A major change on the official website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday is raising concern in the medical community. Read on for the details of this change and why it is ruffling feathers.

CDC Changes Stance on Link Between Vaccines and Autism

Healthcare professionals are sounding the alarm bell on a change to the CDC website this week. The agency replaced scientific information with anti-vaccine verbiage, indicating that it cannot rule out a link between vaccines and autism. The new bullet points at the top of the website page now state that "vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim." The statement details that studies have not ruled out the chance that infant vaccines can lead to autism.

This claim is in direct opposition to what the majority of healthcare experts believe. The Autism Science Foundation released a statement on Thursday refuting the CDC position. This foundation said that "science is clear that vaccines do not cause autism." The formal position statement went on to say that there have not been any environmental factors that have been more studied than the vaccines as a potential cause of autism, giving the foundation confidence that there is no link.

Additional bullets on the CDC website now claim that the studies that support a connection between vaccines and the onset of autism have been ignored by healthcare professionals. However, medical experts continue to assert that the studies that showed this connection were all proven to be fraudulent, poorly executed, or biased.

The CDC said that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) has begun a comprehensive assessment looking into the causes of autism, including an investigation into likely biological mechanisms as well as the possible causal links.

Prior to Wednesday, the main heading of the CDC page was clear in its belief that vaccines do not cause autism. This key heading now has an asterisk leading to a footnote detailing that this claim has not been removed in light of an agreement with the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee mandating that the claim will remain on the website.

This curious footnote refers to a pledge by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made to Sen. Bill Cassidy during Kennedy's contentious confirmation process. Cassiday, a medical doctor and Republican representing the state of Louisiana, agreed to support Kennedy's confirmation if he would not remove the statement that vaccines do not cause autism. Cassidy noted this promise when he explained his decision to support Kennedy. The confirmation process was a long road for Kennedy in large part due to his anti-vaccine stance.

When asked about the update to the CDC website, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said that the new verbiage is intended to " reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.”

The change has been met with much frustration from the medical community.  Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who recently left his post as director of the CDC’s National Center on Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that the changes were “a national embarrassment.” Daskalakis equated the change to a public health emergency, expressing his worries that the CDC is being weaponized by politicians.

CDC Under Fire

The CDC has increasingly come under fire during President Donald Trump's second term in office. The president's political opponents accuse him and his team of intentionally trying to alter the country's vaccine policy by casting doubt on the safety of these immunizations.

As HHS secretary, Kennedy has been at the heart of the controversy. Upon taking his position, Kennedy hired a number of anti-vax allies. These hires include David Geier, a discredited scientist who had been disciplined by the Maryland State Board of Physicians for practicing medicine without a license. Kennedy also hired Lyn Redwood to his team, a nurse who was the president of the World Mercury Project anti-vaccine group.

The U.S. is already lagging behind in routine childhood vaccinations. As a result, preventable diseases such as whooping cough and measles are surging. For instance, the U.S. has seen its highest number of confirmed measles cases in 25 years.

While it is difficult to quantify how this change in strategy is impacting vaccine participation as a whole across the U.S., a recent report from the CDC notes that flu immunization rates are down across the board this year. Flu vaccination rates are down 8% when compared to the same time period last year. The emergence of a new flu variant, combined with lower numbers of Americans choosing to get vaccinated, could translate to a severe flu season across the country.

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