Claim: The CDC Covered Up Data Proving a Link Between the Hepatitis Vaccine and Autism
Validity: False and misleading
“[I]n 1999, [the CDC] brought in a team of scientists under a Belgian researcher named Thomas Verstraeten, and they looked at the data, they looked at children who had received the hepatitis vaccine within the first 30 days of life and compared those children to children who had received the vaccine later or not at all. And they found an 1135% elevated risk of autism among the vaccinated children. And it shocked them. They kept the study secret and they manipulated it through five different iterations to try to bury the link.”
RFK, Jr., speaking on the Tucker Carlson Show last year
RFK Jr. Provides an Update on His Mission to End Skyrocketing Autism and Declassifying Kennedy FilesThis week, a federal court basically hit the “undo” button on RFK, Jr.’s hand-picked vaccine committee, including their recommendation to remove six vaccinations – including hepatitis A and B – from the childhood vaccine schedule earlier this year.
But why oppose these vaccines? Taking a single example – hepatitis – RFK Jr.’s comments on the Tucker Carlson Show from 2025 show his main opposition to the vaccine.
He claims that the CDC “buried” a link uncovered by a 1999 study from Thomas Verstraeten, which showed huge increases in autism among those exposed to the vaccine.
Did the CDC Cover Up the Data?
No.
RFK Jr. is referencing the first phase of a two-phase study, which was submitted to a conference. As with basically all conference papers, only the abstract is available. The paper looks at thimerosal-containing vaccines, comparing unexposed kids to those with the highest exposure at 1 month of age. It alleged an almost 8-fold increased risk of autism in this group.
However, the full, peer-reviewed publication from this study concluded that there were “no consistent significant associations” between thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes. This difference was, in part, because the second phase involved confirmation of diagnoses.
So it is completely false to claim this was covered up. In fact, the CDC approved the conference abstract RFK Jr. is referencing, and the paper was later published.
Do Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines Cause Autism?
No. Epidemiological evidence has consistently shown that there is no link between thimerosal exposure and autism. And finally, thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines except certain flu vaccines from 1999 onwards.
