Cassidy Asks Trump’s MAHA Surgeon General Nom to Say Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism. She Wouldn’t

Dr. Casey Means — President Donald Trump’s pick for the surgeon general and a leader in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement — appeared in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Wednesday morning and refused to unequivocally say that vaccines do not cause autism.

When asked by committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA) — who, over the past few months, found himself, on many occasions, in conflict with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his MAHA loyalists — whether vaccines cause autism, Means did not respond directly, instead encouraging more studies around the question.

“Some have been scared to vaccinate their children because they’ve been told, incorrectly, that vaccines cause autism. Do you believe that vaccines, whether individually or collectively, contribute to autism?” Cassidy, a physician, asked Means.

“The reality is that we have an autism crisis that’s increasing and this is devastating to many families. And we do not know, as a medical community, what causes autism. The administration has just committed a huge amount of funding to look at the exposome of all environmental factors that could be contributing to autism. And until we have a clear understanding of why kids are developing this at higher rates, I think we should not leave any stones unturned,” Means responded.

Cassidy pushed back, saying there’s already a lot of evidence indicating the two are not linked and asked her if she does not accept that evidence.

“I do accept that evidence. I also think that science is never settled,” Means responded. “I think that the effort to look at comprehensive, cumulative exposures of our exposome into what is causing autism is important, and I look forward to seeing those results.”

Decades of rigorous and extensive scientific research and studies have, of course, consistently found no credible evidence between vaccines and autism.

Kennedy and the overall MAHA movement has pushed the baseless idea that MMR vaccines can cause autism in children. In fact, Kennedy’s long-time anti-vaccine stance was one of the reasons Cassidy was initially skeptical of charging Kennedy with leading the nation’s health agencies.

Cassidy ultimately voted to confirm Kennedy after receiving promises and assurances from him that he would not use his position to enact policies in line with his own beliefs in conspiracy theories, largely around vaccines and vaccine safety.

One of those promises was that Kennedy would not remove information on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website that stated unequivocally that vaccines do not cause autism. But the site was updated in November to suggest, without evidence, that possible links between vaccines and autism were “ignored by health authorities.”

Cassidy denounced those changes at the time. He now faces a difficult primary election due to his tensions with Kennedy and the MAHA movement as he has pushed back on their conspiracy theories. President Trump and the MAHA PAC have since endorsed the campaign of his primary challenger Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA). 

Since taking the helm at HHS, Kennedy and his team also made significant revisions to the childhood vaccine schedule, reducing the number of routine shots dramatically.

Means has also shown skepticism towards the previous vaccine schedule, saying in one of her newsletters that the “total burden” of the vaccine schedule is “causing health declines in vulnerable children.”

Later in her testimony, Means added that she is looking forward to the results of the efforts Kennedy started shortly after taking office, “a massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism.

At the time of the effort’s announcement, Kennedy stated that “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

That, of course, has not happened.