US health agency website claims no vaccine link to autism ‘not evidence based’

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has repudiated its past insistence that vaccines do not cause autism after decades of fighting misinformation linking the two, blindsiding career staff and delighting anti-vaccine activists.

The agency’s website on vaccines and autism, updated on Wednesday, now makes several false claims about a connection, echoing longtime rhetoric from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has a lengthy history of disparaging vaccines and linking them to autism.

Longtime vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr was appointed US health secretary in January. Credit: Bloomberg

Career scientists at the agency responsible for information about vaccine safety and autism had no prior knowledge about the changes to the website and were not consulted, according to five agency officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Before the Wednesday update, the CDC webpage stated that studies have shown that there is “no link” between vaccines and developing autism, and that “no links” have been found between any vaccine ingredients and the disorder, according to archived webpages.

‘Public health communication must be accurate, evidence-based and free from political distortion. Anything less erodes trust and puts lives at risk’.

The current CDC page says that studies supporting a link between vaccines and autism “have been ignored by health authorities”.

It states: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”

The revisions show that the “CDC cannot currently be trusted as a scientific voice”, said Demetre Daskalakis, who formerly led the agency’s centre responsible for respiratory viruses and immunisations. He was one of three senior leaders who resigned in August because of what they said was the politicisation of science at the agency.

Demetre Daskalakis resigned from his senior position at the CDC in August.Credit: Bloomberg

“The weaponisation of the CDC voice by validating false claims on official websites confirms what we have been saying,” he said.

The false claim that vaccines cause autism can be traced to a 1998 article that has since been retracted, but it has persisted for decades in anti-vaccine messaging that has repeatedly come up in conversations at paediatricians’ offices. The connection has been repeatedly disproven by dozens of studies examining hundreds of thousands of children worldwide.

“My question is, how language that misrepresents decades of research ended up on a CDC website”, said Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer, who also resigned in August.

“Public health communication must be accurate, evidence-based and free from political distortion. Anything less erodes trust and puts lives at risk.”

Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said: “We are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.” He did not answer questions about who ordered the changes or why they were posted.

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Scientists still at the agency told the Washington Post they were shocked as word spread about the apparent endorsement of a long-debunked claim. “We just saw it, and everyone is freaking out,” said one scientist.

Kennedy’s past promotion of a link between vaccines and autism emerged as a key concern of some Republican senators ahead of his confirmation to be the nation’s top health official.

Republican senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee, decided to set aside his misgivings and support Kennedy after receiving a range of commitments, which he detailed in a February 4 speech on the Senate floor. They included that the “CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

The updated CDC webpage now includes an asterisk and explanation after the header “Vaccines do not cause Autism.”

“* The header ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the US Senate Health, Education, Labour, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website,” according to the website.

Cassidy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Legitimising false claims

The revisions to the website add to the ways in which the federal government under Kennedy is legitimising false claims about vaccines and autism after decades attempting to debunk them.

Kennedy has repeatedly said that a potential relationship should be studied. He hired a longtime proponent of the theory to review CDC data on the issue and demanded the retraction of a large study showing no link between aluminium in vaccines and chronic diseases, including autism.

Kennedy has launched efforts to study the causes of autism, concerning some experts that he would blame vaccines. In a September news conference, President Donald Trump and top health officials, including Kennedy, pointed to Tylenol use in pregnancy as a potential cause. But Kennedy did not rule out vaccines, urging an “honest look” at a possible connection.

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Anti-vaccine advocates have been emboldened since Kennedy took office, with some calling for the elimination of the childhood vaccination schedule and the removal of some vaccines from the market.

Some of them celebrated the overhaul of the CDC’s vaccines and autism website.

“Finally, the CDC is starting to tell the truth about this condition affecting millions,” Mary Holland, the chief executive of Children’s Health Defence, an anti-vaccine organisation founded by Kennedy, posted on social media Wednesday night.

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