RPI’s Vaccine-Autism Study

Posted 9/23/2025

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intend to award a no-bid contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to study whether childhood vaccination induces autism. I studied at RPI through my bachelors and masters degrees, and like many alumni, I am incensed. On September 15th I wrote the following letter in protest:

Dear Dr. Schmidt, Board of Trustees, and Deans,

I am a proud alumnus of Rensselaer (B.S. 2018, M.S. 2020), and credit the institute with shaping me as a professional scientist. I write today with grave concern about Rensselaer’s proposed contract with the CDC to study links between vaccinations and autism 1.

Rensselaer’s commitment to knowledge and thoroughness is well-known. However, the link between vaccines and autism, first proposed in a now-retracted 1998 paper 2, has been conclusively investigated and discredited 3 4 5. Scientific consensus is clear, and further studies are not warranted. Instead of providing certainty, Dr. Juergen Hahn’s proposed work will provide legitimacy to vaccine skeptics by suggesting that a causal link between vaccination and autism is even conceivable.

Vaccine hesitancy is on the rise globally, in part driven by perceived risk of vaccination 6. In contributing to this hesitancy, Rensselaer will be complicit in decreasing vaccination rates, a return of once-defeated diseases like measles, and ultimately, unnecessary suffering and early deaths. I urge the institute to reconsider their CDC contract, for the good of humanity and their own reputation.

Respectfully,
Dr. Milo Z. Trujillo

My letter was quoted by the local paper, and other alumni have sent their own letters, started a phone calling campaign, and circulated a petition. I am not optimistic that our efforts will sway RPI’s administration against the value of their CDC contract, but I believe it is imperative to try. After President Trump’s press release asserting autism is caused by Tylenol and vaccines, we’re likely to see greater drops in childhood vaccination. Scientists that entertain the thoroughly dismissed vaccine-autism link are fueling the flames and legitimizing Trump’s claims, and children will suffer and die as a result.

  1. Tyler McNeil. “CDC to award RPI a contract for vaccine-autism research”. In: Times Union (Sept. 14, 2025). url: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/cdc-contract-vaccine-autism-research-rpi-21047511.php (visited on 09/15/2025). ↩

  2. Andrew J Wakefield et al. “RETRACTED: Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children”. In: The Lancet 351 (9103 1998), pp. 637–641. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)11096-0. ↩

  3. Frank DeStefano. “Vaccines and autism: evidence does not support a causal association”. In: Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics 82.6 (2007), pp. 756–759. ↩

  4. Anders Hviid et al. “Measles, mumps, rubella vaccination and autism: a nationwide cohort study”. In: Annals of internal medicine 170.8 (2019), pp. 513–520. ↩

  5. Luke E Taylor, Amy L Swerdfeger, and Guy D Eslick. “Vaccines are not associated with autism: an evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies”. In: Vaccine 32.29 (2014), pp. 3623–3629. ↩

  6. Eve Dubé et al. “Vaccine hesitancy: an overview”. In: Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics 9.8 (2013), pp. 1763–1773. ↩