The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its policy. website on autism and vaccines, removing explicit statements that immunizations do not cause neurodevelopmental disorders and replacing them with inaccurate and misleading information about the link between vaccines and autism.
Until Wednesday CDC page “Autism and Vaccines” began: “Research has shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD).”
This was followed in large print by a blunt statement: “Vaccines do not cause autism.”
The rest of the page summarizes some of the CDC data. own research into autism and vaccine ingredients, neither of which have found any cause-and-effect relationship between them.
On Wednesday, the page was changed to begin with: “The statement 'vaccines do not cause autism' is not a valid claim because research has not ruled out the possibility that childhood vaccines cause autism.”
The words “Vaccines do not cause autism” still appear at the top, but with an asterisk leading to a note at the bottom.
“The headline 'Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism' was not removed due to an agreement with the Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that it would remain on the CDC website,” the site states.
The chairman of that committee, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), cast the deciding vote to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services in exchange for Kennedy's position. promise that he will not undermine public trust in vaccines.
“What parents need to hear right now is that vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe, effective and do not cause autism. Any claim to the contrary is false, irresponsible and actively making Americans worse off,” Cassidy said. in a post on X on Thursday afternoon. “Families are getting sick and people are dying from vaccine-preventable deaths, and this tragedy must be stopped.” Cassidy's office did not immediately respond to further requests for comment Thursday.
“Studies supporting this link were ignored by health authorities,” HHS spokesman Andrew Dixon said in an email. “We are updating the CDC website to reflect the evidence-based gold standard.”
This news was met with outrage and alarm by scientists and human rights activists.
“Can we trust what's coming out of the CDC anymore? I don't know the answer to that question,” said Dr. Sean O'Leary, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases, adding that the website change reflected a “tragic moment” for U.S. public health.
“We are shocked to discover the contents of the CDC web page.”Autism and vaccines“has been altered and distorted and is now filled with anti-vaccine rhetoric and outright lies about vaccines and autism,” the nonprofit Autism Science Foundation said in a statement. “The CDC's previous science-based website has been replaced with misinformation and now actually contradicts the best available science.”
Alison Singer, co-founder and president of the organization, expressed further disappointment.
“Just like we're not studying whether the Earth is flat anymore, at some point, with autism and vaccines, you're going to have to call and say, 'Enough is enough,'” Singer said. “We don't have unlimited money to study autism, and if we keep asking the same questions, we'll never find the true causes of autism.”
The CDC's current page now states that increases in autism diagnoses are correlated with increases in the number of vaccines administered to infants. Many researchers have argued that increase in diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders is better explained by the expansion of the diagnostic definition of the disorder, as well as improved monitoring and diagnosis of more children.
“This issue has been studied extensively, and vaccines have been shown time and time again to not cause autism,” said Colin Killick, executive director of the Autism Self-Advocacy Network. “This administration continues to lie about autism, putting both our community and the general population at risk.”
