What To Know About the CDC’s Baseless New Guidance on Autism

The rewriting of a page on the CDC’s website to make the false claim that vaccines could cause autism has unleashed a torrent of anger and anguish from doctors, scientists and parents who say Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is destroying the credibility of an agency they have long relied on for unbiased scientific evidence.

Many scientists and public health officials fear that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, which now baselessly claims that health officials previously ignored evidence of a vaccine-autism link, portends a larger and more dangerous attack on childhood vaccinations.

“It’s not over,” said Helen Tager-Flusberg, professor emeritus of psychology and brain sciences at Boston University. She noted that Kennedy hired several longtime anti-vaccine activists and researchers to examine vaccine safety at the CDC. Their study should take place soon, she said.

“They’re manipulating the data, and the result will be, ‘We’re going to show you that vaccines cause autism,'” said Tager-Flusberg, who leads an advocacy group of more than 320 autism scientists concerned about Kennedy’s actions.

Kennedy’s hand-picked vaccine advisory committee is expected to meet next month to discuss whether to drop recommendations that babies receive a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine within hours of birth and make other changes to the CDC-approved vaccination schedule. Kennedy claimed — falsely, scientists say — that vaccine ingredients cause diseases such as asthma and peanut allergies, in addition to autism.

The revised CDC webpage will be used to support efforts to abandon most childhood vaccines, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan and co-editor of the journal Vaccine. “This will be cited as evidence, even if it’s completely made up,” she said.

The website was modified by HHS, according to a CDC official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The CDC’s developmental disabilities group was not asked for input on the website changes, said Abigail Tighe, executive director of the National Public Health Coalition, a group that includes current and former CDC and HHS employees.

The scientists ridiculed the site’s statement that studies “have not ruled out the possibility that childhood vaccines cause autism.” While more than 25 large studies have shown no link between vaccines and autism, it is scientifically impossible to prove a negative result, said David Mandell, director of the Autism Research Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The web page’s new statement that “studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities” apparently refers to the work of vaccine opponent David Geier and his father, Mark, who died in March, Mandell said. Their research has been widely repudiated, even ridiculed. David Geier is one of the outside experts hired by Kennedy to review safety data at the CDC.

Asked about evidence that scientists suppressed studies showing a link, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon pointed to older reports, some of which called for further study of a possible link. Asked about a specific study showing a link, Nixon did not respond.

Expert reaction

Infectious disease experts, pediatricians and public health officials condemned the change to the CDC website. Although Kennedy made no secret of his disdain for established science, the change was a blow because the CDC has always handled unbiased scientific information, they said.

Kennedy and his “nihilist compatriots from the Dark Ages turned the CDC into an organ of anti-vaccine propaganda,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

“On the one hand, it’s not surprising,” said Sean O’Leary, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at the University of Colorado. “On the other hand, this is an inflection point, where they are clearly using the CDC as a device to spread lies.”

“The CDC website has been lobotomized,” Atul Gawande, an author and surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told KFF Health News.

The CDC “is now a zombie organization,” said Demeter Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. The agency has lost about a third of its staff this year. Entire divisions were gutted and its leaders fired or forced to resign.

Kennedy has “moved from evidence-based decision-making to evidence-based decision-making,” Daniel Jernigan, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said at a Nov. 19 news conference. With Kennedy and his team, terminology including “radical transparency” and “gold standard science” was “turned on its head,” he said.

Cassidy is silent

The new webpage appeared to openly taunt Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Cassidy voted in committee for Kennedy’s confirmation after saying he had secured an agreement that the longtime anti-vaccine activist would not make significant changes to the CDC’s vaccine policy once in office.

The deal included a promise, he said, that the CDC would not remove statements on its website saying vaccines do not cause autism.

The new autism page still carries the statement “Vaccines do not cause autism,” but with an asterisk linked to a notice that the phrase was kept on the site only “because of an agreement” with Cassidy. The rest of the page contradicts the header.

“What Kennedy did to the CDC website and to the American people makes Senator Cassidy a complete and utter fool,” said Mark Rosenberg, a former CDC official and deputy surgeon general.

On Nov. 19 at the Capitol, before changes were made to the CDC website, Cassidy fielded several unrelated questions from reporters, but ended the conversation when asked about the possibility that Kennedy’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices might recommend against giving a dose of hepatitis B vaccine to newborns.

“I have to go in,” he said before entering a courtroom without responding.

Cassidy expressed dismay at the actions of the vaccine advisory committee, but avoided directly criticizing Kennedy or acknowledging that the secretary had violated commitments he made before his confirmation vote. Cassidy said Kennedy also promised to maintain the childhood vaccination schedule before being confirmed.

The senator criticized the CDC website changes in a November 20 article on X, although he did not mention Kennedy.

“What parents need to hear right now is that vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism,” he said in his message. “Any claim to the contrary is false, irresponsible, and makes Americans sicker.” »

Leading autism research and support groups, including the Autism Science Foundation, the Autism Society of America and the Autism Self Advocacy Network, issued statements condemning the website.

“The CDC webpage explained that vaccines do not cause autism. Yesterday they changed it,” ASAN said in a statement. “He says there is evidence that vaccines could cause autism. He says public health officials ignored that evidence. Those are lies.”

What the research shows

Parents often notice symptoms of autism during a child’s second year, which follows several vaccinations. “It’s the natural history of autism symptoms,” Tager-Flusberg said. “But in their minds, they had the perfect child who was suddenly taken away from them, and they are looking for an outside reason.”

When speculation about a link between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, surfaced around 2000, “scientists didn’t rule it out right away,” said Tager-Flusberg, who has studied autism since the 1970s. “We were shocked and we felt the important thing to do was to find a way to investigate quickly.”

Since then, studies have clearly established that autism results from genetics or fetal development. Although gaps in knowledge persist, studies have shown that premature birth, older parents, viral infections, and the use of certain medications during pregnancy — but not Tylenol, as the data available so far indicates — are linked to an increased risk of autism.

But aside from the copious data showing the health risks of smoking, there are few scientific examples more definitive than the numerous global studies that “have failed to demonstrate that vaccines cause autism,” said Bruce Gellin, former director of the National Immunization Program Office.

Kennedy’s changes to the CDC website and other HHS actions will undermine confidence in vaccines and lead to more illness, said Jesse Goodman, former FDA chief scientist and now a professor at Georgetown University.

This opinion was echoed by Alison Singer, mother of an autistic adult and co-founder of the Autism Science Foundation. “If you’re a new mom and you’re not aware of the last 30 years of research, you might say, ‘The government says we need to study whether vaccines cause autism. Maybe I’ll wait and not vaccinate until we know,'” she said.

The CDC website misleads parents, puts children at risk and diverts resources away from promising leads, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Kennedy thinks he’s helping autistic kids, but he’s doing the opposite.”

Many critics say their only hope is that cracks in President Donald Trump’s governing coalition could lead to a hijacking of Kennedy, whose team has reportedly been in conflict with some White House officials as well as Republican senators. Polls have also shown that much of the American public distrusts Kennedy and does not view him as an authority on health care, and Trump’s approval rating has fallen dramatically since his return to the White House.

But anti-vaccine activists applauded the CDC’s revised web page. “Finally, the CDC is starting to recognize the truth about this disease that affects millions of people,” Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense, the advocacy group Kennedy founded and led before entering politics, told Fox News Digital. “The truth is there is no evidence, no science behind the claim that vaccines do not cause autism. »

Céline Gounder, Amanda Seitz and Amy Maxmen contributed to this report.