Low Confidence in RFK Jr.

 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.

Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania survey, conducted Feb. 3-17, 2026, among a nationally representative sample of 1,650 U.S. adults. Highlights;

• :Career scientists vs. health agency leaders: Two-thirds of Americans (67%) have confidence in career scientists working at U.S. federal health agencies, compared with just 43% confidence in agency leaders overall.
• RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz: About 4 in 10 U.S. adults are confident Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (38%) and Dr. Mehmet Oz (42%), administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, are providing trustworthy information on public health – lower than the confidence people say they had in Dr. Anthony Fauci (54%), former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, when he was in office.
• Confidence in experts outside government: People have greater trust in major health and science associations outside government – such as the American Heart Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and National Academy of Sciences – than in U.S. health agencies.
• AAP vs. CDC: On vaccinating newborns for hepatitis B, Americans say they are more likely to accept the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics than the CDC by nearly a 4-1 margin.
• Trust in CDC, FDA, NIH sinking: Year over year in February surveys, public trust in the CDC, FDA, and NIH dropped significantly from 2024 (74%-76%), the final year of the Biden administration, to 2025 (67%), the first year of this Trump administration – and fell again, now, in 2026 (60-62%).

IACC Nominations

  In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee and research priorities.

AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking nominations of individuals to serve as non-federal public members on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC).

DATES: Nominations will be accepted through Monday, November 10, 2025.

ADDRESSES: Nominations are due by Monday, November 10, 2025 and may be sent to Dr. Susan Daniels, Director, Office of National Autism Coordination/NIMH/NIH, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6119, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 by standard or express mail, or via email to IACCPublicInquiries@mail.nih.gov. Please include full contact information (address, phone number, and email). Electronic confirmation of receipt will be provided. More information about the IACC is available at https://iacc.hhs.gov/​.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Susan Daniels/Office of National Autism Coordination via email at IACCPublicInquiries@mail.nih.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

As specified in the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109-416) and reauthorized by the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support Act of 2024 (Pub. L. 118-180).

The Office of National Autism Coordination (ONAC) of the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health is assisting the Department in conducting an open nomination process. Appointments of non-federal public members to the committee shall be made by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Eligibility Requirements

Nominations of new non-federal public members are encouraged, and previous non-federal public members may also be re-nominated to serve if they have served only one term previously, in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 280i-2(c)(3). Self-nominations and nominations of other individuals are both permitted. Only one nomination per individual is required. Multiple nominations of the same individual will not increase likelihood of selection. The Secretary may select non-federal public members from the pool of submitted nominations and other sources as needed to meet statutory requirements and to form a balanced committee that represents a broad range of expertise and perspectives within the autism community in the United States and its territories.

Those eligible for nomination include individuals on the autism spectrum; parents, guardians, or family members of individuals on the autism spectrum; leaders or representatives of major autism research, advocacy, and service organizations; healthcare and service providers; educators; researchers; and other individuals with professional or personal experience with autism. Nominations of individuals from all U.S. states and territories, and individuals representing a range of lived experience, community service perspectives, and/or professional expertise within the autism community are encouraged. Nominations of individuals with a variety of disability and support needs are encouraged; requests for reasonable accommodation to enable participation on the Committee should be indicated in the nomination submission.

IACC non-federal public members are appointed as special government employees (SGEs) and are required to be at least 18 years old and U.S. citizens. Male non-federal public members must have signed up for the U.S. Selective Service in order to be eligible. To serve, SGEs must submit an annual confidential financial disclosure report used to determine conflicts of interest as well as a foreign activities questionnaire. Prohibited foreign activities include holding a position or title with a foreign governmental entity (including certain universities), and from receiving compensation and certain gifts from a foreign government. In accordance with White House Office of Management and Budget guidelines ( https://www.federalregister.gov/​articles/​2014/​08/​13/​2014-19140/​revised-guidance-on-appointment-of-lobbyists-to-federal-advisory-committees-boards-and-commissions), federally-registered lobbyists are not eligible. Federal employees may not serve as non-federal public members. IACC non-federal public members may be restricted from serving on other federal advisory committees while serving on the IACC and are subject to standard background checks associated with federal employment.

