Despite the anti-vaccine proclivities of the US Department of Health and Human Services under its secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the agency’s public-facing sites about vaccines had remained largely unchanged, reflecting scientific consensus.
That is, until Wednesday.
That’s when a new page from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on “Autism and Vaccines” appeared. Among other dubious assertions, it informed readers, “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.” Also, it asserts, falsely, “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.”
In an emailed response to a request for comment from Mother Jones, HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon repeated those statements and added, “We are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.”
The information on the new page directly conflicts with that on other CDC pages that are still up. For example, an existing page about thimerosal, a vaccine additive, stated, “Research does not show any link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder.” A separate page about autism spectrum disorder states, “Many studies have looked at whether there is a relationship between vaccines and ASD. To date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with ASD.” A note at the end of the new site clarified the reason for the apparent contradiction, stating, “The header ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.”
The chair of this committee is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is also a physician and cast the deciding vote to confirm RFK Jr. to his post. On social media, critics of the new change have pointed out that Cassidy appeared to require the old language to stay on the site as a condition of his vote to confirm:
“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.”
In response to the new page, Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, expressed strong disapproval. “The conclusion is clear and unambiguous: There’s no link between vaccines and autism,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “Anyone repeating this harmful myth is misinformed or intentionally trying to mislead parents. 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.”
In contrast, Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded, cheered the change:
On X, Informed Consent Action Network, the anti-vaccine advocacy group helmed by Del Bigtree, a TV and film producer and close Kennedy ally, took credit for the new addition. “This is the culmination of more than 6 years of work for @icandecide, which sued the CDC in 2020 to remove the unscientific claim from its website,” the group posted. “This represents vindication for the 40-70 percent of Autism Parents in America who have been marginalized because of that unsupported claim.”
The new page is just the latest move by Kennedy’s HHS to sow doubt about the scientific consensus on vaccines. As my colleague Anna Merlan and I wrote:
Long before he became secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services under President Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was laying the groundwork for his war on vaccines. As the head of the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy amplified once-fringe conspiracies about vaccine safety and joined a larger crusade against the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the government initiative that was established in the 1980s by Congress to compensate people who were able to prove a likely vaccine injury. In his current leadership role, Kennedy has leveraged political power, transforming conspiracy theories into action—and reshaping American vaccine policy in just a few short months.
Read our timeline of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine crusade here.
