Hitting new low, CDC discards vaccine science

For followers of medical disinformation, the claim that autism is linked to childhood vaccinations is the reddest of red flags.

- MICHAEL HILTZIK COLUMNIST

HEALTH and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vice President JD Vance at a Make America Healthy Again event.

(ALEX WROBLEWSKI AFP/Getty Images)

The issue is among the most intensively studied in the scientific literature, and the results among the most conclusive: There's no connection.

That's why the revision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of its advisory on vaccines and autism struck like a thunderbolt, and not in a good way. The original statement was this:

"Studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder... No links have been found between any vaccine ingredients and ASD."

As of last week, the statement says: "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."

One can't say that the change was a bolt from the blue, because Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has telegraphed his intention to revisit the causes of autism for months. The change in the CDC language is merely the most concrete indication that his campaign against child immunizations is undermining the science of public health.

But there is much more to be concerned about.

I've been reporting on RFK Jr.'s assault on public health since his name first surfaced as a possible Cabinet appointee in President Trump's second term. Since taking office, Kennedy has summarily fired the 17 public members of the CDC's authoritative Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, replacing its cadre of experienced physicians and vaccine experts with a collection of established anti-vaxxers and others without detectable scientific expertise.

The harvest of that change was an inaugural meeting of the new panel that was enveloped in a miasma of confused, uninformed debate.