Responsibilities of Appointed Non-Federal Public Members

As specified in the Committee's authorizing statute (section 399CC of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 280i-2, as amended), the Committee will carry out the following responsibilities: (1) on a regular basis, monitor autism spectrum disorder research, and to the extent practicable, services and support activities, across all relevant Federal departments and agencies, including coordination of Federal activities with respect to autism spectrum disorder; (2) summarize advances in autism spectrum disorder research related to causes, prevention, treatment, early screening, diagnosis or ruling out a diagnosis; interventions, including school and community-based interventions, and access to services and supports for individuals with autism spectrum disorder across the lifespan of such individuals; (3) make recommendations to the Secretary regarding any appropriate changes to such activities, including with respect to the strategic plan; (4) make recommendations to the Secretary regarding public participation in decisions relating to autism spectrum disorder, and the process by which public feedback can be better integrated into such decisions; (5) develop a strategic plan for the conduct of, and support for, autism spectrum disorder research, which shall include (A) proposed budgetary requirements; and (B) recommendations to ensure that autism spectrum disorder research, and services and support activities to the extent practicable, of the Department of Health and Human Services and of other Federal departments and agencies are not unnecessarily duplicative; and (6) submit to Congress and the President: (A) an annual update on the summary of advances; and (B) a biennial update to the strategic plan, including progress made in achieving the goals outlined in such strategic plan and any specific measures taken pursuant to such strategic plan.

Committee Composition

In accordance with the Committee's authorizing statute, “Not more than 1/2 , but not fewer than 1/3 , of the total membership of the Committee shall be composed of non-Federal public members appointed by the Secretary.”

All non-Federal public members are appointed as Special Government Employees for their service on the IACC, of which:

• At least three such members shall be individuals with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder; and
• At least three such members shall be parents or legal guardians of an individual with an autism spectrum disorder; and
• At least three such members shall be representatives of leading research, advocacy, and service organizations for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

The Department strives to ensure that the membership of HHS Federal advisory committees is balanced in terms of points of view represented and the committee's function. Every effort is made to ensure that a range of perspectives and expertise are represented on HHS Federal advisory committees and, therefore, the Department encourages nominations of qualified candidates, including individuals with disabilities, from across the United States and its territories. Appointment to this Committee shall be made free from all forms of discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex.

Member Terms

Non-Federal public members of the Committee “shall serve for a term of 4 years and may be reappointed for one additional 4-year term. Any member appointed to fill a vacancy for an unexpired term shall be appointed for the remainder of such term. A member [with a valid appointment] may serve after the expiration of the member's term until a successor has been appointed.”

Meetings and Travel

“The Committee shall meet at the call of the chairperson or upon the request of the Secretary. The Committee shall meet not fewer than 2 times each year.” In the years 2021-2024, the IACC typically held 3-4 meetings per year, including full committee, subcommittee, working and planning group meetings, and workshops. Meetings were held as either hybrid meetings with both in-person and videoconference accessibility, or as videoconference only. Travel expenses are provided for non-federal public Committee members to facilitate in-person attendance at hybrid meetings. Members are expected to be committed to making every effort to attend, either in-person or by video conference, all IACC full committee meetings and workshops and relevant subcommittee, working and planning group meetings. Accessible meeting design is employed, and reasonable accommodations are provided to facilitate full participation of individuals with disabilities.

Submission Instructions and Deadline

Nominations should include a cover letter of no longer than 3 pages describing the candidate's interest in seeking appointment to the IACC, including relevant personal/lived, professional, and/or community service experience with autism; indication of any membership eligibility requirements met; disability accommodation requests; and an indication of commitment to attend IACC meetings if selected; as well as full contact information and a current resume or curriculum vitae. Up to 2 letters of support are permitted in addition to the nomination, with a page limit of 3 pages per letter. Please do not include other materials unless requested.

Nominations are due by Monday, November 10, 2025. Nominations may be sent to Dr. Susan Daniels, Director, Office of National Autism Coordination/NIMH/NIH, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6119, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 by standard or express mail, or via email to IACCPublicInquiries@mail.nih.gov. Please include full contact information (address, phone number, and email). Electronic confirmation of receipt will be provided. More information about the IACC is available at https://iacc.hhs.gov/​.

Susan A. Daniels,

Director, Office of National Autism Coordination, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health.

A Bit of Good NIH News

 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 number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion. The Monday White House news conference with RFK Jr.  was a firehose of lies.

Benjamin Mueller at NYT:

In late May, when the Trump administration issued a call for new research investigating the causes of autism, many scientists feared that anti-vaccine politics would decide which projects received funding.

The call for proposals seemingly gave health officials greater control than usual over the vetting process. Researchers had only weeks to propose studies.

