The unfounded idea that autism is caused by vaccines is regularly denied by the scientific community, but however continues to circulate on social networks. In a former video very shared by French -speaking Internet users in recent days, a man claims that the vaccines brought to Vietnam by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation would have led to a massive increase in the number of people with autism in the country. However, many research works have shown that there is no scientifically demonstrated link between vaccination and autism. Vietnamese experts have explained to AFP than other factors, including changes in the criteria used for diagnoses, have contributed to the identification of a greater number of autistic people, but that this does not mean that autism did not exist in Vietnam before the early 2000s.
“According to Dr Anthony Phan, autism was almost nonexistent in Vietnam before the launch of a vaccination program supported by Bill Gates and his foundation. He claims that following this program, the country would have increased 300 % of cases“, Ensures the description of a shared publication more than 250 times on X since May 3, which relays a video.
In this one, a man ensures, in English, that the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, and his foundation introduced a vaccination program in the country of Southeast Asia, leading to an increase in cases.
“There was no autism in 1975, in the year 2000, in the year 2001, it did not exist“He said, adding that”Now Vietnam has an increase of more than 300 % of autism cases“.
The same video with similar comments has been relayed in other publications each harvesting several hundred shares on X and Facebook.
It had also largely circulated in 2023 in Vietnamese and in English on social networks, and AFP had already carried out an article of verification about it.
Anthony Phan, who speaks in the video, is presented in certain publications as a doctor based in California. But a turn on his site, on which he is presented as a medical diploma, makes it possible to note that he does not seem to be a specialist in psychiatry or questions related to autism: he offers consultations related to “intimate Health“, “the immune system“, taking food supplements, or even aesthetic medicine.
In addition, this intervention comes from a relaying documentary of conspiracy theories and opposed to vaccination, and the affirmation that vaccination causes autism has been repeatedly denied in recent years, as we will see.
Autism, a complex affection and with a very wide spectrum, is very studied and doctors have long wondered about its origin.
If there is not an identified unique cause in this day, several environmental factors have been highlighted, just like genetic predispositions, as explained by the Pasteur Institute on its website (link archived here).
A video associated with a conspiracy film
On video images, you can see the word “Vaxxed“, which refers to the film that has disseminated conspiracy and antivaccins theories”Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe“(Link archived here). More specifically, Anthony Phan’s interview seems to come from an annexed part to the documentary, which contains interviews, named”Vaxxed: Stories From The Road“.
This film was directed by Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor whose right to exercise medicine had been revoked after that it had falsified data in an article published in 1998 in the prestigious Revuet, binding autism at the measles vaccine, mumps and rubella, also known by the acronym (links archived here and here).
The Lancet withdrew the study of years later, but neither the official denial of the review, nor the withdrawal of the article, nor the multiple later works demonstrating the absence of a link, has stood the disinformation around this vaccine (link archived here).
And since the appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr. at the start of the year at the head of the US Ministry of Health by President Donald Trump, this theory binding vaccination and autism has experienced renewed interest, as already detailed in this AFP article.
Notorious antivaccin, “RFK JR” has indeed shared this infox several times and has announced to launch a national survey on “causes“From a”epidemic“Autism in the United States, which has left more than perplexed many scientists, who refute the very existence of a”epidemic“, as detailed in this AFP dispatch (link archived here).
Because many studies carried out in recent tens of years have concluded thatThere is no proven link between vaccination and autism.
As early as 2002, a study carried out on 537,303 Danish children, 82 % of whom had received the ROR vaccine, concluded that the “risque“Autism was similar in groups of vaccinated and non -vaccinated (link archived here).
In 2009, researchers at the Philadelphia children’s hospital also looked at seven studies on a possible association between the absorption of Thimérosal, a curator based on mercury present in certain vaccines, and autism. But none of them concluded in such a link (archived here).
In 2015, scientists published in the journal Recognized Journal of the American Medical Association A study on more than 90,000 children, confirming that the Ror vaccine did not increase the risk of developing autism spectrum disorders (link archived here).
-“There is no proven link between vaccination and autism, in Vietnam or in any other country“, had assured Quyet Minh Nguyen, psychiatrist at the National Children’s Hospital in Vietnam, in July 2023 to AFP, adding that”To affirm that vaccination causes autism is not scientific“, He concluded.
The study of autism in Vietnam
It is difficult to know precisely the number of people with autism in Vietnam, because there are no official national statistics on this subject, also explained in July 2023 to AFP Cong Tran, professor at the National University of Vietnam (link archived here).
In addition, monitoring the evolution of cases in the country is made complicated by the changes in the way it has been diagnosed, had noted Quyet Minh Nguyen (link archived here).
In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association had introduced a unique diagnostic method of autistic spectrum disorders (TSA), which brought together four distinct subcategories that have been used since 1994, from other countries (link archived here).
In 2021, researchers from the Hanoi public university of health published what they presented as the first national survey on the TSA prevalence in Vietnam, which noted that about “one in 132 children“was reached (link archived here).
“TSA in children aged 18 to 30 months in Vietnam tend to increase, and are in proportions similar to the rates measured in other countries with intermediate income“, concluded the investigation.
According to an article published in early 2025 relying on 2024 data from the psychiatry department of the national hospital for children in Vietnam, 0.7% of children under the age of six were affected by autism – extended to all children, this figure “could be a little higher“, notes in the article Nguyen Mai Huong, vice-president of the hospital.
Estimates similar to data collected in other countries, where children with autism represent approximately 1% of the population, note the article (link archived here).
Cong Tran, who has been studying autism for 20 years, had added that growing autism and its forms in the population has logically led to more children can be diagnosed over the years. That’s why “To say that there was a 300 % increase in autism in Vietnam is absurd“, According to the expert.
The specialist also works with many adults aged now 30 to 40 years old who live with autism. “”This shows that there were patients with autism in Vietnam before 2000“He said, contradicting the affirmations relayed in viral video.
Vaccination in Vietnam
In 2015, the World Health Organization officially certified that Vietnam had a national system guaranteeing the safety and efficiency of products produced and used locally (archived link here).
The “extended vaccination program“Vietnam has helped control measles and eradicate polio and neonatal tetanus, according to UNICEF (link archived here).
Vaccines today approved by the drug regulation authorities worldwide are tested before their use is authorized, as AFP has recalled in many articles like this.
Vietnam has received support from the World Alliance for Vaccines and Vaccination (GAVI), which counts the Gates Foundation among its main donors. But in the same way that there is no evidence that vaccines are linked to autism, there is no element attesting that GAVI’s vaccination programs are linked to autism (links archived here and here).
Fabrice CoffriniAFP
Bill Gates and his foundation are regularly targeted by disinformation, as AFP has already reported. Asked about the assertion concerning Vietnam, the foundation had indicated to AFP on July 25, 2023: “We can confirm that these claims are false“.
Other Fact-Checking organizations had already looked at this video, concluding that Anthony Phan’s words were unfounded, as here (link archived here).
AFP regularly checks misleading or false affirmations on vaccines, available here.
