Aluminum adjuvants in vaccines can and likely do cause autism in genetically susceptible babies and children, according to a new scientific review of over 200 peer-reviewed studies.
The review, led by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker, lays out the biochemical and physiological framework that explains how aluminum-containing vaccines can cause autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Hooker and his co-authors concluded that “mechanistic, neuropathological, epidemiological, and genetic evidence” show that aluminum adjuvants “can trigger ASD in genetically susceptible individuals” by causing inflammation of the brain.
They published their report on Jan. 31 on the preprint server Zenodo. They plan to submit the paper to a peer-reviewed journal in the near future.
Review refutes claim that ‘vaccines do not cause autism’
Hooker called the report “groundbreaking” because it scientifically explains the causal link between vaccines and autism that “has been denied and dismissed for over 30 years.”
In November 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally revised its autism webpage to say there is no evidence supporting the blanket claim that vaccines do not cause autism.
The webpage previously stated there is no link between vaccines and autism and that “vaccines do not cause autism.” It now says: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”
Hooker’s new paper adds weight to the argument that infant vaccines cause autism. Its authors show how the over 200 studies they reviewed collectively meet all nine of the Bradford Hill criteria for causation.
Hellbound and Down 