The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revamped the vaccine safety section of its website on Wednesday to align with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s view that childhood vaccines cause autism, contradicting decades of science that shows they are safe.
The US public health agency’s website was amended on Wednesday night to say that ‘the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not evidence-based because studies have not ruled out the possibility that childhood vaccines cause autism.’ The site further added that health authorities ‘ignore’ studies that support a supposed link between the two.
For decades, the CDC has supported the use of childhood vaccines, both in the U.S. and abroad. The CDC website previously said that “studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and the development of autism spectrum disorder.”
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Since vaccine-skeptic Kennedy and U.S. President Donald Trump took office, the agency has begun to undo that position and said it will reexamine the data.
The World Health Organization and other health agencies around the world have repeatedly said that evidence shows vaccines do not cause autism and referred to previous statements when asked about the change on the CDC website Thursday.
“There is a robust and extensive evidence base that shows that childhood vaccines do not cause autism,” the CDC said in a statement in September. ‘Large, high-quality studies from many countries have reached the same conclusion. The original studies suggesting a link were flawed and have been discredited.’
Vaccines do not cause autism
The CDC kept the title ‘Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism’ on its website, saying it was not removed due to an agreement with Senator Bill Cassidy, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
In February, Kennedy secured the endorsement of Cassidy, a doctor, in part by promising that he would not change language on the CDC website about vaccines and autism.
Below the headline about vaccines, the site now says that the CDC and other U.S. health agencies have promoted their view that vaccines do not cause autism to avoid public vaccine hesitancy.
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Demetre Daskalakis, who headed the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases before resigning in August, called the changes to the website a public health emergency.
‘The weaponization of the CDC’s voice is getting worse,’ Daskalakis wrote on social media site X. ‘The CDC has been upgraded to cause chaos without a scientific basis. DO NOT TRUST THIS AGENCY.’
Former CDC director Susan Monarez was fired by Kennedy earlier this year over vaccine policy and the agency is now led by HHS acting director and deputy secretary Jim O’Neill, who is not a scientist.
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Anti-vaccine group applauds
The anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, which was previously led by Kennedy, applauded the changes to the CDC website.
“The CDC is beginning to recognize the truth about this condition that affects millions of people, rejecting the bold and long-standing lie that ‘vaccines don’t cause autism,” the group said on X.
Kennedy linked vaccines to autism and sought to rewrite the country’s immunization policies. Trump also linked autism to the use of the painkiller Tylenol by pregnant women, a claim that is also not supported by scientific evidence.
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Autism is a neurological and developmental condition marked by disruptions in brain signaling that cause people to behave, communicate, interact, and learn in atypical ways. The causes of autism are unclear.
No rigorous studies have found links between autism and vaccines, medications or compounds such as thimerosal or formaldehyde.