And with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spreading the debunked theory that vaccines caused autism, potential applicants worried openly that the Trump administration might bless only those research projects that would prop up its favored conclusions.

So scientists were cautiously optimistic this week to find that the 13 projects chosen to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health were nothing of the sort.

The projects, which were awarded a combined $50 million, drew on diverse sets of patient data. They were grounded in decades of credible autism science. And they planned to examine how strong genetic explanations for the disease interacted with environmental influences to determine someone’s risk of developing autism.

They represented, in short, the very opposite approach to one that came into focus this week in an explosive news briefing at the White House: unproven claims that Tylenol caused autism, along with a barrage of disproved theories that childhood vaccines were dangerous and had driven up rates of the disease, too.

“We’re very enthusiastic and very optimistic that these projects will lead to important answers, no matter what question they’re looking at,” said Alycia Halladay, the chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation.

 

RFK's Lies

 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 number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion. The Monday White House news conference was a firehose of lies.

Kennedy claimed that 40-70 percent of autism moms thought that vaccines had injured their children.  The lower range figure apparently comes from a decades-old grab sample of just 41 respondents.   The study did not purport to be a measure of public opinion but was rather exploratory research to identify areas for future investigation.  See:

Mercer L, Creighton S, Holden JJ, Lewis ME. Parental perspectives on the causes of an autism spectrum disorder in their children. J Genet Couns. 2006 Feb;15(1):41-50. doi: 10.1007/s10897-005-9002-7. PMID: 16547798.

Mary Kekatos at NPR:

More than a dozen high-quality studies over decades have since found no evidence of a link between childhood vaccines and autism. However, Kennedy has held fast to this claim.

"We have two-and-a-half decades of rigorous, large-scale studies showing that whether you got vaccinated, the timing of your vaccine, which vaccines you got, or what preservatives were in those vaccines, they don't cause autism," [Dr. David] Mandell said. "To relitigate, that means putting resources towards studies that could be put towards looking at treatments or looking at other more legitimate environmental causes or looking at services and supports and things that might improve quality of life."

Kennedy also said on Monday that between 40% and 70% of mothers with autistic children believe their child "was injured by a vaccine" and said it was important to listen to those mothers "instead of gaslighting them."

Mandell said it's unclear where Kennedy obtained his figures. Mandell added that, if the numbers are true, he believes it's due to unsubstantiated claims that have been propagated.

"The reason [mothers] think that is because people in authority, in positions of authority, have been telling them that, and they are using fake data to promulgate this false hypothesis," he said. "When people started telling us that [vaccines cause autism] in the late 1990s and early 2000s, we did believe that, and we put lots of resources into studying it, and we did those studies and found that there was no causal link. So yes, we should lay this to rest."

---

Cutting Autism Research

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.

Helen Pearson at Nature:

On 16 April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism. The US Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary pointed to new data showing that autism prevalence in the United States had risen steeply from one in 150 eight-year-olds in 2000 to one in 31 in 2022. He called it an “epidemic” caused by “an environmental toxin” — and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent.

The next month, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the department that Kennedy leads, announced the Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI). The initiative offered up to US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism. The winning applications are expected to be announced in September.

Usually, big investments in research are welcomed by scientists — but not this time. Many were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in autism diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition. Although Kennedy said that environmental factors are the main cause of autism, research has shown that genetics plays a bigger part. Population studies1 have linked a handful of environmental factors — mostly encountered during pregnancy — to increased chances of autism, but their precise role has been hard to pin down. More than anything, research has shown that the drivers of autism are fiendishly complicated. “There will never be a sound-bite answer to what causes autism,” says Helen Tager-Flusberg, a psychologist who studies neurodevelopmental conditions at Boston University, Massachusetts.

...

And researchers and autism groups are concerned that funding cuts and policies introduced by the Trump administration will ultimately set back autism research and support much more than the ADSI could further it. A Nature analysis of NIH-funded research projects using the RePORTER tool shows that autism research received $62 million less funding in the first half of 2025 than in the same period in 2024 ($212 million compared with $274 million).

Investment in the ADSI “cannot offset the broader erosion of support” caused by cuts to research grants and to Medicaid (the US public-health insurance system for people with low incomes), education funding and other services, a spokesperson at the Autism Society of America in Rockville, Maryland, said in a statement to Nature. “These cuts threaten the infrastructure that supports both scientific progress and quality of life for Autistic individuals and their families.”

NIH Pushback

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 number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. He lies about autism research.

