Trump Pick for NIH Director: Vaccines May Cause Autism, Alternative Schedules Okay
Jay Bhattacharya made the remarks on a podcast in September, weeks before being nominated to lead the NIH.
Written by Walker Bragman Published: 2/26/25
Donald Trump’s NIH director pick argued in favor of studying the debunked, fraudulent claim that vaccines may be linked to autism.
In an appearance on the right-wing Dad Saves America podcast in September, just weeks before he was announced as the nominee for the top spot at the National Institutes of Health, Stanford health economist Jay Bhattacharya was asked point blank by host John Papola, “Do vaccines cause autism?”
While his winding response included a general defense of vaccines, Bhattacharya suggested that there may end up being a link between autism and the childhood vaccination schedule after all, and indicated that research into the possible connection was warranted—even if he personally did not believe it would bear fruit.
“I think there is a legitimate increase in autism in the population at large and the question of why—we should be moving heaven and earth to answer it,” he said. “And I don’t think it’ll likely end up being the vaccines, but I don’t know that for a fact. So it should be part of the scientific conversation as a hypothesis that looks at—because we’re asking parents to vaccinate their children with…several vaccines; many vaccines…Each of them could have a different combination of effects.”
The supposed link between vaccines and autism was popularized by a 1998 study by disgraced researcher Andrew Wakefield. The study was actually fraudulent and would eventually be retracted. Nevertheless, its central premise has persisted for years and continues to be promoted by anti-vaxxers like Robert Kennedy Jr., who was recently confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary. Referencing the study in his podcast interview, Bhattacharya neglected to discuss the ethical issues with the research.
Best known for his advocacy against efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 in favor of a herd immunity strategy reliant on widespread infection of the supposedly healthy population, the Stanford professor is one of a slate of controversial public health picks by President Trump that includes Kennedy.
His remarks about vaccines and autism are in line with Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.
“Trust the Experts”
Bhattacharya has not always catered to vaccine skepticism—though his advocacy for so-called “natural” COVID immunity made him a natural ally of those in the “medical freedom” movement. Over the years, the Stanford professor has increasingly cast doubt on the mRNA vaccines and allied with vaccine opponents. At the same time, he has taken to blaming “the experts” and government for the rise of vaccine skepticism, highlighting policies like lockdowns and mandates. He even signed onto a petition calling for usage of the COVID vaccines to be halted for all populations.
On the Dad Saves podcast, Bhattacharya claimed the COVID shots only marginally reduced the risk of death from the virus, and only for a limited time. He argued the boosters lacked adequate evidence of benefit and said the vaccines should be reserved for older populations.
Beyond casting doubt on COVID shots, the professor, who has never practiced medicine himself, endorsed alternate vaccine schedules—a popular idea among anti-vaxxers—and suggested that pediatricians ought to be respectful and open to concerns about inoculations from parents.
“I think that it’s also reasonable to ask questions about the particulars of the vaccines that are on the schedule one at a time,” he added. “I don’t see how, in this post-COVID era, you can just simply say ‘trust the experts.’”
When host Papola told him that he and his wife had spaced the vaccines out for their children and asked for a reason not to do that, Bhattacharya responded that “there’s not great randomized trial evidence to like, answer that question, so why not just have that?”
“Especially since measles isn’t really circulating at very, very high levels in the community at large, right? So you’re not actually exposing your child to a risk if you delay by a couple of months,” he said. “If it is circulating, then of course you probably want to do it earlier, right?”
Measles cases are currently surging in the U.S. prompting concern from experts. The disease can kill and cause lasting health consequences.
Bhattacharya said that if he had a young child, he would give them “many” of the vaccines on the schedule, but added that “there’s uncertainties about all of them.” He also noted, “There are ones where I’d be more skeptical.”
“‘HPV is generally sexually transmitted. Why give it to a baby?’ Someone could easily ask that,” Bhattacharya said. “Do I need to give it to my son who’s not ever going to get cervical cancer? Hepatitis B is another virus that babies, unless they’re exposed from the mother in utero, are not going to get the disease until they’re an adult. Could we wait? I personally would do it, but I could totally understand a parent saying ‘no, let’s wait on this.’”
“I Don’t Know What He’s Talking About”
Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and internationally recognized virology and immunology expert, took issue with Bhattacharya’s remarks on vaccines.
Offit dismissed Bhattacharya’s suggestion that there may be unknown, harmful interactions between childhood vaccines leading to issues like autism, explaining that new inoculations are thoroughly tested for such reactions before being added to the schedule.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about, really,” he said.
Offit challenged the idea that autism is necessarily increasing, noting that since the condition was first described in the 1930s, the definition has broadened to include a spectrum, diagnostic criteria have improved, and the public is much more aware of it. He added that there are far more likely culprits behind autism like parental age, genetics, the infant microbiome, and drugs taken during pregnancy.
“It'd be nice to hear [Bhattacharya] talk about what is much better known about the cause of autism, because these folks always think that they're helping children with autism, and actually they're hurting them by focusing on away from the far more promising lead,” he said. “So I think the anti-vaccine activists have taken autism hostage, frankly.”
Offit challenged Bhattacharya’s statements about the HPV vaccine, explaining that it is given to adolescents, not babies, and provides protection to both sexes from cancers. HPV is linked to roughly 30,000 cancers per year—not just cervical, but head, neck, anal, and genital cancers as well. Roughly a third of those are in men.
“We don't vaccinate boys to protect them so that they won't infect girls,” he said. “We vaccinate them so they won't get cancer.”
In response to Bhattacharya’s remarks about the hepatitis B vaccine, Offit told Important Context, “It worries me—this is the [likely] head of NIH.” The virus, he explained, spreads not merely from birth canal to child but also through relatively casual contact with infected individuals, and there are serious risks.
“So remember, if you were infected with hepatitis B in the first few months of life, you have a 90 percent chance of going on to develop cirrhosis or liver cancer,” Offit said. “That's why it needs to be given early.”
“Nothing Is Going to Be Off Limits”
Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order to establish a MAHA commission to study the causes of chronic disease, including “medical treatments.” Shortly after being sworn in, Kennedy told staff at HHS that the agency would be taking a look at the vaccine schedule, warning that “nothing is going to be off limits.”
“Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formerly taboo or insufficiently scrutinized,” he said. “I’m willing to subject them all to the scrutiny of unbiased science.”
The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. As director, Bhattacharya would have significant influence over that funding. A Wall Street Journalreport featuring unnamed sources indicated that he may intend to prioritize institutions that support “academic freedom.”
With Trump’s return to power, in seeming preparation for the MAHA push, a number of new medical journals run by anti-vaxxers and medical contrarians have cropped up. During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy cited a deeply flawed study linking vaccines to autism from one such journal run by his allies. Bhattacharya is affiliated with another new, fringe medical publication from the right-wing RealClear Foundation.
