Landmark Report Finds Childhood Vaccination a Dominant Risk Factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Report Links Vaccines to Autism Risk, Calls for Urgent Review
A new report from the McCullough Foundation has identified routine childhood vaccination as a major, modifiable risk factor for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), challenging long-held assumptions about what drives rising autism rates.
Titled Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder, the report is the most comprehensive review of autism risk factors to date. It analyzed more than 300 studies spanning genetics, environmental exposures, perinatal stressors, and medical interventions, providing a full picture of what may contribute to autism.
Among 136 studies specifically examining vaccines, 107 (79%) found evidence linking immunization to autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders. Studies comparing fully vaccinated children with those who were completely unvaccinated consistently showed better overall health outcomes among the unvaccinated, including lower rates of chronic illness and neurodevelopmental conditions.
The report explains that autism results from a combination of factors, including genetic susceptibility, immune system disruptions, environmental toxins, and perinatal stress. But, according to the authors, “combination routine childhood vaccination early in life constitutes the most significant modifiable risk factor.” Researchers highlighted mechanisms such as immune dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation triggered during critical windows of brain development.
Other contributing factors—like older parental age, premature birth, certain genetic variants, and maternal immune activation—play a role but do not fully account for the steep rise in autism prevalence observed since the expansion of the U.S. vaccine schedule in the mid-1980s.
“Our report represents a major breakthrough through the iron grip of censorship imposed by the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex on the issue of vaccination and autism, said Nicolas Hulscher, Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator with the McCullough Foundation, in his Substack. “It also marks Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s first major return to the scientific literature in years—after enduring years of irrational attacks from the vaccine cartel.”
The report also points out serious gaps in existing research. Most studies claiming no link between vaccines and autism lacked truly unvaccinated control groups, relied on registry data rather than clinical assessments, and examined only a small portion of the full vaccine schedule. To date, no study has evaluated the cumulative safety of all recommended pediatric vaccines through age 9 or 18.
With autism now affecting more than 1 in 31 children in the United States—and rising globally—the authors call for urgent research into preventable contributors, including the full pediatric vaccine schedule.
The McCullough Foundation hopes this landmark analysis will open a new era of open scientific inquiry, free from censorship and commercial influence, into the causes of autism.
Read the full report HERE
The report authors include: Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, John S. Leake, MA, Simon Troupe, MPH, Claire Rogers, MSPAS, PA-C, Kirstin Cosgrove, BM, CCRA, M. Nathaniel Mead, MSc, PhD, Breanne Craven, PA-C, Mila Radetich, Andrew Wakefield, MBBS, Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Dr. Andy Wakefield told CHD.TV’s Polly Tommey and Dr. Brian Hooker that the new study will be a major boost for RFK Jr.’s efforts in the White House. Watch below.
Click on the image below to watch the Full episode:
To read The Defender’s full coverage of the report, click below.
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