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A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been changed to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, spurring outrage among a number of public health and autism experts.
The CDC “vaccine safety” webpage was updated on Wednesday, saying “the statement ‘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 revisit — and foster uncertainty about — long-held scientific consensus about the safety of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products.
It was immediately decried by scientists and advocates who have long been focused on finding the causes of autism.
“We are appalled to find that the content on the CDC webpage ‘Autism and Vaccines’ has been changed and distorted, and is now filled with anti-vaccine rhetoric and outright lies about vaccines and autism,” the Autism Science Foundation said in a statement Thursday.
Widespread scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link between vaccines and autism.
“The conclusion is clear and unambiguous,” said Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement Thursday.
“We call on the CDC to stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims that sow doubt in one of the best tools we have to keep children healthy and thriving: routine immunizations.”
The CDC has, until now, echoed the absence of a link in promoting Food and Drug Administration-licensed vaccines.
There was immediate pushback from medical experts and a major drug manufacturer after U.S. President Donald Trump said without evidence that pregnant women shouldn’t take acetaminophen because it can cause autism.
But anti-vaccine activists — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who this year became secretary of Health and Human Services — have long claimed there is one.
It’s unclear if anyone at CDC was actually involved in the change, or whether it was done by Kennedy’s HHS, which oversees the CDC.
Many at CDC were surprised.
“I spoke with several scientists at CDC yesterday and none were aware of this change in content,” said Dr. Debra Houry, who was part of a group of CDC top officials who resigned from the agency in August. “When scientists are cut out of scientific reviews, then inaccurate and ideologic information results.”
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The updated page does not cite any new research. It instead argues that past studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
“HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links. Additionally, we are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science,” said HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon in an email Thursday.
A number of former CDC officials have said that what CDC posts about certain subjects — including vaccine safety — can no longer be trusted.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who also resigned from the agency in August, told reporters Wednesday that Kennedy seems to be “going from evidence-based decision making to decision-based evidence making.”
