A toxicology journal has retracted a 2010 study that claimed male newborns vaccinated against hepatitis B in their first month of life had threefold greater odds of an autism diagnosis than those vaccinated later or not at all.
In a May 21 redaction statement, the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health cited fundamental methodological flaws following an independent statistical review, including a critically small number of autism cases — 31 — and an overstated conclusion that inappropriately suggested causality.
Neither author agreed with the retraction. A second paper by the same authors is now under investigation by its publisher.
The retraction is one of several recent actions drawing federal scrutiny over how journals handle vaccine-related research. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a letter June 11 to the editor-in-chief of Toxicology Reports demanding a full explanation for the removal of a separate article — a Neil Z. Miller paper examining vaccines and sudden infant death — that was pulled from that journal. In a June 15 post on X sharing the letter, Mr. Kennedy wrote that “Americans have a right to know why scientific papers are removed, who made those decisions, and whether the same standards are applied consistently.”
The retraction comes after questions about the vaccine-autism link emerged in U.S. policy circles. In November, healthcare groups condemned the CDC after it removed language from its website stating that vaccines do not cause autism, replacing it with a claim that the science has not ruled out a connection. The American Academy of Pediatrics called the change false and noted that more than 40 high-quality studies involving more than 5.6 million people have found no link between vaccines and autism.
Broader questions about autism’s causes have also drawn federal attention. In September, the Trump administration made an unproven connection between autism and acetaminophen use during pregnancy, prompting the FDA to update Tylenol safety labels — a move leading healthcare organizations called unfounded.
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