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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged in April that there would be answers on the causes of autism this month. Since then, he has ousted public health officials, publicly rebuked studies showing no link between vaccines and autism, and said \u201cinterventions\u201d are \u201calmost certainly\u201d responsible for causing rising autism rates.\n <\/p>\n \n And the proposed autism studies have not started.\n <\/p>\n \n Thousands of researchers hailing from the top universities and institutions in the country have applied for the federal funding that Kennedy announced in April. The US National Institutes of Health is expected this month to announce up to 25 awardees for the $50 million \u201cmassive research and testing effort.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Among the applicants are longtime veterans of the field from\u202fBrigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Mayo Clinic, according to document provided to CNN. They also include biotechnology, digital health and gene therapy companies, counseling groups and hospital networks.\n <\/p>\n \n Each of the grants is slated for two to three years of studies. Some of the researchers say they can provide analysis a bit faster; none who spoke to CNN says that they can provide firm answers this month. That leaves autism experts confused, and alarmed, about what Kennedy says he already knows about autism \u2014 and where that leaves research that has not begun.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere\u2019s just this inherent contradiction that they are planning to spend $50 million over the next two to three years on the [Autism Data Science] Initiative, when Kennedy has announced he\u2019s already got the answers,\u201d said Dr. Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of Boston University\u2019s Center for Autism Research Excellence. At least 28 researchers affiliated with Boston University or its medical center have applied for these grants, according to the list provided to CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Kennedy\u2019s confidence about previewing autism conclusions this month comes amid broad upheaval for federal health agencies, including the ouster of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Susan Monarez, the resignation of many of her top deputies and calls from more than 1,000 current and former HHS employees<\/a> for Kennedy to resign. Senators say they will question the secretary on the CDC actions on Thursday during a hearing on the president\u2019s health agenda.\n <\/p>\n \n The turmoil has autism researchers and advocates increasingly concerned about the future of the nascent Autism Data Science Initiative, particularly among reports that David Geier, a longtime vaccine critic who\u2019s now an HHS contractor, is preparing his own analysis using federal data.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s highly unusual to announce you have the results of a study before the study even begins,\u201d said Alison Singer, founder of the nonprofit Autism Science Foundation. At least four foundation-supported researchers have applied for the Autism Data Science Initiative grants.\n <\/p>\n \n Kennedy told President Donald Trump in a Cabinet meeting in August that the unprecedented federal effort to find the root causes of autism was on track for announcement this month.\n <\/p>\n \n The initial announcement caused furor<\/a> among autism advocates who questioned how conclusions could be drawn so quickly and whether this would be the vehicle to renew debunked claims that vaccines cause autism. <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe will have announcements as promised in September, finding interventions, certain interventions, now that are clearly, almost certainly, causing autism,\u201d Kennedy said.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump responded: \u201cThere has to be something artificially causing this, meaning, a drug or\u202fsomething.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n There is extensive existing research showing no link between pharmaceuticals, vaccinations\u202fand\u202fautism.\n <\/p>\n \n But analysis of existing HHS records on vaccine safety was already underway, according to multiple people familiar with internal conversations and the turmoil that saw several CDC officials depart last week.\n <\/p>\n \n Geier, a close Kennedy ally and longtime critic of vaccines, has been on the CDC campus for weeks, probing the agency\u2019s data for potential harms from immunizations, according to three people with knowledge of recent events at the CDC.\n <\/p>\n \n Dr. Dan Jernigan, a 30-year veteran of the CDC, named Geier\u2019s controversial theories on vaccines and autism when he resigned from his role as director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases last week after Monarez\u2019s ouster. Jernigan told the Washington Post<\/a>\u202fthat working with Geier \u2014 a longtime proponent of the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism \u2014 was his last straw, and it raised concerns about privacy, ethics\u202fand science.\n <\/p>\n \n Jernigan also raised concerns about impending vaccine decisions in an interview with CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe want to make sure that [Kennedy] supports the use of vaccines. We want to know that he is using science in helping to make those decisions. But at this point, we have been working with the administration providing data. We don\u2019t know exactly what the processes they\u2019re using with that science,\u201d he told CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins. \u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly how they\u2019re approaching it. If there is going to be some new findings that are released, we are not sure if those are going to be supportive of vaccines and of scientific approach.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n An HHS spokesperson told CNN that \u201cThe Department will follow the science wherever it leads,\u201d and \u201cthe initiative expects to issue up to $50 million in awards in September, pending receipt of scientifically meritorious ideas from the research community.\u201d The agency did not comment on Geier\u2019s current work involving the CDC.\n <\/p>\n \n Kennedy had previously told senators that Geier is working as a contractor on data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink, the CDC\u2019s system for post-approval surveillance of immunizations. Launched in 1990, the datalink is a partnership with some of the country\u2019s biggest health care systems, drawing in millions of anonymized patient records.\n <\/p>\n \n That makes the datalink unique from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which relies on voluntary reports of harms and side effects following immunizations.\n <\/p>\n \n The datalink has been a Geier focus for years. The CDC cut off his access to the database in 2004, writing in a letter<\/a>\u202fthat there were reports of \u201cpotential breaches in confidentiality and execution of analyses.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Geier, who has a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology, has also been reprimanded by the Maryland Board of Physicians for practicing medicine without a medical license. In April, House Democrats launched a probe<\/a> into his hiring at HHS.\n <\/p>\n
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