CDC to Fund Study of Already-Debunked Vaccine Link

 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 is now shutting down funding for productive autism research but blowing taxpayer money on the vaccine myth.

Nathaniel Weixel at The Hill:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is funding a study on the widely debunked idea that vaccines cause autism, according to a government funding notice.While numerous large studies have disproved a connection between autism and vaccines — a cornerstone of the anti-vaccine movement — Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has continued to promote the possibility of a link.

Kennedy has promised that the federal government will release a report detailing the causes of autism later this month, though Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary said the HHS has not started writing the report.

The CDC on Thursday posted a notice of intent to award a sole source, fixed price contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., to examine the “association between vaccinations and autism prevalence.” The agency did not specify the amount of the award.

Other universities and research institutes are allowed to apply for the grant within a 15-day window, but the Trump administration does not have to consider the bids.