The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday announced that 21 new members have been added to a federal committee that advises HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on autism.

The new members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) include physicians, individuals with autism and parents of children with autism, and people connected to autism advocacy groups. 

“President Trump directed us to bring autism research into the 21st century,” Secretary Kennedy said in an HHS news release. “We are doing that by appointing the most qualified experts—leaders with decades of experience studying, researching, and treating autism.”

The new members also include several individuals who promote alternative cures for autism and have claimed that vaccines may be linked to autism, according to healthcare advocacy group Protect Our Care. They also include anti-vaccine activists and people who worked on Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Focus on autism and vaccines

Since becoming HHS secretary, Kennedy has placed a high priority on finding the cause of the condition and on the reason autism diagnoses have increased dramatically in recent decades. While most autism researchers and experts say genetics, better screening, and expanded diagnostic criteria play a significant role, Kennedy has repeatedly stated his belief that an environmental toxin is responsible.

“We know it’s an environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics,” Kennedy said last spring. Kennedy has long pushed the idea that childhood vaccines may be linked to autism and has suggested that scientists haven’t adequately investigated the idea, despite a large body of evidence to the contrary.

In November 2025, at the direction of Kennedy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the language on its website regarding vaccines and autism. The page, which previously stated “Studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism,” now says “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”

A recent analysis by a World Health Organization expert panel found that, across 31 studies published from 2010 through 2025, there was no evidence of a causal link with autism.

CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) said yesterday that it will receive $60 million in funding over the next two years from global charitable foundation Wellcome.

The award from Wellcome, which co-founded CARB-X in 2016 and has supported it over the past decade, will help the public-private partnership continue its efforts to support early-stage development of innovative new antibiotics, preventatives, alternative treatments, and rapid diagnostics for the most challenging drug-resistant bacteria. CARB-X typically funds products that have shown promise in pre-clinical studies, with the aim of shepherding those products into phase 1 studies in people.

Since 2016, CARB-X has supported 121 research-and-development projects in 15 countries, 24 of which have advanced into or completed clinical trials. Three CARB-X–funded projects have reached the market.

Focus on infections in low-resource countries

Wellcome officials hailed CARB-X’s focus on products that address high-burden infections in low- and middle-income countries, including lower respiratory tract infections, bloodstream infections, and sexually transmitted infections.

“By integrating funding with technical expertise, CARB-X can accelerate innovation to progress ambitious science from the lab to the clinic, ensuring new tools are accessible to those in greatest need—protecting and saving lives globally,” Alex Pym, MBBS, PhD, director of infectious diseases at Wellcome, said in a CARB-X press release.

CARB-X Executive Director Kevin Outterson, JD, called the renewed partnership with Wellcome a “powerful vote of confidence.”

“Together, we are building a pipeline that delivers innovative products responsibly, ensuring they are used wisely and reach the people who need them,” Outterson said.