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The controversial 2025 Danish study on aluminum in vaccines should be immediately retracted because the study’s own data contradict the authors’ conclusion, according to a new peer-reviewed article by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker and Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski.
Hooker and Jablonowski’s article was published this week in Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal.
Jablonowski told The Defender that the Danish study, published July 15, 2025, in the Annals of Internal Medicine, is “a good lesson in how bad science can propagate.”
The study claimed to find no link between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 negative health outcomes, including autism, asthma and autoimmune disorders.
Since then, the Danish study has been cited 36 times in published research as evidence that aluminum adjuvants in vaccines are safe, Jablonowski said.
The study received so much media and academic attention that it ranked in the top 5% of all research outputs, according to Altmetric, a data influence company.
But that attention doesn’t mean the Danish authors’ conclusions were correct, Jablonowski said. In their critique, he and Hooker presented a detailed analysis showing a mismatch between the Danish study’s data and the authors’ conclusions.
“The study that convinced the world that aluminum in vaccines does not cause autism was a facade,” Jablonowski said. That facade crumbled under scrutiny, he said.
“We were left with a heap of unanswered questions and evidence that aluminum in vaccines is positively associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.”
Danish authors claim findings show aluminum in vaccines is safe
The authors of the Danish study widely reported on by mainstream media claimed they found no link between the aluminum in vaccines and autism.
Anders Hviid, a professor and department head of epidemiology at the Statens Serum Institut and one of the study authors, told MedPage Today that the results “provide robust evidence supporting the safety of childhood vaccines.”
“This is evidence that parents, clinicians, and public health officials need to make the best choices for the health of our children,” Hviid said.
In a press release, Hviid called the results “reassuring” and said large studies like his are important in “an era marked by widespread misinformation about vaccines.”
However, corrected data added after the study’s original publication date show the authors got it wrong, according to Hooker and Jablonowski, who reviewed the study and the corrected data.
They concluded that the data in the study of 1.2 million children clearly indicate a link between aluminum in vaccines and autism.
Corrected data show link between vaccines and autism
On July 17, 2025, the Annals of Internal Medicine added a disclaimer to the Danish study, stating that it “included an incorrect version of the Supplementary Material at the time of initial publication.”
The updated materials are available with the link to the study at “Correction: Aluminum-Adsorbed Vaccines and Chronic Diseases in Childhood.”
Jablonowski said in an earlier interview, “According to the corrected data, nearly 10 (9.7) of every 10,000 children who were vaccinated with a higher dose of aluminum (compared to a moderate dose) developed a neurodevelopmental disorder — mostly autism — between ages 2 and 5.”
The day before the study was published and three days before the journal issued a correction, Hviid told numerous media outlets that the study showed aluminum in vaccines does not cause autism.
Hooker suggested that the Danish authors may have been more inclined to produce results favoring vaccination, given that they work at the Statens Serum Institut, a research institution with a history of producing vaccines.
For instance, Hooker said, “The paper’s analysis really had no ‘zero exposure’ control group. Instead, like most industry ‘bought’ studies, it looked at exposure to ‘some’ aluminum salts versus exposure to a ‘little more’ aluminum salts.”
Hviid reported funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, linked to pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk.
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RFK Jr: Danish researchers diluted ‘any signal of harm’
Jablonowski and Hooker’s analysis is the latest in a litany of scathing critiques of the controversial aluminum study.
On Aug. 1, 2025, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published an op-ed in TrialSite News in which he laid out a myriad of flaws in the Danish study. He wrote:
“The slavish, pharma-funded mainstream media, ever eager to defend industry orthodoxies, have triumphantly hailed this study as proof of aluminum’s safety without even a cursory examination of the study’s fatal deficiencies or the financial conflicts of its authors.”
The study excluded high-risk children, Kennedy said. The Danish researchers also eliminated a zero-exposure cohort.
“Instead of evaluating this non-vaccination group separately and treating these children as the control, they lumped these kids into the least-exposed cohort, diluting any signal of harm,” he wrote.
Kennedy concluded that when it comes to research on aluminium in vaccines, “What’s needed is not more statistical modeling designed to bury signals of harm, but independent research grounded in full transparency, methodological integrity and the courage to confront inconvenient truths.”
Hooker and Jablonowski agreed. They were co-authors on a peer-reviewed report that explained how and why the Danish study failed to establish the safety of aluminum in vaccines.
In December 2025, the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology published the report. In addition to Hooker and Jablonowski, its authors included 10 leading scientists and thought leaders in aluminum toxicology and vaccine injuries.
Hooker said his and Jablonowski’s new publication provides “a more detailed treatment of the fatal flaws” of the Danish study.
Related articles in The Defender
- Decade-Old Studies Linking Aluminum and Vaccines Come Under Fire After Anonymous PubPeer Complaints
- New Peer-Reviewed Report Exposes Flaws in Danish Study Claiming Aluminum in Vaccines Is Safe
- Journal Rejects Calls to Retract Danish Study Claiming No Link Between Aluminum in Vaccines and Autism
- Calls Grow for Journal to Retract Danish Study After Corrected Data Show Link Between Aluminum in Vaccines and Autism
- ‘Deceitful Propaganda Stunt’: RFK Jr. Breaks Down Danish Study on Autism and Aluminum in Vaccines
- 4 Things the New York Times Got Wrong About Aluminum in Vaccines
