NIH Autism Research Grants in Hands of COVID Vaccine Doubters
The NIH director has teamed up with an old colleague who previously worked at an anti-vaccine group.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s forthcoming research to identify the cause or causes of autism, which many experts fear is merely a ploy to go after vaccines, is being designed with input from a prominent critic of the COVID-19 mRNA shots.
At a press conference on April 16, Kennedy told a reporter that National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya was working with his longtime collaborator Dr. Martin Kulldorff to shape the grant proposals for this research. Kennedy said his department would issue grants to university researchers and others, removing the “taboo” to allow them to “follow the science no matter what it says without any kind of fear they’re going to be censored and they’re going to be gaslighted, that they’re going to be silenced, that they’re going to be defunded, delicensed.”
“And then we’re going to open it up to the research community and we’re going to task them with certain outcomes, and we’re going to have them come and bid on how to do the research,” Kennedy said. “This is all being run by Jay Bhattacharya and by, you know I think Martin Kulldorff may be also working on this on designing the grant proposals. So it’s going to be done by credible scientists, by the most credible scientists from all over the world, and we’re going to do it very, very quickly.”
Important Context sought clarity regarding Kennedy’s remarks to see if he meant that Bhattacharya and Kulldorff were designing the Request For Proposal for the research, meaning outlining grant opportunities. However, despite Kennedy’s promise to oversee a transparent HHS, the department would not shed any light on his meaning. In response to our email inquiry, Deputy HHS Press Secretary Emily Hillard provided a generic statement attributable to an anonymous NIH official, asserting that “the National Institutes of Health (NIH) remains steadfast in its commitment to advancing our understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder” and noting it was investing $50 million to the research effort. The statement also highlighted that the agency was “exploring partnerships with other federal agencies, including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CDC, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and others.”
Speculation about the purpose of the new autism research project has swirled since Kennedy announced it earlier this month. The secretary and the anti-vaccine group he founded, Children’s Health Defense, have long promoted the discredited theory— based on fraudulent research—that ingredients in vaccines are responsible for a rise in autism diagnoses. Many experts believe it can be largely explained by widening definitions, growing awareness of the neurodivergent condition, and people having children older.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, Kennedy cited a junk study from a dubious medical journal run by his allies, including high-ranking CHD personnel, linking vaccines to autism. In March, he brought in an anti-vax ally, David Geier, to probe a potential connection to vaccines and autism. Earlier this month, he pledged to identify the cause of the condition by September, which experts were quick to note sounded optimistic—and contrived. Kennedy’s timeline announcement came just two days after Children’s Health Defense emailed its subscribers declaring, “here’s the truth…vaccines do cause autism.”
At the April 16 press conference, Kennedy downplayed the idea that vaccines were the target of the forthcoming research, but he did say “medicines” would be a focus of study as a potential cause. With Kulldorff’s involvement, it is clear Kennedy’s vaccine-critical allies will be shaping the project. Bhattacharya spearheading the effort was indication enough.
Important Context has previously reported on the NIH director’s overtures to anti-vaxxers over the years. For example, we covered a podcast appearance from before he was nominated during which he expressed openness to unsupported alternative vaccine schedules and said further research into the debunked vaccine-autism theory was warranted. He has also repeatedly cast doubt on the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines, going so far as to sign a petition calling for use of the shots to be halted.
Kulldorff is no less contrarian. The biostatistician is a longtime collaborator of Bhattacharya’s. The pair co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, calling for the abandonment of COVID lockdowns in favor of pursuing herd immunity through widespread infection of the healthy population. Kulldorff too has waded into anti-vaccine territory over the years, questioning the necessity and safety of COVID vaccines. He and Bhattacharya have even advocated against the jabs together.
Previously at Harvard Medical School for over a decade, Kulldorff lost his job over his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID at the height of the pandemic. He claimed to have natural immunity from prior infection and a genetic condition that put him at risk from the shot. For years, Kulldorff was listed as “on leave” on Harvard’s website in the lead-up to his departure.
He did, however, he find a cushy landing as scientific director of the Brownstone Institute, an anti-vaccine dark money group founded by one of the organizers of the Great Barrington Declaration to prevent the return of lockdowns. When Brownstone launched in 2021, Kulldorff and Bhattacharya were senior scholars there together. Per tax filings Kulldorff was paid more than $100,000 in the following year for his work with the organization. Neither he nor the NIH director are listed as members of the group today, however the latter spoke at its 2024 annual conference in October.
Brownstone and Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense are closely aligned. The organizations have rallied together, promoted some of the same narratives about “censorship” of medical dissent, and, most recently, sponsored the annual conference of the anti-vaccine Independent Medical Alliance, previously known as Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, and its president and founder, Jeffrey Tucker, gave a keynote speech.
Unsurprisingly, Kulldorff was one of the voices advocating for Kennedy to get the top spot at HHS. In a commentary for the right-wing RealClear Health ahead of the anti-vaxxer’s Senate confirmation hearings, Kulldorff argued that “the only way to restore public trust in vaccination…is to put a well-known vaccine skeptic in charge of the vaccine research agenda.”
“The ideal person for this is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” he wrote.
Until recently, Kulldorff was the co-editor-in-chief of a new medical journal from the RealClear Foundation that counts Bhattacharya and Marty Makary, Trump’s Food and Drug Administration commissioner, among the members of its editorial board. The journal is part of a larger academy of public health that was launched in January with bylaws adopted the day after Trump’s inauguration.
Kulldorff’s exit from the journal was quiet and done without fanfare.
The planned autism research has already generated major controversy. NIH Director Bhattacharya announced that the agency would be creating a database using private medical records and pharmacy and smart watch data as part of the project. The plan generated significant pushback from the public over concerns about privacy and government targeting of autistic individuals. HHS subsequently denied that it was creating an autism database.
Notably, the comment Important Context got from HHS, attributable to the anonymous NIH official, maintained that privacy would be protected.