CDC website changed to include false claims that link autism and vaccines

By Brenda Goodman, CNN

(CNN) — Scientific information on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website was replaced on Wednesday with anti-vaccine talking points that don’t rule out a link between vaccines and autism, despite an abundance of evidence that there’s no connection.

Bullet points on the top of the page now state that “vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim” because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. However, the preponderance of scientific evidence shows this is not true, according to a position statement from the Autism Science Foundation.

“The science is clear that vaccines do not cause autism. No environmental factor has been better studied as a potential cause of autism than vaccines. This includes vaccine ingredients as well as the body’s response to vaccines,” the Autism Science Foundation said in a statement on Thursday.

Other CDC bullets say studies supporting a link between vaccines and autism have been ignored by health authorities. This, too, is not true. Studies showing a connection between vaccines and autism have proven to be fraudulent or have been poorly done or biased. There are many well done, credible studies that find no such relationship.

The page also says HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.

The main heading on the page states “Vaccines do not cause Autism,” but now has an asterisk that directs readers to a footnote: “The header “Vaccines do not cause autism” has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.”

The footnote seems to refer to a commitment by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and Republican from Louisiana, during his confirmation process that language on the CDC website “pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism” would not be removed. Cassidy described the promise in a speech in which he explained his support for Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said Thursday, “We are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.”

In a post on social media late Wednesday night, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who recently resigned as director of the CDC’s National Center on Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, called the changes “a national embarrassment.”

“The weaponization of the voice of CDC is getting worse. This is a public health emergency,” he said.

Daskalakis said the scientists at CDC were completely blindsided by the page update.

“This distortion of science under the CDC moniker is the reason I resigned with my colleagues,” he told CNN.

CNN has reached out to CDC for comment.

This is the latest move by the Trump administration to alter long-standing US vaccine policy and practice and cast doubt on vaccinations.

Kennedy has hired long time anti-vax allies, including David Geier, a discredited researcher who was once disciplined by the Maryland State Board of Physicians for practicing medicine without a license, and Lyn Redwood, a nurse who was the president of the World Mercury Project, which later became Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group Kennedy ran before campaigning for office, to undertake new evaluations of government data in an effort to prove conspiracy theories that hazards of vaccines have long been hidden from the public.

The rate of routine childhood vaccinations has dropped in the United States, allowing preventable diseases including measles and whooping cough to surge. This year the United States has seen its highest numbers of measles cases in 25 years. In a call with state health officials on Monday, the CDC disease detectives leading the measles response suggested that the United States status as a country that has eliminated continuous measles spread was in jeopardy as cases continue to rise.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
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