A widely circulating video featuring HHS Secretary RFK Jr. claims that after 1989, diseases like autism and autoimmune problems rose sharply, that babies given the hepatitis B vaccine in the first month had a much higher risk of autism, and that health officials secretly met to hide this link.

To drum up concerns, vaccine opponents have to travel back in time and make dull government meetings look nefarious. Such is the case with Simpsonwood.

The 2000 Simpsonwood CDC conference was a two-day meeting organized by the CDC to discuss data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink regarding the possible link between the mercury compound thimerosal in vaccines and neurological issues in vaccinated children. Attendees included experts in various fields, public health organizations, and pharmaceutical companies.

The conference gained notoriety in the anti-vaccination movement when RFK Jr. wrote an article in 2005 alleging a conspiracy to withhold vaccine safety information. However, the article contained numerous factual errors, leading to its retraction.

In 2007, the Senate HELP Committee reviewed the allegations against the CDC and found they had mostly no merit. It was found that the CDC did not interfere with vaccine safety studies, and the review groups did not rely on manipulated studies.

Four other allegations were also not substantiated, including claims that the CDC convened the Simpsonwood Conference to cover up findings, pressured Dr. Thomas Verstraeten to change his findings, hid the Vaccine Safety Datalink, or organized public health organizations to hide a link between vaccines and autism. And we know that vaccines do not cause autism.

And for what it’s worth, the Hepatitis B vaccine is one of the safest, with the fewest possible side effects. The most likely side effects are just pain and soreness at the injection site, without any documented serious side effects.

If the hep B vaccine causes any serious side effects, they are extremely rare—so rare that we haven’t found any in several millions of doses. Because the vaccine is safe and there’s a risk of getting infected at birth or during infancy, we give this vaccine right at birth.

In a discussion on the Piers Morgan show, Brett Weinstein claims that mRNA COVID vaccines are “fatally flawed” and cause the body to attack its own cells in ways that can damage the heart, making it too dangerous to use.

Research shows that COVID infection, not the COVID mRNA vaccine is responsible for increasing the risk of serious cardiac events. COVID vaccines actually protect against serious cardiac events and stroke in people who have had previous COVID infections.

This is not the first time someone claimed that mRNA vaccines can cause autoimmune damage. Ryan Cole has previously claimed that a journal-published paper showed that mRNA vaccines caused cancer and autoimmune issues.

But the lead author of that paper emphasizes that there is no evidence for these claims. The author notes that over the last 10 years, many clinical trials have tested mRNA vaccines. None of these studies found that the vaccines caused autoimmune diseases. Also, no research has shown that autoimmune diseases show up months later after vaccination.

Large population studies that tracked millions of vaccinated people found no surge in long‑term autoimmune disorders; in fact, catching COVID‑19 itself poses a far bigger autoimmune risk than getting the shot.