Dr. Peter Marks, the former top vaccine official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for giving what he called “false hope” to families by claiming that the Trump administration will identify the cause of autism by September.
Marks, who resigned earlier this month amid mounting frustration with Kennedy’s promotion of vaccine misinformation, appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation to challenge Kennedy’s recent assertion that a massive federal research initiative would soon pinpoint and eliminate the root causes of autism.
Asked about HHS Secretary RFK Jr.’s suggestion that the cause of autism would be identified by September, the former top vaccine scientist at the FDA tells @margbrennan: “If you just ask me, as a scientist, is it possible to get the answer that quickly? I don’t see any possible… pic.twitter.com/jhk9WAHXpM
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 11, 2025
Kennedy announced the effort through the National Institutes of Health. “By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures,” he promised.
“Giving people false hope is something you should never do,” Marks said in response to Kennedy’s announcement.
“I don’t see any possible way [to get the answer that quickly],” Marks continued. “Autism is an incredibly complicated issue.”
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has implied that vaccines may be among the environmental toxins driving autism rates. However, Marks dismissed that notion, citing the overwhelming body of research showing no link between vaccines and autism. “We’ve studied them in so many millions of children,” he said.
The controversy comes amid a deadly resurgence of measles in the US, with three unvaccinated individuals—including two young girls from Seminole, Texas—dying in recent weeks. Measles had been declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, but new outbreaks have developed in certain under-vaccinated communities.
Kennedy has offered only tepid support for the measles vaccine, telling CBS that “people should get the measles vaccine” but reiterating his opposition to mandates. He has also promoted unproven alternatives like vitamins and cod-liver oil.
Marks blamed the recent pediatric measles deaths on Kennedy and his staff, describing it as “the epitome of an absolute needless death.”
“These kids should get vaccinated—that’s how you prevent people from dying of measles,” Marks emphasized.
In his resignation letter, Marks criticized Kennedy for spreading misinformation and undermining public trust in safe and effective vaccines.
“Truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary,” Marks wrote. “He wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
Originally published on Latin Times
