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<\/p>\nVaccine research spans decades and doesn\u2019t show they cause autism<\/p>\n
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President Donald Trump has called for big changes for how U.S. children are vaccinated. As he signed an executive order recommending a new schedule for vaccines, the president said the new plan would<\/a> have a \u201chuge impact on autism.\u201d<\/p>\n Credible studies have not linked vaccines to autism. Research, in fact, shows the opposite.<\/p>\n Autism \u2014 also known by its medical name autism spectrum disorder or ASD \u2014 refers to<\/a> a neurodevelopmental condition related to brain development that influences how a person behaves and communicates.<\/p>\n Time and again, researchers have found no association between childhood vaccines and autism.<\/p>\n \u201cDozens of studies involving millions of people show there is no link between vaccines and autism, and yet federal leaders continue to promote this outdated, disproven idea to scare families,\u201d American Academy of Pediatrics\u202fpresident Dr. Andrew D. Racine said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joshua Anbar, an Arizona State University healthcare administration and policy professor and someone who has researched<\/a> autism\u2019s prevalence, said extensive study leaves him highly confident that the condition is unrelated to vaccines.<\/p>\n His conclusion comes from many findings across very large populations, different study designs, different countries and health systems and more.<\/p>\n The idea that vaccines cause autism dates back to a 1998 paper in The Lancet that claimed to have found a connection<\/a>. It was discredited<\/a> by fellow researchers as an \u201celaborate fraud.\u201d The paper\u2019s lead author was stripped<\/a> of his medical license for deliberately falsifying the research, and The Lancet published<\/a> a retraction.<\/a><\/p>\n You may not have time to comb through dozens of studies, so we did it for you. Here\u2019s a closer look at the conclusions from four studies that show why scientists today say they are confident that vaccines do not cause autism.<\/p>\n No. 1: There is no link between the measles vaccine and autism.<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2002, a large New England Journal of Medicine study<\/a> focused on the combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine also known as the MMR.<\/p>\n It analyzed data on more than 537,000 Danish children born from January 1991 through December 1998. It found that 440,655 children \u2014 or 82% of the children \u2014 had received the MMR vaccine whereas only 738, a fraction of 1% of the overall group, had received some sort of autism spectrum diagnosis.<\/p>\n Researchers determined<\/a> that, compared with unvaccinated children, children who received the MMR vaccine were not at increased risk of developing autism.<\/p>\n Other large studies have also found no link between MMR vaccines and autism, including a 2002 Pediatrics study<\/a> of more than 535,000 children ages 1 to 7 years vaccinated in Finland in the 1980s and a 2019 Annals of Internal Medicine<\/a> paper that followed 657,000 children born in Denmark from 1999 to 2010.<\/p>\n No. 2: Comprehensive data reviews find no credible evidence vaccines cause autism.<\/strong><\/p>\n Facing parental concerns about vaccines causing autism in the early 2000s, U.S. health agencies asked the Institute of Medicine to assemble a team and assess the scientific evidence.<\/p>\n That 15-member Immunization Safety Review Committee, which included pediatricians, epidemiologists, biostatisticians and other experts, conducted a comprehensive research review, analyzing over 200 relevant studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n The group concluded<\/a> in 2004 that the \u201cbody of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism.\u201d<\/p>\n The report also looked into the safety of thimerosal<\/a>, a mercury-based preservative that prevents bacteria and fungal growth in multi-dose influenza vaccine vials. Antivaccine activists have claimed thimerosal is an autism-causing agent in vaccines for over 20 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n The committee also found<\/a> that available epidemiological evidence also does not support the idea that vaccines containing thimerosal cause autism.<\/p>\n Other large reviews have reaffirmed the Institute of Medicine findings.<\/p>\n In 2025, the World Health Organization reviewed studies published from 2010 to August 2025 \u2014 about 15 years of evidence \u2014 and concluded<\/a> that the \u201coverwhelming weight of the evidence\u201d affirmed current vaccines\u2019 safety and showed \u201cno causal link\u201d with autism or neurodevelopmental disorders.<\/p>\n No. 3 Dropping MMR vaccination rates do not coincide with dropping autism diagnoses.<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2005, scientists in Japan and the U.K. approached the MMR vaccine\u2019s alleged link to autism from another angle.<\/p>\n If the vaccine was causing autism, then dropping MMR vaccination rates would spark a drop in autism cases, researchers theorized. To test it, they examined the MMR vaccination program in Yokohama, Japan.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s MMR vaccination rates began dropping around 1988 and no MMR vaccines were given in 1993 or after. The total incidence of autism among children under age 7 increased significantly among children born in 1988 through 1996 and then \u201crose dramatically\u201d beginning with children born in 1993, according to the study<\/a> published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.<\/p>\n The researchers concluded<\/a> that the MMR vaccine could not explain the rising incidence of autism and was therefore unlikely to be autism\u2019s cause.<\/p>\n No. 4: Combining and analyzing data from multiple studies doesn\u2019t link vaccines to autism.<\/strong><\/p>\n