‘Parents should take this seriously’: Sridhar Vembu says India’s vaccine push may be harming kids

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu says India is giving “way too many vaccines” to infants and links it to a rapid rise in autism.

In a post on X, Vembu urged parents to take a new report seriously, claiming vaccines are the most significant preventable driver of autism. The report, published by the McCullough Foundation, reviews over 300 studies and lists early and combined childhood vaccination as the top risk factor ahead of genetics, pollution, and premature birth.

“This is spreading in India too and we are seeing a rapid increase in autism,” Vembu wrote.

The report claims 79% of studies on vaccines show evidence consistent with an autism link, and that unvaccinated children consistently show lower autism risk. It includes contributions from Peter McCullough and Andrew Wakefield, the latter known for a retracted paper that falsely linked the MMR vaccine to autism.

India’s medical community strongly rejects any vaccine-autism link. The Indian Academy of Pediatrics, WHO, and CDC all maintain vaccines are safe and that multiple large-scale studies have found no association with autism.

Earlier this year, Vembu also questioned the need for giving the Hepatitis B vaccine to newborns, drawing pushback from doctors. 

He insists it’s “not anti-science to ask such common sense questions.”

Public health experts warn that such statements, especially from influential voices, risk fueling vaccine hesitancy at a time when routine immunisation remains critical in India’s healthcare system.