Sharyl Attkisson: The overwhelming evidence connecting vaccines and autism

In this 12 minute segment from her show, Full Measure, journalist and five time Emmy Award winner Sharyl Attkisson presents an update on the controversial link between the ever-expanding childhood vaccine schedule and the explosion in autism among our children.

June 14, 2026, Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson

Sharyl calls one in every 31 children with autism in the U.S. an ‘epidemic’ and a ‘crisis’—something no U.S. health official has ever done over the past quarter century.

She names the health officials who have admitted there is a link, but who were subsequently ignored or sidelined.

We are told about the massive control the vaccine industry has over members of Congress and about the opposition to any mention of vaccines and autism from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is well-funded by Big Pharma.

It’s clear that this debate is not just about a link between vaccines and autism. It is about who will be ultimately held accountable if the truth about vaccine-induced autism is fully recognized.

How much longer can the massive cover-up can continue? When will our legislators, health care agencies, the media and the medical community finally make the health of our children a priority?

Sharyl began her coverage of autism by showing a profoundly autistic young man in severe distress.

Year after year, autism continues to increase at an alarming rate in American children. One fact few would dispute.

So why is the topic so toxic in debate? . . .

Sharyl:

This week, we tackle the taboo subject of autism and links to vaccines, as the Trump administration CDC begins to actually follow the science. . . .

1:40

We begin today with America’s still growing autism epidemic, a crisis that, in terms of sheer numbers, deserves much more attention than it’s gotten over two and a half decades.

The newest data, updated every two years, continue to show an alarming climb.

Today, at least one in 31 eight year olds have autism. That’s more than 2.2 million children.

Clip of Robert Kennedy Jr:

One area that we are closely examining, as the President mentioned, is vaccines.

Sharyl:

At a White House event with President Trump at his side, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a massive research effort to identify possible root causes, including food dyes, pain killers during pregnancy, and vaccines.

Sharyl next showed two seven-year-old twins, Drew and Dylan, who have autism. She interviewed the parents who described how the boys regressed

Their language started to regress. It seemed like their connection was different around two. . . . They weren’t responding to their names. So they were just regressing in some of their skills. . . .

Sharyl:

Drew and Dylan are among America’s autistic children who are visible. They can go out in public.

But more than 330,000 children have autism so severe they’re rarely seen by the outside world.

Interview with Mary Holland

Sharyl:

Mary Holland heads up the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, which advocates on child health issues.

What is the current status of how much autism is in the United States today?

Mary:

So the current data is that one in 31 children, aged eight in the United States, has autism.

Sharyl:

Like many parents, Holland says her son regressed into autism after his battery of vaccines at age two.

Mary:

It was very clear there was no cogent explanation for what was happening to him, other than he had had very serious toxic exposures through his early recommended vaccination schedule.

There’s no such thing as a genetic epidemic. It must be epigenetic [changes in the genes] or purely environmental.

Sharyl:

In simple terms, meaning there could be a genetic component that predisposes somebody to the injury, if they have some kind of trigger or other exposure.

Mary:

So you brought this out most importantly, Sharyl, in your interview with Bernadine Healy, who was, at the time, had just retired recently as head of the National Institutes of Health

Clip of Sharyl’s interview of Dr. Bernadine Healy in 2008.

Sharyl:

It sounds like you don’t think the hypothesis of a link between vaccines and autism is completely irrational.

Dr. Healy:

When I first heard there was a link between vaccines and autism, I thought, that’s silly. The more you delve into it, if you look at the basic science, if you look at the research that’s been done in animals, if you also look at some of these individual cases, and if you look at the evidence that there is no link, what I come away with is the question has not been answered.

This is the time when we do have the opportunity to understand whether or not there are susceptible children, perhaps genetically, perhaps they have a metabolic issue, mitochondrial disorder., immunological issue that makes them more susceptible to vaccines plural, or to one particular vaccine or to a component of vaccine like mercury.

Back to Mary Holland:

Probably there is a subset of people who have a certain genetic predisposition, and when they come in contact with the mercury in vaccines or the aluminum in vaccines or all the antigens, the formaldehyde, the polysorbate 80, there’s all kinds of very toxic ingredients in the childhood vaccine schedule.

Sharyl:

Associations between vaccines and autism are loudly are loudly disputed, yet well documented in more than 200 scientific papers and court documents.

In addition, autism once appeared on the warning label for a DTaP vaccine.

The government secretly agreed vaccines triggered in a girl named Hannah Poling and paid her millions in a landmark settlement, but had the record sealed so the public wouldn’t know.

CDC’s top immunization safety official, Frank DeStefano, admitted vaccines may trigger autism in vulnerable children like Hannah Poling. . . .

CDC senior scientist William Thompson claimed the agency covered up data linking MMR vaccines to autism in black boys.

Famed pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman reversed his original stance and determined vaccines can cause autism after all, but says when he told Justice Department lawyers, they fired him as an expert witness and covered up his opinion.

And most recently, a study reported vaccinated kids face a 170% greater risk of autism.

Both Democrats and Republicans have told me there’s been a long standing effort in Congress to protect the vaccine industry.

Clip showing Dr. Dave Weldon who served in Congress (1995 to 2009) being interviewed.

Sharyl:

If you would want to hold a hearing on an issue like vaccines and autism, your own leadership might fight you on that because of the financial influence the pharmaceutical industry—

Weldon:

They wouldn’t fight you. They would kill it. It’s dead. They don’t even want to discuss it. It’s dead on arrival. If you, as an individual member, want to take on the pharmaceutical industries, it’s forget it. . . .

It would typically be in a hallway or on the street. People would come up to you and say, you really need to back off on this. It could be bad for the community or bad for the country or bad for you.

Sharyl:

For every study or allegation linking vaccines and autism, the industry and other vaccine defenders have lengthy counterpoints.

Clip showing a doctor calling it a just coincidence when children regress after vaccinations.

Clip of the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat saying studies show no link.

Mary Holland explained to Sharyl that CHD is looking at many different toxic exposures that may be affecting children.

Clip of RFK Jr:

Historically, NIH has focused almost solely on politically safe and entirely fruitless research about the genetic drivers of autism, and that would be like studying the genetic drivers of lung cancer without looking at cigarettes. And that’s what NIH has been doing for 20 years.

Sharyl:

In addition, based on NIH research, the FDA says it’s approving a prescription form of an essential B vitamin for treating autistic children with speech issues.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, funded in part by vaccine industry, doesn’t want any part of Kennedy’s effort examining autism when it comes to vaccines.

The group says, devoting more research dollars to answer a question that is already known does not add to our knowledge about the safety of vaccines. It does a disservice to individuals with autism and their families by diverting funding that is needed to learn more about autism and how we can strengthen supportive communities.

The video ends with the mother of the twins Drew and Dylan saying that she doesn’t believe autism is a disease or connected to vaccinations.

It’s nothing to cure. It’s a neurotype, right? . . .

While health officials and mainstream medicine continue to ignore the neurological injury affecting so many children in the 21st century, the numbers only increase.

Currently. the autism rate in Australia, is one in every 23 children.

In California, it’s one in every 19 children.

In Northern Ireland, the rate is one in 16 children. 65% of them have profound autism in NI.

No one seems troubled over these figures. Governments around the world seem powerless to address what’s happening to children.

OR MAYBE officials are simply too scared to look for real answers.

Catherine Austin Fitts: Investment banker and former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development:

We’re poisoning the population. I call it, The Great Poisoning. We’re poisoning the population in multiple ways between the food, the spraying, the injections, and pharmaceuticals.

Luke 8:17: “For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light“