CDC Recognizes Studies Supporting Link Between Childhood Vaccines and Autism

Three weeks after McCullough Foundation published "Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder," the CDC issues a groundbreaking acknowledgement.

John Leake

The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long.”

―Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations

On October 27, 2025, the McCullough Foundation published a comprehensive review of the literature on autism titled Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We examined over 300 studies encompassing epidemiological, clinical, mechanistic, and molecular domains, integrating genetic, environmental, and iatrogenic factors into a unified framework. Our key findings are as follows:

• Vaccine Association Evidence —
  Of 136 studies evaluating vaccines or their ingredients, 107 (79%) identified evidence consistent with a vaccine–autism link, including findings of neuro-immune injury, mitochondrial dysfunction, and developmental regression following immunization.
• Healthier Unvaccinated Cohorts —
  All 12 studies comparing fully vaccinated versus completely unvaccinated children found superior overall health outcomes—and dramatically lower risks of autism and chronic disease—among the unvaccinated.
• Mechanistic Convergence —
  Independent lines of evidence across disciplines converge on shared biological pathways of immune dysregulation, mitochondrial injury, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation, triggered by antigen, adjuvant, and preservative exposure during critical neurodevelopmental windows.
• Cumulative and Timing Effects —
  The data indicate that clustering multiple vaccines within short timeframes and administering them at earlier developmental stages significantly increases neurodevelopmental risk, particularly among genetically or immunologically susceptible children.

Understanding what is causing the explosive rise of autism since the 1980s does not require new information, but is gained “by arranging what we have long since known.”

This morning we were delighted to see that the CDC just issued a press release (Autism and Vaccines) acknowledging what our co-author, Andrew Wakefield has understood for almost thirty years.

• The claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.
• Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
• HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.

At the McCullough Foundation, we are gratified that our comprehensive review of autism (viewed 102,000 times) has apparently contributed to the CDC’s official recognition of “the studies supporting a link” between childhood vaccines and autism—studies that “have been ignored by health authorities.” These are the studies that we present in our paper.

To paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton, if we have seen far into this matter, it is because we have stood on the shoulder of giants, including Dr. Brian Hooker and his team at Children’s Health Defense, Sherri Tenpenny, Aaron Siri, Del Bigtree at ICAN, Tony Lyons at Skyhorse Publishing, Gavin de Becker, Jackie Schlegel at Texans for Vaccine Choice, our current HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and thousands of sensible parents who have seen the link with their own eyes.

Our study on the Determinants of Autism is just one of many works of investigative scholarship that we are pursuing at the McCullough Foundation. Others include COVID-19 vaccine injuries such as vaccine-induced myocarditis. Please watch the following video about our work.