CDC alters vaccines and autism page with misleading statement

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has altered its website on autism and vaccines, removing unequivocal statements that immunizations don’t cause the neurodevelopmental disorder and replacing them with inaccurate and misleading information about the links between the shots and autism.

- BY CORINNE PURTILL AND JENNY GOLD

THE CDC removed from its website its own research into the safety of vaccines.

(Brynn Anderson Associated Press)

Until Wednesday, the CDC page, “Autism and Vaccines,” began: “Studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD).”

This was followed, in large font, by the blunt statement: “Vaccines do not cause autism.”

The rest of the page summarized some of the CDC’s own studies into autism and vaccine ingredients, none of which found any causal links between the two.

On Wednesday, the page was altered so that it now begins: “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.”

The words “Vaccines do not cause autism” still appear near the top, but with an asterisk that leads to a note at the bottom.

“The header ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website,” the site states.