Carolyn Y. Johnson at WP:

More than 90 staffers at the National Institutes of Health signed their names to a letter of dissent to Director Jay Bhattacharya in a rare sign of open resistance by career government employees.

The letter warns that Trump administration policies such as terminating peer-reviewed grants, interrupting global collaborations and firing essential staff are wasting public resources, undermining the NIH’s mission and harming the health of people in the United States and beyond.

“The life-and-death nature of our work demands that changes be thoughtful and vetted. We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources,” the letter says. “Many have raised these concerns to NIH leadership, yet we remain pressured to implement harmful measures.”

Pro Publica:

The NIH has rarely revoked funding once it has been awarded. Out of the tens of thousands of grants overseen by the institution since 2012, it terminated fewer than five for violations of the agency’s terms and conditions.

Then Donald Trump was reelected.

Since his January inauguration, his administration has terminated more than 1,450 grants, withholding more than $750 million in funds; officials have said they are curbing wasteful spending and “unscientific” research. The Department of Government Efficiency gave the agency direction on what to cut and why, ProPublica has previously found, bypassing the NIH’s established review process.

 

Trump Slashes Autism Research

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in campaign politics.   In the 2016 campaign, a number of posts discussed Trump's bad record on disability issues more generally.   As his words and actions have shown, he despises Americans with disabilities.   

To lead a "study" of autism causation, RFK Jr. has named an antivaxxer who is neither a scientist nor a physician.  Meanwhile, the administration is slashing actual autism research.

Alana Samuels at Time:

“Funding for autism research is actually disappearing at a time when we see the director of HHS talking a lot about autism as though they think it is important,” says Micheal Paige Sandbank, an autism researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Behind the scenes, they are taking a hammer to the whole apparatus for autism research.”

...

A big funder of autism research has historically been the DOE’s Institute of Education Sciences, says Sandbank. But the institute, which has a budget of $800 million, was gutted in the Trump Administration’s layoffs, with only a skeleton staff remaining. Autism research at the institute focused on developing and evaluating school-based interventions to improve outcomes for students with autism.

...

Another canceled grant from the NSF funded autism programs in schools and universities. The Frist Center for Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt University lost $7.7 million in funding because its grant application, which was initially approved, included the terms “inclusion” and “accessibility,” according to Jessica Schonhut-Stasik, who runs communications for the Frist Center and was also a student in the program. The program offered grants for neurodivergent students or people studying neurodivergent students, says Schonhut-Stasik. The grant also sponsored a summer summit for autistic students, says Schonhut-Stasik, who is herself autistic. “This is just so deeply sad,” she says. “To be given this money, to be told, ‘Here is the money to pursue your dreams,’ is just so big for any autistic person,” she says.

...DOD also funded a lot of autism research, Sandbank says, but a reorganization there has left future projects in jeopardy. The DOD funding was through something called Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. In each of the last five years, the Autism Research Program under that bucket has received $15 million dollars, according to DOD press releases. The DOD studies autism in part because it affects children of military families.

In 2025, though, a number of the same research programs received funding as they had in the past, including breast cancer research. But autism was not among the programs listed to receive funding in 2025 announcements. Because autism is not included, Sandbank, who was going to submit a grant for this funding, no longer plans to, she says.
...
NIH is also a huge funder of autism research. But shifting priorities there have ended or delayed some of these projects, says David Mandell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania who studies autism. The Trump Administration has begun to review and cancel grants that have what it deems diversity, equity, or inclusion terms in them because of a Trump executive order seeking to end what it called “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.” Grant applicants are being told, Mandell says, that their research no longer meets “agency priorities.” One public HHS document shows at least two autism grants canceled in the sweep: a project looking at biomarkers of late autism diagnosis in female and gender-diverse people, and one preventing suicide among autistic adults.

Mixed Message on Autism Registry

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 number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. 

In light of the Trump administration's dishonesty and threats to privacy, plans for an autism registry are most disturbing.

Jakai Spikes at WTVC-TV Chattanooga:

In a Monday council meeting, the head of the National Institute of Health said they are creating a new National Disease Registry for Autism.

But when we reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday to ask if patients can opt out, they told us they have no plans to create 'an autism registry.'

"We are not creating an autism registry. The real-world data platform will link existing datasets to support research into causes of autism and insights into improved treatment strategies."

 That's despite National Institute of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya saying this in a NIH council meeting Monday...

"The platform will accelerate research and create new opportunities for cross agency use of data in real time, health monitoring, developing national Disease registries, including one a new one for autism."