Trump linked MMR vaccines to autism. Ties between the two were just debunked again

Key Points:

• A new study of over 2.5 million U.S. children found no link between receiving the MMR vaccine before age 2 and an autism diagnosis, reinforcing the vaccine's safety.
• Despite decades of research and WHO statements confirming no vaccine-autism connection, public health messaging in the U.S. remains conflicted amid rising measles cases and declining MMR vaccination rates.
• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has both advocated for MMR vaccination and questioned established vaccine safety data, challenging CNN anchors and supporting President Trump's calls to investigate vaccine-autism links.
• The controversy traces back to a discredited 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield, which falsely linked vaccines to autism and has since been retracted, yet misinformation continues to influence public opinion.
• The CDC's recent webpage update suggesting autism-vaccine links have not been definitively ruled out sparked criticism from medical organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, which called the move misleading and harmful to public trust.