Guy who brags about snorting cocaine off a toilet seat showed to be wrong AGAIN
The authors of the study, who presented their findings at the Society for
Maternal-Fetal Medicine 2026 Pregnancy Meeting, told CIDRAP News they
hope the research will help dispel myths about COVID-19 vaccines, which
multiple studies have found to be safe and effective during pregnancy.
Half of the 434 children in the study, conducted at 14
medical facilities from May 2024 to March 2025, were born to mothers who
received at least one dose of an mRNA vaccine during or within 30 days before
pregnancy. The other half of the children in the study were born to mothers who
weren’t vaccinated before or during pregnancy.
Researchers evaluated toddlers between the ages of 18 months
and 30 months for signs of autism using four standard screenings: the Ages and
Stages Questionnaire Version 3 (ASQ-3), the Child Behavior Checklist, the
Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, and the Early Childhood Behavior
Questionnaire. None of these measures are used to make a definitive diagnosis
of autism, but they can indicate a need for further testing.
When the researchers compared the scores on all four
screening assessments, they found no significant differences between the
children born to vaccinated mothers and those born to unvaccinated
mothers.
“The fact that there were no differences on all four of these outcomes is evidence that COVID vaccination does not result in developmental concerns for most children,” said Alycia Halladay, PhD, chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation, who was not involved in the new study. “For people who are worried that taking the COVID vaccine during pregnancy may cause autism, the study is pretty clear, convincing evidence that it does not.”
The authors of the study said its results are reassuring.
“We found no evidence in our study or in other studies that
[the COVID] vaccine causes harm to the children,” said George R. Saade, MD, the
new study’s first author and professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology
at Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University.
Findings consistent with earlier research
A growing number of studies show that COVID-19 vaccines are
safe for women who want to start a family.
In January, a study of nearly 60,000 Swedish women found
no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated women in the
rates of later pregnancy or miscarriage.
Multiple studies also show that vaccines help protect
pregnant women from serious complications of COVID-19. In December, a study
found that pregnant women vaccinated against COVID-19 were
less likely than unvaccinated women to be hospitalized or give
birth prematurely.
The new study is being presented as Health and Human
Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who espouses the debunked notion that
vaccines cause autism, is sowing doubts about COVID-19 vaccines and other
immunizations.
Kennedy falsely claimed the COVID-19
vaccine was the "deadliest vaccine ever made” in 2021.
Kennedy also blames vaccines for the growing number of autism diagnoses in
recent decades. Among eight-year-old children in 2022, one in 31 had autism, according
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Under Kennedy’s leadership, in November the CDC altered
its website to falsely claim, “studies have not ruled out the
possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” The Food and Drug
Administration last month took down a web page warning families of dangerous, unproven
autism treatments.
But experts say the increase in autism cases reflects greater awareness and
changing definitions of autism to include milder forms of the condition, as
well as increased access to screening. Some families are more motivated to go
through the testing process today because insurance plans often require a
formal diagnosis before covering services, and schools frequently require a
diagnosis before providing supportive services, Halladay said.
Limitations of the new study
Although specialists can reliably diagnose autism by
age two years, the average age of diagnosis is four to five years old.
Because authors of the new study only followed children
until they were 2½ years old, it’s possible that they missed some diagnoses,
which could be made later as children age, said Robert H. Hopkins, Jr., MD, a
pediatrician and medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious
Diseases, who was not involved in the new study.
Hopkins commended the study authors for following up on the
children studied as long as they did, which is difficult to do in the United
States’ fragmented health system. He described the study as being a “decent
size,” but noted he would like to see additional research.
COVID-19 infections put moms, babies at risk
While vaccines are safe for pregnant women, infection with
COVID-19 is not, Hopkins said.
Research shows that pregnant women who contract
COVID-19 are
seven times more likely to die than pregnant women who aren’t
infected. Infants of women infected with COVID-19 are also more likely than
other babies to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
“The overall message is that COVID-19 continues to cause
significant disease in pregnant women and in very young children,” Hopkins
said. “If I had to balance the risk between getting the vaccine or getting
COVID, I would strongly recommend the vaccine.”
Population-based studies have long linked maternal
infections in general with increased rates of autism and schizophrenia in their
children.
Studies of pregnant women infected with COVID-19 have
produced mixed results. Although one study found
no increased risk of autism in babies whose moms were infected
while pregnant, others suggest that babies exposed to COVID-19 in
the womb are more likely to develop
autism or other
neurodevelopmental conditions by age three years.
By preventing infection in pregnant women, it’s possible
that COVID-19 vaccines could reduce the risk of babies developing
neurodevelopmental challenges, Halladay said.
This study, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development, will be published in the
February 2026 issue of Pregnancy, the
peer-reviewed medical journal of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
