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douglas9

(5,318 posts)
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 06:17 AM 13 hrs ago

CDC Breaks from Medical Consensus on Vaccine-Autism Link

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated a page on its website to suggest vaccines may cause autism, rejecting longstanding medical consensus on the topic and advancing a campaign from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The website change is the latest flash point in a battle between public health experts and advocates of the Make America Healthy Again movement who’ve long pushed debunked claims about vaccines. Kennedy has clashed with CDC staff, medical associations and scientists over his views on shots.

Late Wednesday, the CDC pagewas updated to say scientific research hasn’t ruled out the possibility that shots given to infants lead to autism. An asterisk was also added to the phrase “vaccines do not cause autism.”

“Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities,” the website says.

One pediatrician in Austin was so surprised by the changes that she wondered if the CDC website had been hacked.


https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/cdc-updates-vaccines-site-to-add-long-debunked-link-to-autism

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hlthe2b

(112,218 posts)
1. RFK JR forces CDC (to) Break from Medical Consensus on Vaccine-Autism Link: FIXED IT FOR YOU!
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 06:21 AM
13 hrs ago

This pisses the shit out of me. No career CDC staff would have gone along with this if not ordered.

Damn it! Stop propagating the irresponsible reporting--whether by Bloomberg or others.

no_hypocrisy

(53,836 posts)
3. I really resent how RFK, Jr. and the CDC consider themselves comparable,
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 06:48 AM
13 hrs ago

if not superior, to the American Medical Association.

At least the latter uses medical research with verifiable data to make pronouncements and recommendations.

douglas9

(5,318 posts)
4. "Embarrassing" and "Horrifying": CDC Workers Describe the New Vaccines and Autism Page
Fri Nov 21, 2025, 02:04 PM
5 hrs ago

Earlier this week, a new page titled “Vaccines and Autism” appeared on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Contrary to previous CDC guidance, the page alleged, “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,” adding that “studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.” Those claims aren’t supported by evidence, but they do reflect talking points regularly promoted by anti-vaccine activists—of which Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a leader.

I spoke with five CDC staffers on Thursday and Friday to find out their reactions to the announcement. While they declined to be identified for fear of retaliation, they all said that they and their colleagues were shocked and dismayed by the misinformation put forth on the new page. “It’s horrifying, it’s embarrassing, it’s scary, it’s heartbreaking—it’s all of those things,” said a staffer at the CDC’s Injury Center. “To see our agency being used to spread lies and misinformation is a gut punch,” a CDC communicator with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease wrote in a message. “People will be harmed by this—parents will decide not to vaccinate their kids because of false information, and kids will get sick and die as a result.”

Another longtime CDC employee who works in communications said, “The best way I can put it is it feels like we’re on a hijacked airplane.”

Several employees noted that there had been no warning about the new page before it was posted—in fact, said the NCIRD staffer, even department leadership had “only learned about it today when somebody saw it the same way everybody else did.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/embarrassing-and-horrifying-cdc-workers-describe-the-new-vaccines-and-autism-page/

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