By MIKE STOBBE
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal well being officers intend to award a contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to analyze whether or not there’s a hyperlink between vaccinations and autism, in line with a authorities procurement discover.
The Troy, New York, engineering faculty is getting the no-bid contract due to its “distinctive capability” to hyperlink information on kids and moms, in line with the discover posted this week.
Officers on the Division of Well being and Human Companies didn’t instantly reply to questions concerning the discover, together with how a lot the contract is for or what precisely the researchers intend to do.
U.S. Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a number one voice within the antivaccine motion earlier than President Donald Trump chosen him to supervise federal well being businesses, introduced in April a “huge testing and analysis effort” to find out the reason for autism by this month. He has repeatedly tried to hyperlink vaccines to the situation.
An RPI biotech engineering professor, Juergen Hahn, has used synthetic intelligence and machine studying methods to search for patterns in blood samples of youngsters with autism. Hahn “is famend for the standard and rigor of his analysis,” RPI officers stated in a press release acknowledging the supposed grant.
“If this challenge is awarded, he intends to publish the outcomes of his work on the conclusion of the challenge,” the assertion added.
The Related Press left messages in search of remark from Hahn.
The discover raises many questions, stated Alycia Halladay, who oversees analysis actions and grants for the Autism Science Basis.
RPI is just not recognized within the discipline as having any particular entry to information on this type of query and “wouldn’t be the plain selection,” Halladay stated.
It’s additionally not clear how the contract matches into different autism analysis that the federal government could also be planning, she stated.
However maybe the largest query is why cash is being spent on such a research in any respect, she added.
Scientists have dominated out a hyperlink between vaccines and autism, discovering no proof of elevated charges of autism amongst those that are vaccinated in contrast with those that will not be.
“The query has been studied for 20 years, a number of instances by researchers around the globe utilizing hundreds of thousands of individuals, and there has by no means been a reputable affiliation discovered between vaccines and autism,” Halladay stated.
Those that have spent many years researching autism have discovered no single trigger. Genetics play a task, and different components embody the age of a kid’s father, the mom’s weight, and whether or not she had diabetes or was uncovered to sure chemical compounds.
No matter quantity is being spent on the challenge may as an alternative be going to “different vital analysis questions,” together with research of genetics and environmental components, Halladay stated.
“I feel that’s probably the most irritating half,” she stated.
For months, HHS officers have been making an attempt to make use of vaccine security information compiled by the CDC to search for harms that may be tied to pictures. Kennedy has accused CDC leaders of stonewalling these efforts, however the precise impediment has been one thing else, stated one former federal well being official conversant in the scenario, talking on situation of anonymity for worry of retaliation.
A few dozen medical analysis organizations accumulate the vaccine security information and report it to the CDC. Contracts that stretch again practically twenty years give these entities — not the CDC — management over the info, and HHS has not but been capable of get it, the official stated.
The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives assist from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Academic Media Group and the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis. The AP is solely liable for all content material.
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