The CDC's shift on vaccines and autism should alarm the world

Questions over the credibility of the US agency are coming at the worst possible moment.

- Hsu Li Yang

A sign calling for the removal of US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rewrote its webpage, replacing decades of firm scientific consensus with language that now implies a link between childhood vaccines and autism spectrum disorder. PHOTO: AFP

(AFP)

Earlier in November, Canada lost its measles elimination status – which it achieved in 1998. It was a result of continuous measles transmission over the past year, with more than 5,000 cases and 2 deaths to date.

The percentage of Canada's children who have received at least one dose of the MMR vaccine has fallen below 90 per cent in many provinces since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the US has reported 1,753 cases of measles and 3 deaths as of Nov 19 - the largest number of cases and deaths since 1992.

It was not too long ago - in March - that the World Health Organization reported that measles cases had increased seven-fold between 2022 and 2024 in the Western Pacific Region, which includes Singapore and most of the ASEAN countries.

Vaccine hesitancy is rising globally and measles outbreaks have occurred in more than a hundred countries where MMR vaccination rates have fallen. The virus is so contagious that experts estimate that it is necessary to maintain at least 95 per cent childhood vaccination rates to prevent large outbreaks from occurring, especially in crowded urban settings.

It is in such a time that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Nov 20, rewrote its "Autism and Vaccines" webpage. At the instruction of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, it replaced decades of firm scientific consensus with language that now implies potential linkage between childhood vaccines and autism spectrum disorder.