President Donald Trump has ordered a reduction in childhood vaccines \u2014 publicly faulting the shots for an increase in autism cases \u2014 even as the nation\u2019s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has failed to produce evidence linking vaccinations to the disorder.<\/p>\n
While the executive order<\/a> released Aug. 10 does not directly mention autism, Trump\u2019s demand to limit vaccine recommendations has puzzled leading medical groups, doctors, and political analysts alike. The directive landed less than 90 days before midterm elections, which Trump\u2019s own pollsters have warned<\/a> could be jeopardized by anti-vaccine rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cThe political timing, particularly for members on the Republican side in swing districts, is not good,\u201d said Larry Bucshon<\/a>, a former Republican congressman and retired doctor.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s willingness to gamble on the issue underscores the president\u2019s impatience for his health secretary to deliver on a promise that he\u2019d pinpoint a culprit for the sharp rise in autism diagnoses.<\/p>\n After more than a year, Kennedy and his close, anti-vaccine allies have blown past a deadline to turn up definitive answers in a multimillion-dollar research mission shrouded in secrecy, leaving the president to recycle debunked notions as he publicly assaults vaccines.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about the most closed project that I\u2019ve ever heard of,\u201d Helen Tager-Flusberg, a renowned psychologist who runs the Coalition of Autism Scientists, said of Kennedy\u2019s autism research efforts. \u201cThey\u2019re treating it like the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. This is as opaque as it could possibly be.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House did not answer questions about what research is informing the president\u2019s opinions or which vaccines he believes could be linked to autism.<\/p>\n The Department of Health and Human Services said the president\u2019s action builds on the agency\u2019s January announcement that it was reassessing the nation\u2019s vaccine schedule and recommended reducing childhood immunizations based on peer countries\u2019 guidance. However, no other peer country separates the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine as the president has now ordered.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the secretary said, HHS will examine every biologically plausible hypothesis, follow the evidence wherever it leads, and make findings and actions available as they are ready,\u201d HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email.<\/p>\n Trump Dreams of a \u2018Big Day\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump especially has been enamored with finding autism\u2019s cause, saying in August 2025 that it will be \u201csuch a big day\u201d after Kennedy assured his boss that he had identified \u201cclearly, almost certainly\u201d factors causing autism that would soon be publicly revealed.<\/p>\n Decades of existing research and scientific studies show genetics is a leading factor. Environmental factors<\/a> \u2014 including prenatal exposure to pollution, the age of the father, and maternal health \u2014 can also play a role.<\/p>\n But Kennedy has flatly rejected that science, often calling autism a \u201cpreventable disease<\/a>.\u201d As health secretary, he has spent millions of taxpayer dollars<\/a> looking for root causes in a research effort that\u2019s offered no public status updates and few details about who, or even which agency, is leading the effort.<\/p>\n Prominent autism advocacy groups, scientists, and researchers have not been consulted on the project. Nor have career scientists working at the federal health agencies, according to two officials KFF Health News is not naming because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the matter.<\/p>\n Requests to meet with Kennedy on the issue have been ignored, said Delancy Allred, public policy manager at the Autism Society. Allred said that other federal agencies, such as the Department of Education, have engaged more directly with leading autism advocacy groups during meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one has gotten to Kennedy. No one has gotten to the secretary level, that I\u2019m aware of,\u201d Allred said. \u201cI think he likes to isolate himself with folks that are in his domain and group.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, Kennedy has relied on allies, who\u2019ve joined him over the years on a crusade against childhood vaccines, to lead the agency\u2019s autism research and strategy efforts. It\u2019s a top priority for his closest adviser, Stefanie Spear<\/a>, a former environmental activist and longtime confidant<\/a>, according to the unnamed sources. Spear did not respond to requests to talk about the autism study.<\/p>\n William \u201cReyn\u201d Archer III \u2014 a former Texas health official, trained obstetrician-gynecologist, and vaccine critic<\/a> whom Kennedy hired as a senior adviser \u2014 has spent months acquiring Americans\u2019 medical records for political appointees to research a link between vaccines and autism. The National Institutes of Health under Trump has also issued about $50 million in grants to scientists at universities around the country for autism research, although most of the studies are not scheduled to be completed for a few years.