No, Vaccines Aren’t to Blame — WHO Busts the Internet’s Biggest Health Myth

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only last month, revised its website with the that undermines its previous, scientifically-grounded position. It has once and for all stepped in to

reaffirm a science-based conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism.The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a thorough analysis by its Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) reaffirming that there is no causal link between vaccines and autism. After reviewing 31 high-quality studies published between 2010 and 2025, including research from multiple countries, the committee concluded that neither vaccines in general nor specific components such as thiomersal or aluminium adjuvants are associated with ASD. This builds on similar reviews conducted in 2002, 2004 and 2012 that reached the same conclusion.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized during a press conference that while vaccines, like all medical products, can have side effects, autism is not one of them. He noted that vaccines remain one of humanity’s most effective public health tools, saving millions of lives from diseases such as measles, polio, hepatitis B and more. The actual misconception that vaccines cause autism dates back to a 1998 fraudulent study that claimed a connection between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. That paper was retracted due to falsified data, and its findings have never been replicated. Decades of subsequent research have consistently failed to show any causal link. Despite this overwhelming scientific consensus, the CDC, under the leadership of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine sceptic, made headlines by revising its “Autism and Vaccines” webpage to state that the claim “vaccines do not cause autism” was not evidence-based and that studies had not conclusively ruled out a connection. That change was widely criticized by public health experts, medical associations and advocacy groups as misleading and likely to fuel vaccine hesitation and misinformation.

Medical scientists and organisations, including the American Medical Association and Autism Speaks, have reiterated their support for the extensive evidence showing no association between vaccines and autism, warning that undermining public trust in vaccines could lead to lower immunisation rates and a resurgence of preventable diseases. In short, the WHO’s latest analysis reinforces what decades of research have already shown: vaccines do not cause autism. Efforts to obscure this fact risk public health by sowing doubt about some of the most effective medical innovations in history