2026年3月5日 上午11:08 UTC / 路透社
美国卫生与公众服务部（HHS）部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪在美国华盛顿特区卫生与公众服务部的新闻发布会上，讨论了美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）最新自闭症及发育障碍监测（ADDM）网络调查的结果，… 继续阅读
- 摘要
- 新小组包含疫苗怀疑论者，引发自闭症专家担忧
- 小组或探讨争议性疫苗关联
- 外部专家警告，聚焦疫苗研究可能转移自闭症其他研究资金
华盛顿，3月5日（路透社） – 根据一些新小组成员的说法，卫生部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪重组的美国自闭症咨询委员会纳入了疫苗怀疑论者，旨在引导联邦研究资金用于调查自闭症病因及其他共病问题，如共存的医疗障碍。
肯尼迪是长期反疫苗活动家，曾暗示接种疫苗会导致自闭症，这与科学证据相悖。他于1月重组了跨机构自闭症协调委员会，新任命21名公众成员。新委员会中超过三分之一的成员也宣扬被揭穿的疫苗与自闭症之间的关联。
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一些自闭症专家，包括前委员会成员，表示新成员可能会损害联邦自闭症研究。本周，一些前成员成立了自己的替代咨询委员会，这是公共卫生专家对肯尼迪改革联邦疫苗政策以及他所监管机构传播的错误信息感到担忧的最新举措。
尚无严格研究发现自闭症与疫苗或药物之间存在关联。自闭症专家将自闭症发病率上升主要归因于诊断标准更加包容。
该委员会定于3月19日首次召开会议，将为肯尼迪提供关于联邦自闭症研究重点的非约束性指导，包括如何分配数亿美元研究资金的建议。
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肯尼迪向唐纳德·特朗普总统承诺，他将找出自闭症的病因，大多数研究人员认为自闭症部分与遗传因素以及子宫内暴露于污染物或有害物质有关。肯尼迪的”让美国再次健康”运动（Make America Healthy Again）的许多支持者（其中一些人被任命为委员会成员）也认为疫苗会导致自闭症，并主张减少儿童接种次数。
委员会主席西尔维娅·福格尔（Sylvia Fogel）是哈佛医学院的精神病学家和讲师，她告诉路透社，委员会将解决自闭症研究中的空白，如病因触发因素，以更好地服务于重度自闭症患者及其家庭。
“自闭症并非单一疾病。联邦策略应反映其复杂性，而非将其简单化，”福格尔说。
卫生与公众服务部发言人安德鲁·尼克松（Andrew Nixon）表示，新委员会旨在团结不同的声音，”扩大委员会的视角并不改变联邦研究以严谨科学为基础的事实。”
部分成员将疫苗与自闭症联系起来
在1月改革之前，西蒙斯基金会（Simons Foundation）和自闭症之声（Autism Speaks）等主要自闭症组织，以及约翰·霍普金斯大学和塔夫茨大学等高校的研究人员构成了委员会21名公众成员的主体。
根据2024年草案报告，该小组建议进一步研究共病的身体和行为健康状况，如癫痫、胃肠道问题和焦虑症。
自闭症之声倡导副总裁大卫·西特科夫斯基（David Sitcovsky）在一份声明中表示，更广泛的代表性将加强委员会，但影响将取决于是否保持科学基础。
新小组包含更多活动家，自闭症自我倡导者仅3人（法律规定的最低人数），而之前为7人，研究型大学代表也寥寥无几。路透社对成员公开声明和隶属关系的审查显示，至少有8人与疫苗导致自闭症有关联，或与支持这些说法的组织有联系，其中一些人称其子女接种疫苗后患上自闭症。
小组成员金杰·泰勒（Ginger Taylor）创建了名为”疫苗如何导致自闭症”的网站，她在Substack帖子中写道，委员会的首要任务是调查疫苗与自闭症之间的关联。
新成员约翰·吉尔摩（John Gilmore）是自闭症行动网络（Autism Action Network）联合创始人，他表示自己26岁的儿子接种疫苗后患上自闭症，希望引导更多研究关注自闭症发病率上升问题。
“现在委员会中的许多声音被刻意排除了20多年，”他说。
包括吉尔摩和福格尔在内的几名成员，参加了9月由MAHA研究所主办的自闭症活动小组讨论，MAHA研究所所长马克·戈顿（Mark Gorton）是反疫苗活动家，也是肯尼迪2024年总统竞选的重要资助者。
当被问及部分成员对疫苗的看法如何影响委员会工作时，福格尔表示，针对麻疹腮腺炎风疹（MMR）疫苗和含硫柳汞疫苗的研究未显示与自闭症存在因果关系。
“现有证据非常充分，必须予以承认，”福格尔说。
不过，她表示，研究应探讨各种暴露因素（包括免疫或炎症应激）如何影响自闭症结果。
专家担忧
周二，十几名自闭症倡导者、研究人员和几名前委员会成员成立了独立自闭症协调委员会，制定自己的自闭症研究战略计划。
自闭症科学基金会主席、前政府委员会成员艾莉森·辛格（Alison Singer）表示，将联邦资金投入研究疫苗与自闭症之间的关联（大多数专家认为这是既定科学），会削减对其他研究机会的资助，如自闭症的遗传率或与环境暴露的关联。
“美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）的资金并非无底洞，”辛格说，”如果我们将有限资源投入重新调查疫苗，就没有资金研究自闭症的实际潜在病因。”
路透社报道，记者 Leah Douglas 和 Ahmed Aboulenein
编辑：Caroline Humer 和 Bill Berkrot
我们的标准：路透社信托原则。
Kennedy’s new US autism panel to examine potential causes
March 5, 2026 11:08 AM UTC / Reuters
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. discusses the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network survey, during a press conference at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S.,… Read more
- Summary
- New panel includes vaccine skeptics, raising concerns among autism experts
- Panel could explore controversial vaccine links
- Outside experts warn focus on vaccines may divert funds from other autism research
WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – A U.S. autism advisory board remade by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to include vaccine skeptics aims to steer federal research spending toward investigating causes of the condition, as well as other issues like co-occurring medical disorders, according to some new panel members.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has suggested the inoculations cause autism, contrary to scientific evidence, reset the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee in January with 21 new public members. More than a third of the new committee members have also promoted the debunked link between vaccines and autism.
