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.
Aluminum additives used in vaccines are not linked to serious medical problems or long-term conditions in children, according to a report published today in The BMJ. In particular, researchers found no increased risk of asthma, autism, or autoimmune conditions such as type 1 diabetes.
The analysis, which included 59 studies conducted over many years, adds to a large body of research finding no ties between aluminum in childhood vaccines and serious health problems, including a 24-year study of more than 1.2 million Danish children published last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
“The evidence shows that vaccines containing aluminum are safe,” said Joseline Zafack, MD, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and an epidemiologist at the Centre for Immunization Surveillance and Programs at the Public Health Agency of Canada.
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Anti-vaccine activists, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have attacked the use of aluminum in vaccines for years.
Kennedy, an attorney who has made millions of dollars working with a law firm suing a vaccine manufacturer, last year called for the Annals of Internal Medicine to retract the 2025 Danish study that found no link between aluminum in vaccines and autism. The journal’s editors refused.
There’s no reason to suspect aluminum as a cause of autism, Hotez said.
“This is what they do,” Hotez said. “It’s just made up."
Dozens of studies have consistently found no link between vaccines and autism or other serious illnesses. But vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years, according to the World Health Organization.
