Health Department Cancels Meeting of Revamped Autism Committee

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the newly restructured Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) will not convene as scheduled on March 19, 2024. This decision follows the panel’s recent overhaul by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who aimed to modernize autism research in alignment with directives from President Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for the department confirmed on Saturday that the meeting “will not meet later this month” and indicated that additional information would be shared as it becomes available. The IACC’s official website still lists the March meeting, which was intended to take place at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

In a post on social media platform X, Dr. Sylvia Fogel, chair of the reconstituted panel and a psychiatry instructor at Harvard Medical School, indicated that the meeting has been postponed. She stated, “Please know that we are actively working to reschedule the meeting and will share the new date as soon as possible. I recognize the urgency of the issues facing the autism community, and I understand this delay may feel discouraging.”

The planned meeting was expected to address significant topics related to autism, but the government has not yet released an agenda.

Earlier in January, Kennedy revamped the IACC, appointing new members he described as highly qualified experts in autism research. He remarked, “We are doing that by appointing the most qualified experts — leaders with decades of experience studying, researching and treating autism.” These appointments have generated controversy, as some of the new members have posited a connection between vaccines and autism, drawing criticism from other experts and former IACC members.

In response to the shifting landscape, former IACC members, including Dr. Joshua Gordon, announced the formation of a competing group called the I-ACC, which is scheduled to meet on March 19 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. This independent panel aims to provide guidance on autism research and will discuss the implementation of a federal law that allocates funding for autism research, as well as strategies for coordinated research efforts.

The I-ACC’s agenda highlights the importance of establishing research priorities moving forward.

In a notable shift of position, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated in 2025 that it was retracting its previous stance that vaccines do not cause autism, acknowledging that studies have not entirely ruled out this possibility. Kennedy has claimed that there has not been sufficient research into the potential link between vaccines and autism, advocating for government-funded studies to explore the issue further.

As the debate over autism research continues, the postponement of the IACC meeting adds another layer of complexity to an already contentious field. Stakeholders are keenly awaiting further updates regarding the rescheduling of the meeting, which is critical to addressing the ongoing concerns of the autism community.