BREAKING--CBS, Kaiser Family Foundation Health News Sends Top Medical Reporter to McCullough Foundation About Report on Autism
Dr Grounder poses questions aimed to defame and discredit while protecting vaccine interests
By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
It has been about a month since the McCullough Foundation Report: Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder has been published and presented with >200 K reads and downloads. No doubt the CDC was strongly supported by the report in making their changes in position on the link between childhood vaccination and autism.
Unsurprisingly, CBS Health News and Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health News backed by The Gates Foundation, a prominent force behind vaccine development and promotion, sent their most accomplished medical journalist to The McCullough Foundation for a round of biased questions.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) was founded in 1948 by Henry J. Kaiser, an industrialist and philanthropist known for his shipyards, construction projects, and role in modern health insurance development. Altogether, KFF has likely published 400–600 vaccine‑related pieces over its history — nearly all of which reinforce confidence in vaccines and address “hesitancy” as a communications challenge, not as a question of scientific safety. Conversely, KFF has never published content raising substantive concerns about vaccine safety. Every KFF publication aligns with mainstream institutional public health positions, emphasizing that vaccines are “safe and effective” and framing skepticism as misinformation or confusion.
Even when KFF reports on low public trust or parental hesitation, it treats these as perception issues — not as signs of legitimate scientific uncertainty. In other words, KFF’s position has always been promotional of the vaccine schedule and protective of vaccine interests, not investigative or critical of safety data.
Dr. Celine Grounder has an impressive educational pedigree. She received her BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, her Master of Science in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her MD from the University of Washington. Gounder was an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital and a post-doctoral fellow in Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University. Gounder is a clinical associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. She also treats patients at Bellevue Hospital Center. Before joining CBS, Gounder was a CNN medical analyst. She’s also published more than 100 OPEDs in outlets such as the New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker and the Washington Post. Despite these accomplishments she has little experience in the world of academic scholarship and publication with only 12 listings in the National Library of Medicine compared to my 712 and the McCullough Foundation with overall >1000 published scientific communications. Grounder has made no significant contributions to the field of medicine. You can tell by the questions she had not read all 127 pages of The Report and supplemental materials. Nor does she identify any credentialed “experts” or “epidemiologists” in her questions. I can tell you none have reached out to me.
GROUNDER: You posted on X that the CDC “responded directly” to your foundation’s report and “followed point-by-point” your conclusions. What evidence do you have that CDC scientists consulted your report or that the agency’s update was influenced by your work?
MCCULLOUGH: CDC responded to the McCullough Foundation Report by making changes on their website. This appeared to be in direct response to our publication on October 27, 2025.
GROUNDER: What steps did your team take to ensure scientific rigor, transparency, and reproducibility?
MCCULLOUGH: Standard systematic review methods were undertaken as disclosed in the report see attached materials.
GROUNDER: How do you respond to concerns that the report cherry-picks evidence rather than evaluates it systematically?
MCCULLOUGH: All primary data manuscripts were included with no cherry picking. After > 200,000 reads and downloads, no one from the scientific community has indicated that a manuscript was missed.
GROUNDER: Epidemiologists say your “vote-counting” method treats weak case reports as equivalent to large population-level studies. Can you explain why you consider these sources equivalent, and whether you believe this approach meets accepted scientific standards?
MCCULLOUGH: We considered the full breadth of evidence as indicated in the report see attached materials.
GROUNDER: The report states “nothing to declare” under conflicts, yet it was funded and published by your own foundation and also lists support from the Bia-Echo Foundation. Why did the authors not disclose these relationships as conflicts?
MCCULLOUGH: There were no conflicts of interest to disclose. The funding source was disclosed as indicated in the report.
GROUNDER: You serve as Chief Scientific Officer for The Wellness Company, which sells ivermectin and supplements marketed for COVID-related claims. How do you respond to criticism that your commercial interests may conflict with your scientific positions?
MCCULLOUGH: The Wellness Company does not produce products for the autism market.
GROUNDER: Your board certifications in internal medicine and cardiology were revoked after the American Board of Internal Medicine concluded you made repeated false or unsupported claims about COVID and vaccines. How should the public evaluate the credibility of your current statements in light of that decision?
MCCULLOUGH: Dr McCullough was awarded Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) 1991 and Cardiovascular Diseases 1997 candidate #136084 maintaining certification through November 11, 2024, when he voluntarily resigned with all rights reserved by legal notification and signed certified letter to ABIM. His resignation letter was accepted by ABIM CEO Dr Furman McDonald c/o Ganae Powell certified article #70221670000174699230. Revocation of certification by ABIM is outlined solely as a disciplinary measure for misconduct, licensure issues, or violations, with no provisions in its bylaws allowing it after resignation. Dr McCullough holds the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons Certification NBPAS ID: N57647 in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases, March 1, 2024 valid through March 31, 2026. He is licensed to practice medicine in Texas, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Florida, and Washington. This is disclosure and Dr McCullough’s NCBI bibliography is posted on his website: www.petermcculloughmd.com
GROUNDER: Experts told us that the report’s graphs use dual axes and scaling methods that can create the illusion of correlation where none exists. Can you address these concerns and explain the analytic rationale behind the visual choices?
MCCULLOUGH: Figures were drawn correctly and attribution to figures with permissions is indicated in the report.
GROUNDER: Large, well-designed studies — including a 1.2 million-child meta-analysis and a 657,000-child Danish cohort study — have repeatedly found no association between vaccines and autism. What is your response to this body of evidence, and why should your report be considered more reliable?
MCCULLOUGH: The Danish Cohort Study is addressed in detail in the manuscript and was found to make a Type II error because: vaccination in the control group, no direct interview with the parents, no direct review of the parent held vaccine record of the child, no expert examination of the child for normalcy or autism.
GROUNDER: Given that vaccine misinformation has been linked to declining immunization rates and outbreaks of preventable disease, what responsibility do you believe you bear in ensuring your claims are scientifically sound and clearly communicated?
MCCULLOUGH: Misinformation is an improper term. Neither you nor anyone else holds agency over the truth. In medicine there is an ever-evolving understanding as more clinical observation, analysis, presentation, and discussion of findings exist. The World Council for Health which is an evidence-based, physician led, consensus-driven organization issued guidance that it is “safer to wait’ on childhood vaccines given the emerging safety information on vaccines administered in combination(s) on a schedule. It is my belief this guidance has gone a long way in influencing rates of vaccination for communicable diseases that should be promptly treated to reduce spread and complications whether vaccinated or unvaccinated. The WCH guidance is at this link: https://www.worldcouncilforhealth.org/childhood-vaccines/
Many thanks for these questions. I will be publishing this written inquiry on FOCAL POINTS substack so it can be matched to the one subsequently posted by CBS News and KFF Health News.
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
President, McCullough Foundation
Please subscribe to FOCAL POINTS as a paying ($5 monthly) or founder member so we can continue to bring you the truth.
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
President, McCullough Foundation
Hulscher N., Leake J. S., Troupe S., Rogers C., Cosgrove K., Mead M. N., Craven B., Radetich M., Wakefield A., & McCullough P. A. (2025). McCullough Foundation Report: Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Zenodo. Version 1 (October 27 2025). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17451259 https://zenodo.org/records/17451259
Well done Hulscher et al! It takes much courage to face the unrelenting tidal wave of corporate nonsense.
The profound ignorance of those who promote vaccines is appalling.. They are closed to learning the truth, because it would affect their Bottom Line.