No Known ‘Causal Link’ Between Vaccines and Autism, CDC Nominee Tells Senate Panel

“I have not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism,” Susan Monarez said at her Senate committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Her answer came in response to a question from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Monarez, who holds a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, previously served as the acting director of the CDC from January to March of this year. 

The CDC is an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has raised concerns about when people should get some vaccines.

“I do believe that autism comes from vaccines,” Kennedy told Jesse Watters of Fox News in 2023.

“Most of the things people believe about my opinions about vaccines are wrong. You know, all I have said about vaccines: We should have good science. We should have the same kind of testing, placebo-controlled trials,” Kennedy said in the interview.

At his own confirmation hearing, Kennedy declared that he was “supportive of vaccines.”

“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.” Kennedy said, noting that his own children had been vaccinated.

Since assuming his Cabinet post, Kennedy has also called the increasing number of cases of autism in the U.S. an “epidemic” and has promised that by September the world would know “what has caused the autism epidemic.”

A survey by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network conducted in 2022 found autism prevalence to be 4.8 times higher in children now, compared with the prevalence found in the first ADDM survey, conducted in 2000. That’s an autism prevalence of 1 in 31 children now, compared with 1 in 150 then.

Kennedy has not shied away from changing vaccine policies during his time in office. Last month, he announced that the CDC would end recommending COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women and healthy children. The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will need new clinical trials to be conducted for approval of annual COVID-19 boosters for healthy Americans under the age of 65. 

This month, Kennedy went further, removing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which submits its findings about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines to the CDC. 

 “It has never recommended against a vaccine—even those later withdrawn for safety reasons. It has failed to scrutinize vaccine products given to babies and pregnant women,” the HHS chief wrote, explaining the decision.

“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” the secretary concluded. 

Kennedy, who will select new members for the committee, said that they would “exercise independent judgment, refuse to serve as a rubber stamp, and foster a culture of critical inquiry.” The current chairman of the advisory group is Martin Kulldorff, a former professor at Harvard University, who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration opposing the COVID-19 lockdowns. He did so along with Jay Bhattacharya, the Trump administration’s new director of the National Institutes of Health.

The post No Known ‘Causal Link’ Between Vaccines and Autism, CDC Nominee Tells Senate Panel appeared first on The Daily Signal.