US Health Officials Plan No-Bid Contract to Study Vaccines Autism Link

Federal health officials under President Donald Trump's administration plan to award a no-bid contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to investigate a potential link between vaccinations and autism, a connection that scientific consensus has long ruled out. The contract was awarded due to RPI's "unique ability" to link data on children and mothers, and the research will be led by RPI biotech engineering professor Juergen Hahn, who uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze blood samples of children with autism. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his antivaccine stance, announced a broad research effort earlier this year to explore autism's causes, repeatedly attempting to link vaccines to the condition. Experts in the field, including Alycia Halladay from the Autism Science Foundation, question the choice of RPI for this study and the rationale behind allocating funds to research a vaccine-autism link that has been extensively disproven. The Department of Health and Human Services has not clarified the contract's scope, budget, or how this study fits with other autism research efforts. Hahn has pledged to publish the study's results if the project proceeds, amid ongoing skepticism from the scientific community about revisiting the vaccine-autism question.