<\/p>\n In January, Kennedy also restocked the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee \u2014 an under-the-radar but influential group \u2014 with a full new slate of 21 members. His appointees include parents of autistic children, vaccine skeptics, and a doctor who was sued for \u201cdangerous\u201d autism treatment. It has met only once during Trump\u2019s current term.<\/p>\n Late last month, the committee abruptly dropped a 336-page strategic plan that echoes some of Kennedy\u2019s talking points: Federal researchers have focused too much on genetic links to autism, the plan suggests.<\/p>\n Diagnoses of autism, a neurodevelopmental condition<\/a> that affects how people communicate and behave, have increased roughly fivefold over<\/a> the past couple of decades. The increase is attributed partly to greater awareness<\/a> and screening, a more expansive definition of the disorder, and parents having children at a later age, various studies show<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump and Kennedy have falsely claimed that the rise in diagnoses is isolated among American children \u2014 though diagnoses have dramatically risen in both older adults<\/a> and children around the globe<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite his efforts to launch new research, Kennedy has provided Trump with no conclusive explanation for these increases. Trump began publicly pressing his health secretary on the issue last month during a Cabinet meeting<\/a> when he asked Kennedy: \u201cHow are you doing on the autism research?\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy replied, \u201cWe will have an answer for you,\u201d before Trump cut him off.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is so important,\u201d the president pressed.<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s vaccine agenda has been stymied, in part, by the White House\u2019s infighting. Behind the scenes, White House officials have spent months waving Kennedy off his vaccine agenda amid a historic wave of measles infections<\/a>.<\/p>\n With his Aug. 10 Oval Office signing, Trump made clear Kennedy\u2019s vaccine agenda remains a top priority. The signing also came at a politically convenient moment: The Senate broke for a five-week recess, just after the White House secured the votes it needed for crucial confirmations of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Erica Schwartz and Attorney General Todd Blanche.<\/p>\n Kennedy Misfires<\/strong><\/p>\n Many of Kennedy\u2019s claims so far on autism have not withstood scientific scrutiny. Last year, the health secretary said Tylenol use in pregnancy can lead to autism. A major new study in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA debunked the connection \u2014 a political stumble for Trump, who had publicly repeated the claim and urged women not to take the pain reliever<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kennedy also offered that circumcision could be a cause during a Cabinet meeting in October. A large study<\/a> published in August in JAMA Pediatrics found no such evidence. He said on The Tucker Carlson Show<\/em><\/a> in 2025 that a hidden CDC study<\/a> linked the hepatitis B vaccine to a 1,135% increase<\/a> in autism. However, his remarks misrepresented the findings; the Belgian researcher<\/a> he referred to later studied thimerosal exposure in vaccines and found no increased autism risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Kennedy canceled millions of dollars in funding<\/a> for research that was underway to search for autism\u2019s causes, including potential environmental sources.<\/p>\n Pressed on details about the administration\u2019s work studying autism, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya admitted that no conclusion had been reached during an interview on CBS\u2019 Face the Nation<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you ask me, as a scientist, do I know why we\u2019ve seen this rise in autism? I\u2019ll tell you I don\u2019t know the answer to that question,\u201d he said Aug. 9.<\/p>\n Seated at his desk in the Oval Office the next day, Trump repeatedly made the connection between autism and vaccines just before signing the executive order calling for fewer childhood shots.<\/p>\n Appearing alongside Trump, Kennedy seemed intent on quelling expectations that HHS would produce results expeditiously. He told the president he was racing to find answers before the end of his term.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. President, you have told us you want answers. So do I,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWe have just over two years to finish the work, and I know you\u2019re impatient, and we are moving with an urgency that that deadline demands.\u201d<\/p>\n While Trump has repeatedly claimed there\u2019s a link between autism and vaccines, he has not revealed which of the routine vaccinations he believes might be to blame, and he praised the polio vaccine as \u201camazing\u201d during the White House event.<\/p>\n White House officials declined to answer questions about the status of Kennedy\u2019s efforts to identify the cause of autism during a call a few hours later.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Donald Trump has ordered a reduction in childhood vaccines \u2014 publicly faulting the shots for an increase in autism cases \u2014 even as the nation\u2019s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has failed to produce evidence linking vaccinations to the disorder. 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