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Some autism experts, including former committee members, have said the new members could undermine federal autism research. This week, some former members created their own alternative advisory board, the latest in a series of similar efforts by public health experts concerned about Kennedy’s overhaul of federal vaccine policy and what they see as misinformation coming from agencies he oversees.
No rigorous studies have found links between autism and vaccines or medications. Autism experts attribute rising rates of the condition largely to more inclusive diagnosis criteria.
The committee, due to first meet on March 19, will provide non-binding guidance to Kennedy on federal autism research priorities, including recommendations on allocating hundreds of millions of dollars in research spending.
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Kennedy has promised President Donald Trump he will identify the cause of autism, which most researchers suggest is linked in part to genetics and exposure in utero to pollutants or harmful contaminants. Many of Kennedy’s supporters in the Make America Healthy Again movement – some of whom were named to the committee – also believe vaccines can cause autism and advocate for fewer childhood vaccinations.
Committee chair Sylvia Fogel, a psychiatrist and instructor at Harvard Medical School, told Reuters the committee will address gaps in autism research like causal triggers in an effort to better serve people with profound autism and their families.
“Autism is not monolithic. Federal strategy should reflect that complexity rather than flatten it,” Fogel said.
Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said the new committee is meant to unite a range of voices and that “expanding perspectives on the panel does not change the fact that federal research is grounded in rigorous science.”
SOME MEMBERS LINK VACCINES AND AUTISM
Until January’s overhaul, major autism groups like the Simons Foundation and Autism Speaks, and researchers from universities including Johns Hopkins and Tufts accounted for most of the committee’s 21 members from the public.
That panel recommended further research into co-occurring physical and behavioral health conditions, like epilepsy, gastrointestinal issues and anxiety disorders, according to a draft 2024 report.
David Sitcovsky, vice president of advocacy at Autism Speaks, said in a statement that broader representation would strengthen the committee, but that its impact would depend on retaining a grounding in science.
The new panel contains more activists, just three autistic self-advocates – the minimum required by law – down from seven, and few representatives from research universities. At least eight have tied vaccination to autism or are connected to organizations that support those claims, including several who say their children developed autism after being vaccinated, according to a Reuters review of their public statements and affiliations.
Panel member Ginger Taylor, who created a website called “How Do Vaccines Cause Autism?”, wrote in a Substack post that her top priority for the committee is investigating the link between vaccines and autism.
John Gilmore, a new panel member and co-founder of the Autism Action Network who says his 26-year-old son developed autism after being vaccinated, said he wants to steer more research toward rising autism rates.
“A lot of the voices that are on the (committee) now have been deliberately excluded for 20-odd years,” he said.
Several, including Gilmore and Fogel, appeared on panels at a September autism event hosted by the MAHA Institute, whose president, Mark Gorton, is an anti-vaccine activist and was a significant funder of Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Asked how some members’ views on vaccines will affect the committee’s work, Fogel said studies of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines have not shown a causal link to autism.
“That body of available evidence is substantial and must be acknowledged,” Fogel said.
Still, research should examine how various exposures, including immune or inflammatory stress, might affect autism outcomes, she said.
EXPERT CONCERNS
On Tuesday, a dozen autism advocates, researchers and several former committee members formed the Independent Autism Coordination Committee to create its own strategic plan for autism research.
Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation and a prior government committee member, said investing federal dollars into researching a link between vaccines and autism, which most experts consider settled science, would cut into funding for other research opportunities, like autism’s heritability or link to environmental exposures.
“There’s not a bottomless pit of money at the NIH that can be used to fund research,” Singer said. “If we devote our very limited resources towards reinvestigating vaccines, we won’t have money to look at actual potential causes of autism.”
Reporting by Leah Douglas and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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