Discussion on Vaccine Safety and Autism Rates

President said, which is the source of his concern about this issue,

and I'll just give an example.

In 1970, the biggest epidemiological study

at that time in history was performed,

and the university scientists from across this country

looked at all the eight-year-olds in Wisconsin,

about 900,000 children, and they were looking for autism,

and they knew what autism looked like,

and they came back with an incident rate of 0.8 per 10,000.

So less than 1 in 10,000.

The rate, according to CDC, today in this country,

is 1 in every 31 children.

In California, it's 1 in every 19 children,

1 in every 12.5 boys.

There has been a dramatic increase.

It's one of the things that the industry likes to say,

one of the talking points,

which the press loves to parrot, is,

oh, we're just noticing it more.

But this is an absurdity,

and this is an assertion that has been debunked

again and again and again by peer-reviewed literature,

but it's also debunked by common sense,

because if we were just noticing it more,

we would notice it in older groups,

but we're not.

We're only noticing it in kids who were born around 1989

or after.

The older generations, you're not seeing those increases.

So something happened in the mid-'90s that changed our children,

and it has to be an environmental exposure,

because genes don't cause epidemics.

They can provide a vulnerability,

but you need an environmental toxin.

And what the President has charged us with

is finding which one of those exposures

or which collection of exposures are causing this epidemic.

For decades, I fought for a simple principle.

When it comes to the health of our children,

government has an obligation to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Tell the American people the truth and

give parents the information they need to

make informed decisions for their families.

Mr. President, you gave us a mandate to do just that.

You directed HHS to examine America's childhood vaccine recommendations

against the best available science

and the practices of other developed nations.

We did that work, and on January 5th,

HHS and CDC overhauled the childhood immunization schedule,

reducing the number of diseases universally recommended for vaccines

from 17 to 11,

and establishing distinct categories of recommendations based upon on the scientific evidence.

Our assessment found that the United States recommended more childhood vaccines

than any other peer nation,

as in Trump mentioned the number, there's 72 jabs before 18,

but it actually could be up to 94 jabs.

And nobody else has anything like that.

And that many other countries, or most other countries,

achieve high vaccination rates

through education,

informed consent, and public trust rather than mandates.

Today, with this executive order, you are building on that work

and acting on that evidence.

We will preserve access to vaccines,

strengthen safety monitoring,

expand research,

give doctors and parents better information,

and restore informed consent and parental choice to their rightful place

in American medicine.

At HHS, we are already moving.

Across multiple agencies, FDA, CDC, NIH, ARPA-H, NTP,

the National Toxicity Program, and other parts of the department,

we have already launched unprecedented research effort examining vaccine safety

and long-term health outcomes in American children.

We are putting some of the largest health data sets in the country to work,

including the CDC's Vaccine Safety Data Link,

FDA's best systems, and other major federal and private health data sources.

We're pursuing dozens of studies and analyses.

We are comparing health outcomes in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.

We're examining aluminum adjuvants, the timing of the hepatitis B vaccine,

administered during vaccines, administered during pregnancy, and

outcomes ranging from allergies to autoimmune disease to autism

and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

At NIH, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

are working with the National Toxicity Program

on a comprehensive review of vaccine adjuvants,

ingredients that are added to vaccines

to amplify the body's immune response.

They will determine what the existing science establishes

and where uncertainty remains and where we need additional research.

We're bringing that same determination to autism.

NIH has launched the Autism Data Science Initiative with

13 research awards,

examining autism prevalence, causes,

treatments, and services.

Five of these will include vaccines among the potential factors

that they examine.

Dr. Bonachar will discuss that work in greater detail next month.

ARPA-H is preparing a major new initiative.

to focus on foundational causes and biology of autism

and on better diagnostics,

treatments, technologies, and tools for people with autism and their families.

We will examine every biologically plausible hypothesis

and leave no legitimate scientific question unexplored.

Mr. President, you have told us that you want answers.

So do I.

We have just over two years to finish the work,

and I know you're impatient.

And we are moving with urgency as that deadline demands.

We will bring you actions and findings as soon as they are ready.

We will not wait for the 90-day period.

And within 90 days, as you have directed,

we will deliver the full response required by this executive order.

Our task force on safer childhood vaccines was established by Congress in 1986,

but went dormant in 1998.

Last year, after nearly three decades,

this administration reinstated it as required by the statute,

and yet it was discontinued.

And you restored that congressional mandate.

The task force is already working to expand vaccine options,

examine the timing and sequencing of childhood vaccine strength and safety monitoring,

advance research into alternative adjuvants,

and continuously evaluate risks and benefits

using American and international evidence.

Taken together, this is what gold standard science means.

No predetermined answers, no institutional taboos, no sacred cows,

no hiding uncertainty.

Test the hypothesis,

examine the data,

replicate the results,

tell the public what we find,

be honest.

This is the standard you've set for this administration.

It's the standard I intend to enforce at HHS.

Mr. President, you asked us to get this done,

and we are getting it done.

And we will keep working with urgency until

American parents can have confidence on the medical advice that their government gives them.

It is worthy of their trust.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

The President Thank you very much.

Thank you, Bobby.

And Jay, please.

Today's a historic day for public health in this country.

The executive order.