Hooker and the vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated research enters the Senate record
Why it matters
The vaccinated-versus-unvaccinated comparison is the study design the reform movement has demanded for years. In 2025 that line of research was placed directly into the congressional record.
Brian Hooker, a researcher associated with Children’s Health Defense, has authored multiple studies comparing health outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. His 2021 study, co-authored with Neil Z. Miller, reported higher odds of autism and other chronic conditions among vaccinated children.
A 2025 U.S. Senate hearing featured a previously unpublished analysis drawn from the Henry Ford Health system that likewise reported higher rates of chronic conditions, including autism, among vaccinated children. Hooker is also known for his role in surfacing the account of CDC scientist William Thompson.
Mainstream researchers dispute the methodology of these comparisons, arguing the 2021 study relied on convenience samples from three medical practices, parental reporting, and unvalidated measures, and major studies continue to find no association between vaccines and autism. The studies themselves are here, along with the critiques, so you can weigh the design on its merits. It is exactly the kind of vaccinated-versus-unvaccinated comparison the Foundation believes should be run with full federal data.
Related coverage
New McCullough Foundation study: COVID-vaccinated children show higher odds of autism and ADHD in federal survey data
This is the McCullough Foundation’s newest paper, posted today, and it uses the federal government’s own National Health Interview Survey rather than a private dataset. That makes it easy for anyone, including HHS, to check. It is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed yet.
NIH finalizes its $51 million autism research initiative: 13 projects, none on vaccines
The administration promised a hard look at what causes autism. The money is now committed, and it is worth being precise about where it went: the largest federal award pool of the year funds thirteen projects, and not one of them studies vaccines. The vaccine question sits with a separate, much smaller contract that has yet to report anything.
Post“Kennedy is the saving grace”: Trump moves to remake the childhood schedule, and what is actually in force
In the span of six weeks the President signed an order cutting routine childhood vaccines from 18 diseases to 11, then stood beside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and proposed splitting shots into five smaller doses. A viral clip called it a schedule of 72 shots reduced to 11 “by the stroke of a pen.” That is the biggest shift in federal vaccine posture in a generation, and it is also not yet law. Here is the record, and the reaction, side by side.