The CDC has published a Robert F. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views
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The website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been changed to contradict the long-standing scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, sparking outrage among many public health and autism experts.
The CDC “Vaccine Safety” webpage was updated Wednesday, saying, “The statement that ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.”
The change is the latest move by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to rethink the long-standing scientific consensus about the safety of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products and to stoke uncertainty.
It was immediately condemned by scientists and advocates, who had long been focused on finding the causes of autism.
“We are surprised to see that the content of the CDC webpage ‘Autism and Vaccines’ has been altered and distorted, and is now filled with anti-vaccine rhetoric and lies about vaccines and autism,” the Autism Science Foundation said in a statement Thursday.
Widespread scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism.
“The findings are clear and unambiguous,” Dr. Susan Cressley, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement Thursday.
“We call on CDC to stop wasting government resources promoting false claims that cast doubt on one of the best tools we have for keeping children healthy and thriving: routine vaccinations.”
The CDC, until now, has insisted on the absence of any link in promoting Food and Drug Administration-licensed vaccines.
Medical experts and a major drug maker were quick to react after US President Donald Trump said without evidence that pregnant women should not take acetaminophen because it could cause autism.
But anti-vaccine activists — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who became Health and Human Services secretary this year — have long claimed there is one.
It is unclear whether anyone at the CDC was actually involved in the change, or whether it was done by Kennedy’s HHS, which oversees the CDC.
Many people at CDC were surprised.
“I spoke to several scientists at CDC yesterday and no one was aware of this change in content,” said Dr. Debra Howry, who was part of a group of top CDC officials who resigned from the agency in August. “When scientists are sidelined from scientific reviews, inaccurate and ideological information emerges.”
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The updated page does not cite any new research. Instead it has been argued that previous studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
“HHS has initiated a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigation into potential biological mechanisms and possible causal links. Additionally, we are updating CDC’s website to reflect the gold standard, evidence-based science,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in an email Thursday.
Several former CDC officials have said that what the CDC posts about certain topics, including vaccine safety, can no longer be trusted.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who resigned from the agency in August, told reporters Wednesday that Kennedy is “moving from evidence-based decision making to decision-based evidence making.”
