A large study into the potential connections between vaccines and autism is reportedly being planned by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to reports Friday.
It's not clear if Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is involved in the study or how the plans would be implemented.
The CDC and Kennedy's department have not commented about the reporting, released by Reuters, which quoted two sources said to be familiar with the matter.
President Donald Trump, in his address to Congress Tuesday, said that his administration is looking into the rising numbers of autism in children and praised Kennedy, saying there is "nobody better than Bobby."
Kennedy, meanwhile, appearing on Fox News Tuesday, said federal reporting on vaccine injuries are insufficient and accused the CDC of having "not done a good job at quantifying the risk of vaccines. We are going to do that now."
Kennedy has authority over the CDC and has denied being against vaccines but also has questioned the safety of the combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.
He also initially downplayed reports that a child had died of measles in Texas, where there is currently an outbreak, saying such incidents are ordinary and failing to mention the role of vaccinations to prevent the disease.
Trump, meanwhile, said in December that he believes there are "problems with vaccines" and suggested that his administration would investigate links between vaccines and autism.
According to estimates from the CDC, about 1 in 36 children have a diagnosis of autism, compared to about 1 in 150 in 2000.
The White House has not commented on the latest report, but Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has often referred to Reuters as "fake news."
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Trump's nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, appeared to be open to funding studies that investigate links between vaccines and autism, even with the theory already being debunked over the decades, reports NBC News.
Bhattacharya said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that while he doesn't "generally believe" there is a link, he would not rule out devoting the funding, considering the wide public distrust of vaccinations and also because scientists don't know what is causing the rates of autism to rise.
"I would support a broad scientific agenda, based on data, to get an answer to that," he said.
Researchers say the rise in diagnosis is because of widespread screening, but some public figures are citing the idea that vaccines are to blame, citing a debunked study from British researcher Andrew Wakefield in the late 1990s connecting autism with the MMR vaccine.
Meanwhile, the causes of autism remain unclear with no studies finding links between autism and vaccines or medications.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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