CDC Website Altered to Reflect RFK Jr.’s Discredited Vaccine-Autism Link, Sparking Outcry
Washington D.C. – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been altered to include content echoing Robert F.Kennedy Jr.’s long-discredited claims about a link between vaccines and autism, prompting immediate criticism from medical professionals and raising concerns about the agency’s scientific integrity. The changes, discovered this week, represent a significant departure from decades of established scientific consensus and the CDC’s previous, unequivocal statements on vaccine safety.
The altered page, once stating definitively that “studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD),” now presents data that has been described as “changed and distorted” and filled with anti-vaccine rhetoric, according to a statement from the foundation that frist flagged the issue. This shift comes after Kennedy Jr. was appointed to lead a new CDC review panel on vaccine safety in August,raising fears that his personal beliefs were influencing the agency’s public messaging.
The inclusion of these claims is particularly alarming given the overwhelming scientific evidence debunking any connection between vaccines and autism. Decades of research and widespread consensus within the medical community have consistently demonstrated the safety and efficacy of vaccines. The CDC had previously echoed this absence of a link in it’s promotion of FDA-licensed vaccines.
“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.”
Several former CDC officials have voiced concerns that the agency’s credibility is now compromised. Dr.daniel Jernigan, who resigned from the CDC in August, stated that kennedy appears to be ”going from evidence-based decision making to decision-based evidence making.”
The changes also reflect Kennedy’s embrace of other unsubstantiated theories about the causes of autism, including the belief that the condition might potentially be linked to pregnant people taking Tylenol – a suspicion previously promoted by former President Donald Trump, who urged expectant mothers to avoid the over-the-counter drug. Trump’s management previously explored the potential link between autism and acetaminophen, a key ingredient in Tylenol, in 2019.
