Andrews sponsored the bill.  He is a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Andrews says institutions have been hard at work since the bill was signed to make sure they can provide care for adults, too.

“Normally it would have already started on July 1 of last year, but we gave them extra time to expand and prepare for today, so they should be ready to go,” said Andrews.

These changes give a sense of security for people and families like Brandon’s, who continue to watch him succeed and grow.

“A lot of us parents — we call it 'the cliff' when they turn 18 because a lot of things start ending — and so it’s nice that this is one thing that’s going to be able to continue for him,” said Kerry Lust.

Vaccination Rates

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

As of December 30, CDC reported a total of 2,065 confirmed measles cases this year -- the most since 1992.

Lauren Weber, Caitlin Gilbert, Dylan Moriarty and Joshua Lott at WP:

The share of U.S. counties where 95 percent or more of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles — the number doctors say is needed to achieve overall protection for the class, known as “herd immunity” — has dropped from 50 percent before the pandemic to 28 percent, according to The Post’s examination of the public records from 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Most of the counties that previously lacked herd immunity for kindergarten classrooms got worse, according to the Post analysis, which in most cases compared the academic years 2018-2019 and 2024-2025.

...

The Post’s findings show that at least 5.2 million kindergarten-age children in the U.S. are living in counties where vaccination rates for classrooms have fallen below the herd immunity threshold — up from about 3.5 million before the pandemic. While the vast majority of those who receive the measles vaccine are protected from severe illness and death, without herd immunity measles can still spread among those not immune, including those who cannot be vaccinated because of age or because they are immunocompromised.

Out of the 44 states reporting county-level rates, 36 and the District of Columbia also reported them for individual schools or districts. At least 19,000 schools — nearly half of schools in the Post analysis — were more vulnerable to outbreaks.

...
Medical specialists and public health experts expect more children will be left unprotected given policies advanced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist 
who is rolling back government vaccine policies and recommendations

 ...

The national anti-vaccine organization that Kennedy founded, Children’s Health Defense, has linked vaccines to autism, an assertion not supported by evidence and which scientists say is false.