DADD Statement in Response to Presidential Executive Order

Division for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD) Statement in Response to Presidential Executive Order titled "Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans" signed on August 10, 2026

The Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD), denounces the revival of dangerous misinformation linking vaccinations to autism referenced in the announcement of the new executive order on vaccines.

On August 10, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order targeting the childhood vaccination schedule. During the Oval Office signing, he repeatedly suggested a link between the number, timing, and volume of childhood vaccines and rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, falsely claiming that "vats" or “soda-bottle amounts of liquid are pumped into children” and that "bad things happen in too many cases".

Major medical organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics point out that rising autism numbers over recent decades stem from expanded diagnostic criteria, broader clinical awareness, and earlier screening, rather than an environmental trigger from vaccines.

DADD is committed to promoting research that reflects the full range of autistic experiences and advocating for policies that center and strengthen autistic voices, rights, and perspectives.

More than two decades of rigorous, independent research, including a 2025 review by the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety spanning 31 studies (and millions of children) across multiple countries, have consistently proven there is no causal link between childhood vaccines (including the MMR shot or cumulative antigen counts) and autism.

This global consensus stands in direct opposition to the 1998 Wakefield study, which first sparked these fears but has since been widely discredited, retracted by The Lancet, and found to be based on fraudulent data and unethical research practices.

The study was dismantled through a systematic, decade-long investigative and regulatory process:

• 2004 (Partial Retraction): Ten of the 12 co-authors formally retracted the paper's interpretation, stating that the available data were entirely insufficient to establish a causal link.
• 2010 (Formal Retraction and De-licensing): Following an exhaustive investigation, the UK General Medical Council found Wakefield guilty of dishonesty, severe ethical violations, and professional misconduct. Consequently, The Lancet completely retracted the 1998 paper, and Wakefield was stripped of his medical license.
• 2011 (Exposure of Fraud): A landmark investigative series in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) exposed the study as an "elaborate fraud," proving that patient data had been intentionally falsified and that Wakefield held undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.

Subsequent large-scale, international epidemiological studies have repeatedly confirmed that there is absolutely no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Public health policy must explicitly treat the 1998 study as a fraudulent medical hoax to prevent it from continuing to undermine pro-vaccine initiatives.

"In the decades since the Wakefield study, the possibility of a connection between vaccines and autism has been studied over-and-over again. There are now over 50 high-quality studies that together include data from over 15 million children worldwide. The research has examined multiple vaccines, ingredients used in vaccines, dosing schedules, and immune responses. All of these studies have concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism. Sowing doubt by saying that a link between vaccines and autism has 'not been ruled out' does not reflect the way scientific research is done or should be interpreted. There is no evidence of a link." (Source)