The Department of Health and Human Services and the NIH have published pronouncements about autism and vaccines that are untrustworthy since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over.
Posted by Bulwark Takes, Checked
- Sources
- 1 contradict6 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 65%
Bulwark TakesAug 21, 2026
Authoritative sources (FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, AP/PBS, KFF Health News) describe HHS Secretary Kennedy's vaccine-autism statements and the CDC website changes made after he took over as false, misleading, or unsupported by new evidence, which supports calling those pronouncements untrustworthy.
What was said
… I'm not sure that that's new, because on the economic front, it's true what what you say, but say, on the health front, I don't think it's been true for a while, right? I don't think we've been able to trust things coming out of NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services since Kennedy took over. We've had all sorts of pronouncements written by them about autism and vaccines and stuff like that, which you simply can't trust. I mean, we so, on the healthcare front, we used to have, like, a single unified track for trustworthiness, and you had the government's research, and you had independent research, and they were basically always aligned because they were working by the same …
Bulwark Takes · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. FactCheck.org rates Kennedy's CHD keynote as making a litany of familiar false and misleading claims, particularly about vaccines, including that vaccines drive a rise in chronic conditions including autism.[1]
Supports. AP reports Kennedy in November directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying any new evidence, and PBS reports the same change with a similar lack of new evidence.[2][5]
Supports. PolitiFact reports that new statements on the CDC webpage baselessly cast doubt on vaccine safety, and the Senate Finance minority report says Kennedy linked vaccines to autism and misrepresented clinical testing.[3][4]
Supports. KFF Health News reports that Kennedy's closed-door autism research has yet to produce evidence linking vaccines to autism and that many of his autism claims have not withstood scientific scrutiny.[6]
Contradicts. NIH director Jay Bhattacharya told the Senate that he had not seen a study suggesting any single vaccine causes autism, which runs against the view that NIH pronouncements on this topic are untrustworthy.[7]
Context. The claim's timing matches the sources: the problematic statements and changes followed Kennedy's arrival at HHS in 2025.[2][5][8]
Sources
8 sources: 3 fact-checkers, 1 primary, 1 tier 2, 3 not rated
- 1FactChecking RFK Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense Keynotefactcheck.org · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2In a tumultuous year, US health policy has been dramatically reshaped under RFK Jr.apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 3RFK Jr. made promises in order to become Health ...politifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 4SFC Minority Staff Report Setting the Record Straight an ...finance.senate.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 5In a tumultuous year, U.S. health policy transforms under ...pbs.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 6Kennedy’s Quiet Hunt for Autism Culprits Stalls as Trump ...kffhealthnews.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7NIH Chief Breaks With RFK Jr. on Key Question From Bernie Sandersnewrepublic.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
- 8How federal vaccine skepticism could affect public health, ...healthcare-brew.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post