Correcting this week’s misinformation: week of August 13, 2026

On Monday, President Trump signed a new Executive Order about childhood vaccines. It suggests a vaccine schedule more like Denmark’s, which protects against 11 diseases instead of 17. It would also spread vaccines out over more doctor visits and separate some combination vaccines, like MMR.

At the signing, Trump, RFK Jr., and Stephen Miller said they were concerned that vaccines might cause autism.

• The childhood vaccine schedule is carefully studied and updated over time.
• Vaccines do not cause autism.
• Autism has other known risk factors and early developmental roots.

The AAP childhood vaccine schedule did not appear all at once. It grew slowly as scientists developed new vaccines to prevent more diseases. Three times a year, experts would review the latest research and decide which vaccines children need and when they should get them. Vaccines are tested before they are approved, and their safety continues to be watched after they are in use.

The schedule is designed to protect children when they need protection most. Combination vaccines make this easier by protecting against several diseases with fewer shots. Fewer shots can mean less stress for children and families and can make it easier to stay on schedule. Getting vaccines on time also helps protect children from serious diseases and reduces the chance that those diseases will spread in families, schools, and communities. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a schedule designed to protect children at the ages when they are most at risk.

Some people worry that children get “too many” vaccine ingredients at once. But today’s vaccines contain far fewer antigens, the parts that train the immune system, than vaccines did decades ago. Better technology has helped vaccines to protect against more diseases with fewer antigens.

Aluminum is another vaccine ingredient that can cause concern. Aluminum salts have been used in some vaccines for many decades to help the immune system respond. The amount is small, and people are also exposed to aluminum through food and water. Aluminum salts are used in vaccines and have a long safety record. A 2025 study of more than 1.2 million children found no increased risk of autism or dozens of other chronic health problems linked with greater exposure to aluminum from vaccines.

Scientists have spent decades studying whether vaccines cause autism. They have looked at the MMR vaccine, vaccine ingredients, and overall vaccine exposure. A large meta-analysis involving more than 1.2 million children found no link between vaccines and autism. A 2026 study of more than 2.5 million U.S. children also found no increased risk of autism after MMR vaccination.

Scientists are also learning more about what plays a role in autism. Genetics is one of the strongest known factors, and research suggests that differences linked with autism can begin while the brain is developing before birth. Factors such as premature birth and older parental age have also been linked with autism.

More people are being diagnosed with autism today, but that does not mean vaccines caused the increase. Greater awareness, better screening, and changes in how autism is diagnosed have helped more people get identified. The AAP explains some of the reasons autism diagnoses have increased. Researchers are still studying autism so we can better understand its causes and improve care and support for autistic people and their families. Research dollars can help answer those open questions instead of repeatedly testing vaccine claims that large studies have already examined.

The new federal vaccine recommendations could also change what families hear about at doctor visits. Some vaccines that were routinely recommended are now listed for shared decision-making or for certain higher-risk groups. Families can still ask about these vaccines. Parents and caregivers may want to ask their child’s doctor which vaccines are available and which vaccines the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends for their child.

Anti-vaxxers like James Thorp are saying that text messages written by Dr. Anthony Fauci during the pandemic prove that COVID vaccines caused miscarriages over 80% of the time.

• The study these claims are based on found a 12.6% miscarriage rate, not 82%.
• The 82% figure came from removing 700 live births from the calculation.
• That 82% does not represent the miscarriage risk after first-trimester vaccination.

James Thorp has previously made claims about COVID vaccines that have been challenged by scientists and fact-checkers. In this case, he claims that COVID vaccination during the first trimester of pregnancy led to an 82% miscarriage rate. A miscarriage is the loss of a pregnancy before the baby can survive outside the womb.

Thorp points to a study that reported a miscarriage rate of 12.6%. He argues that the study’s own data show a much higher rate of 82%. However, that number comes from using the study’s data in a way that does not make sense.

The researchers had complete information about 827 pregnancies that had ended by the time they analyzed the data. Of those pregnancies, 712 ended in a live birth and 104 ended in miscarriage. The study calculated the miscarriage rate by comparing the number of miscarriages with the total number of completed pregnancies in this group. That calculation was 104 miscarriages out of 827 completed pregnancies, or about 12.6%.

Thorp calculated the rate differently. He removed 700 live births because those people had received the vaccine during the third trimester, or the last three months of pregnancy. He then divided the 104 miscarriages by the 127 remaining pregnancies. That calculation gives a rate of about 82%.

The problem is that the 104 miscarriages and the 127 pregnancies are not matching groups. In a fraction, the bottom number is called the denominator. It tells us the whole group we are comparing. If some pregnancy outcomes are removed from the denominator but the miscarriages are left in the calculation, the percentage can become much larger and may give a misleading picture.

Because the researchers were looking at pregnancy outcomes, the miscarriage rate needs to be calculated using groups that can be fairly compared. The 82% figure does not mean that 82% of people vaccinated during the first trimester had a miscarriage. It only shows that 104 miscarriages make up about 82% of the 127 pregnancy outcomes left after 700 live births were removed from the calculation.

People online have falsely used videos of Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the LA Times newspaper. They used parts of the videos to say that children are getting colon and pancreatic cancer now because of the COVID vaccines.

• The tweet added words that Dr. Soon-Shiong did not say.
• He was discussing viruses and cancer, not vaccines causing cancer.
• He has also supported research on COVID and cancer vaccines.

The tweet changes the meaning of what Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong said. It adds the words “in relation to COVID vaccines” to his quote, even though those words were not part of what he said.

Dr. Soon-Shiong was talking about viruses that can lead to cancer. Some viruses can damage cells or cause long-lasting infections that raise the risk of certain cancers. Two viruses that can cause cancer, HPV and Hepatitis B, can be prevented by vaccination. That makes them cancer-preventing vaccines.

One of his concerns was whether COVID vaccines could help the body fully get rid of the COVID virus. He was not saying that COVID vaccines cause cancer.

Dr. Soon-Shiong has also supported vaccine research. He helped launch a project in South Africa to develop vaccines for COVID-19 and cancer. The project involved the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), two research organizations that study science and health.