In an interview with Lila Rose, Peter McCullough claims that 12 studies show unvaccinated children are healthier than vaccinated children.

The McCullough Foundation report claims that when a child gets too many vaccines, it can overwhelm their immune system. The report claims this stress on the body’s cells, called “mitochondrial stress,” causes autism. But science doesn’t back this up. There’s no evidence that the germs (called antigens) a baby’s body fights every day or the small number of antigens in vaccines hurt the immune system in any way.

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield held a press conference about his research paper, which claimed vaccines might cause autism. That paper was later proven to be fraudulent and retracted (withdrawn). At the time, scientists knew less about autism than they do now. Today, studies show that autism is mostly caused by genetics and starts very early, even before a baby is born. The brain differences seen in people with autism begin during early development in the womb, not because of vaccines or anything that happens later.

Many large-scale studies from trusted health groups like the CDC and WHO have shown again and again that vaccines do not cause autism. One big study from Denmark looked at more than 650,000 children born between 1999 and 2010 to see if the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was linked to autism. The researchers followed these children for years and found about 6,500 with autism. Children who got the MMR shot were no more likely to have autism than those who didn’t. Another meta-analysis looked at data from over 1.2 million children and also found no connection. These are strong studies showing vaccines don’t cause autism.

In fact, the number of antigens in vaccines has gone down over the years, even while autism rates have gone up. That means vaccines aren’t the cause. And even though “mitochondrial stress” is a popular phrase right now, experts from Science Feedback explain that there’s no proof that vaccines trigger autism, even in people with mitochondrial disorders. They explain that infections, not vaccines, are the real danger for these children. Vaccines actually protect them by preventing fevers and other problems that could lead to brain injury.

So why do some people still believe vaccines are to blame? Often it’s because they don’t want to accept the evidence. When one idea is proven wrong, they move on to a new one, like saying “too many vaccines cause autism” or blaming another vaccine. This cycle keeps going, even though the science is clear. Instead of wasting money on disproven ideas, we should use it to find better ways to support and help autistic people.

In an old NewsNation Town Hall, RFK Jr claims that chickenpox vaccines cause more deaths through shingles epidemics.

At first, some people thought that older adults needed small, regular exposure to the chickenpox virus to help prevent shingles. But evidence in this study shows that this is not true.

The study looks at what happened in the United States after the chickenpox vaccine was introduced in 1996. Some people worried that if fewer children got chickenpox, more adults might get shingles later. This is because the chickenpox virus can stay in the body and sometimes come back as shingles.

The researchers reviewed many studies and found that the vaccine greatly lowered chickenpox cases—by more than 95% within 10 to 15 years. Most importantly, they found no evidence that the chickenpox vaccine caused shingles rates in adults to increase beyond what was already happening before the vaccine. Shingles cases in children have actually been decreasing.

Overall, the study shows that chickenpox vaccination helps prevent serious illness and does not seem to cause more shingles. This should reassure countries thinking about using the vaccine.

The tweet also claims that the British National Health Service website says chickenpox vaccines are not recommended because they cause shingles outbreaks later. But this is incorrect. The NHS now recommends adding the chickenpox vaccine to the routine children’s immunization program, and it has done so since 2023.

Now Joe Rogan is claiming that vaccinating during a pandemic makes the pandemic worse because leaky vaccines cause new variants.

Rogan’s claims come from an old study of a virus in chickens, but his conclusion is wrong. Some people have used this study to wrongly say that “leaky” vaccines are making COVID turn into stronger and more dangerous variants.

The study was published in 2015 and focused on a chicken illness called Marek’s disease, which is a serious viral infection in chickens. The researchers looked at how the virus could still change over time even when chickens were vaccinated.

The vaccine in the study was called a “leaky vaccine,” which means it does not completely stop the virus from spreading, but it still helps protect animals from getting very sick. Even with this type of vaccine, vaccination greatly reduced how much the disease spread and how many chickens died. In fact, deaths from Marek’s disease dropped by 99% between 1970 and 2006 because of vaccines.

Some have tried to use this chicken study to claim that COVID vaccines caused the mutations and variants we have seen. But that is not true. A variant is a new version of a virus that forms when the virus changes over time. One major variant, Delta, appeared before COVID vaccines were even available.

The main author of the study, Andrew Read, has said that people are misunderstanding his research. He explained that vaccines do not cause viruses to mutate. Viruses mutate when they replicate, meaning when they make copies of themselves inside the body. Since vaccines reduce how much a virus spreads and replicates, they can actually lower the chance of new mutations forming.