Special contract for study of association of vaccinations and autism
Do we need another study of this topic?
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention served notice that it plans to award a contract for an “Investigation of the Association between Vaccinations and Autism Prevalence.” According to the US government’s System for Award Management (SAM.gov) project description from 11 September 2025, the contract is a “sole source” procurement, meaning that the recipient of the award has already been determined; there will not be a competition in which multiple research teams submit applications and the funding agency selects the best “bid” or offer.
Here is the first of the two paragraphs of the announcement from Sam.gov:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intends to award a sole source firm fixed price contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for Investigation of the Association between Vaccinations and Autism Prevalence. The vendor has unique ability to link children to maternal cohorts using proprietary databases and de-identified data sets, enabling advanced statistical analyses within the project’s timeframe. This contract action is for services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 6.302-1. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency.
The government uses sole source contracts when there are special circumstances for a project. One such circumstance is the need to start work essentially immediately and complete the study expeditiously. Another circumstance arises when there is only one project group that has the expertise or capability to conduct a study. A similar circumstance is when only one vendor has access to the data needed to conduct the project. The sentence beginning “The vendor has unique ability…” in the body of the announcement explains the rationale for the sole source contract.
The lead researcher for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will be Professor Juergen Hahn. Professor Hahn has published extensively on biomedical matters. He often uses sophisticated statistical methods in his work. He has conducted multiple studies of gastrointestinal health in children with autism and the biological aspect of “microbiota transfer therapy” (a treatment that involves replacing a patient’s own gut contents with cleaned gut contents from a healthy individual). Rensselaer’s biography for Professor Hahn is available here.
Reports about CDC’s announcement of the project provide additional information about the reasons for the study and concerns about it. Here are links to some of the coverage:
For AP News, Mike Stobbe published “Trump administration to award a no-bid contract on research into vaccines and autism” 12 September 2025.
Writing for Politico, Lauren Gardner wrote “CDC to issue award to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for vaccine-autism study” (paywalled) on 12 September 2025. Ms. Gardner’s colleagues at Politico, Katelyn Cordero and Maya Kaufman published “Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to be awarded CDC funding for vaccine-autism study” of 15 September 2025.
Writing for Reuters on 12 September 2025, Ahmed Aboulenein, Robin Respaut and Julie Steenhuysen published “US CDC to award research contract on vaccines and autism”
Writing in Disability Scoop, Michelle Diament published “CDC Plans To Fund Study On Debunked Autism-Vaccine Link” on 15 September 2025. In her article, she brought in multiple concerns that are being raised about the study and the rationale for it.
In The Hill, Nathaniel Wiesel wrote “CDC to fund study on debunked link between vaccines and autism” on 12 September 2025.
This story warrants monitoring, Dear Readers. Although there are already hints of concern by scientists and autism advocacy groups, as reported in some of the foregoing stories in the press, I suspect that there will be additional coverage of those concerns.
As I learn more, I shall pass it along to you. If you learn something, please pass it along to me!