US CDC adopts Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views on recast website
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recast the vaccine safety section of its website on Wednesday to align with the view of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that childhood vaccines cause autism, countering decades of science showing them to be safe.
The U.S. public health agency’s website was changed to say, “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.”
It added that health authorities have “ignored” studies supporting the link between the two.
Public health experts, doctors and scientists decried the update as the kind of misinformation the CDC has fought for decades as it promoted the use of life-saving childhood vaccines both in the U.S. and abroad.
Until Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine proponent, took up his role as head of Health and Human Services, the CDC was a key opponent of growing global anti-vaccine sentiment. Some of that can be traced to a now discredited 1998 study that linked the measles vaccine and autism. President Donald Trump has also expressed anti-vaccine sentiments.
The CDC’s website previously said “studies have shown there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder.”
The World Health Organization and other health agencies around the world have repeatedly said evidence shows vaccines do not cause autism and referred back to earlier statements when asked about the CDC website change on Thursday.
