section_path: Anti-vaccine advocacy and conspiracy theories on public health/Vaccines and autism claims
section_name: Vaccines and autism claims
paragraph_text: Vaccines and autism claims
  
  From 2015 to 2023, Kennedy chaired the Children's Health Defense, formerly known as the World Mercury Project, an anti-vaccine advocacy group he joined in 2015. In its early years, the group focused on mercury in industry and medicine, especially the ethylmercury used in thimerosal in vaccines.
  
  The group alleges that exposure to certain chemicals and radiation has caused a wide range of conditions in many American children, including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), food allergies, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Children's Health Defense has blamed and campaigned against vaccines, fluoridation of drinking water, paracetamol (acetaminophen), aluminum, and wireless communication, among other things. The group has been identified as one of two major buyers of anti-vaccine Facebook advertising in late 2018 and early 2019. Members of his family have criticized Kennedy and his organization, saying he spreads "dangerous misinformation" and that his work has "heartbreaking" consequences.
  
  Kennedy and Children's Health Defense have falsely claimed that vaccines cause autism. Kennedy focused on the subset of vaccines that contained thimerosal, a mercury -based anti-microbial that has been falsely claimed to cause autism. Thimerosal has never been used in MMR, chickenpox, pneumococcal conjugate, or inactivated polio vaccines. In 2001, thimerosal was removed from all other childhood (under 6 years old) vaccines except for a few versions of flu and hepatitis vaccines. No childhood vaccine now contains more than traces (1 microgram or less) of thimerosal, except for flu, which is also available without thimerosal in the U.S. For those 6 years and older, including pregnant women, all vaccines are now available in versions with only trace amounts of thimerosal.
  
  In April 2015, Kennedy participated in a Speakers' Forum to promote the film Trace Amounts, which promotes the discredited claim of a link between autism and mercury in vaccinations. At a screening, he called the increased diagnosis of cases of autism (which he calls an "autism epidemic") a "holocaust". He has been heavily criticized for such statements.
  
  In 2020, the Center for Countering Digital Hate said that Kennedy uses his status as an environmental activist to bolster the anti-vaccination movement, regularly appearing in online conversations with the discredited British former doctor Andrew Wakefield, the anti-vaccination activist Del Bigtree, and the conspiracy theorist Rashid Buttar. Kennedy is listed as executive producer of Vaxxed II: The People's Truth, the 2019 sequel to Wakefield's and Bigtree's anti-vaccination propaganda film Vaxxed.
  
  In February 2021, Kennedy's Instagram account was deleted "for repeatedly sharing debunked claims" about COVID-19 vaccines. In March 2021, the Center for Countering Digital Hate identified Kennedy as one of 12 people responsible for up to 65% of anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter.
  
  Kennedy has said that governments and the media are conspiring to deny that vaccines cause autism.
  
  From 2015 to 2023, Kennedy chaired the Children's Health Defense, formerly known as the World Mercury Project, an anti-vaccine advocacy group he joined in 2015. In its early years, the group focused on mercury in industry and medicine, especially the ethylmercury used in thimerosal in vaccines.
  
  The group alleges that exposure to certain chemicals and radiation has caused a wide range of conditions in many American children, including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), food allergies, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Children's Health Defense has blamed and campaigned against vaccines, fluoridation of drinking water, paracetamol (acetaminophen), aluminum, and wireless communication, among other things. The group has been identified as one of two major buyers of anti-vaccine Facebook advertising in late 2018 and early 2019. Members of his family have criticized Kennedy and his organization, saying he spreads "dangerous misinformation" and that his work has "heartbreaking" consequences.
  
  Kennedy and Children's Health Defense have falsely claimed that vaccines cause autism. Kennedy focused on the subset of vaccines that contained thimerosal, a mercury -based anti-microbial that has been falsely claimed to cause autism. Thimerosal has never been used in MMR, chickenpox, pneumococcal conjugate, or inactivated polio vaccines. In 2001, thimerosal was removed from all other childhood (under 6 years old) vaccines except for a few versions of flu and hepatitis vaccines. No childhood vaccine now contains more than traces (1 microgram or less) of thimerosal, except for flu, which is also available without thimerosal in the U.S. For those 6 years and older, including pregnant women, all vaccines are now available in versions with only trace amounts of thimerosal.
  
  In April 2015, Kennedy participated in a Speakers' Forum to promote the film Trace Amounts, which promotes the discredited claim of a link between autism and mercury in vaccinations. At a screening, he called the increased diagnosis of cases of autism (which he calls an "autism epidemic") a "holocaust". He has been heavily criticized for such statements.
  
  In 2020, the Center for Countering Digital Hate said that Kennedy uses his status as an environmental activist to bolster the anti-vaccination movement, regularly appearing in online conversations with the discredited British former doctor Andrew Wakefield, the anti-vaccination activist Del Bigtree, and the conspiracy theorist Rashid Buttar. Kennedy is listed as executive producer of Vaxxed II: The People's Truth, the 2019 sequel to Wakefield's and Bigtree's anti-vaccination propaganda film Vaxxed.
  
  In February 2021, Kennedy's Instagram account was deleted "for repeatedly sharing debunked claims" about COVID-19 vaccines. In March 2021, the Center for Countering Digital Hate identified Kennedy as one of 12 people responsible for up to 65% of anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter.
  
  Kennedy has said that governments and the media are conspiring to deny that vaccines cause autism.