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.
Early this year, Kennedy went to his director of the NIH, Jay Bhattacharya, with a costly proposal, according to two officials familiar with the request: The research agency should spend $5 billion studying the link between vaccines and autism. That would have dedicated more than a tenth of the NIH’s annual budget to investigating a hypothesis already refuted by scientists worldwide.
Kennedy ultimately dropped the plan, which likely would have required congressional approval, after Bhattacharya convinced him the agency had dedicated enough resources to researching autism's causes, including a $50 million effort launched in September, the officials said.
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The health secretary has rejected studies involving millions of people over the past two decades which have concluded there is no credible link. Leading medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association say Kennedy’s refusal to accept such findings both increases vaccine hesitancy and devalues more evidence-based efforts to help families struggling with autism.
In November, Kennedy ordered the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be updated to say the claim that vaccines do not cause autism is "not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” For years previously, it had said that “studies have shown there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism,” citing a 2012 National Academy of Medicine review of scientific papers and a 2013 CDC study.
The CDC didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.
The health secretary has tasked Stefanie Spear, his closest adviser, with leading his department's efforts to unearth any evidence of a link, including launching a series of studies into vaccine-related injuries. The pair go back many years, having partnered together on an environmental website called EcoWatch in 2011. Spear then joined Kennedy at Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization he founded, in 2020, and served as press secretary during his 2024 presidential campaign. Kennedy, Children's Health Defense, and others have sued several news outlets, including Reuters, alleging the media organizations colluded to exclude and censor them because of their posts on COVID- and vaccine-related topics. A motion to dismiss the lawsuit is pending in D.C. federal court.
Spear has no scientific or public health background, according to her bio. Before joining Kennedy at Children’s Health Defense, she was a longtime environmental activist and communications professional.
In HHS leadership meetings, Spear often speaks for Kennedy even when he is present, three people familiar with the matter said. Kennedy has told his top officials to seek Spear's approval for their new initiatives, three people said. In staff meetings, Kennedy has directed officials to “run everything” through Spear, according to two people who have heard the directive.
