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RFK Jr. calls autism a 'preventable disease'
In April, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said autism is a preventable disease and that the U.S. needs to stop denying the epidemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website’s "vaccine safety" page has been changed, now claiming that "the statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.
The website was updated late Wednesday without warning, sparking quick backlash from public health experts.
CDC changes vaccine safety web page
What we know:
The updated page does not cite any new research. It instead argues that past studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
Screenshot from CDC's website
The new site continues to have a headline that says "Vaccines do not cause autism," but HHS officials put an asterisk next to it. A note at the bottom of the page says the phrasing "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."
RELATED: RFK Jr. calls autism a 'preventable disease'
Widespread scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link between vaccines and autism.
But anti-vaccines activists — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who this year became secretary of Health and Human Services — have long claimed there is one.
What we don't know:
It’s unclear if anyone at CDC was actually involved in the change, or whether it was done by Kennedy’s HHS, which oversees the CDC.
What they're saying:
"I spoke with several scientists at CDC yesterday and none were aware of this change in content," said Dr. Debra Houry, who was part of a group of CDC top officials who resigned from the agency in August. "When scientists are cut out of scientific reviews, then inaccurate and ideologic information results."
READ MORE: RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development
"We are appalled to find that the content on the CDC webpage ‘Autism and Vaccines’ has been changed and distorted, and is now filled with anti-vaccine rhetoric and outright lies about vaccines and autism," the Autism Science Foundation said in a statement Thursday.
Vaccine skeptics at HHS
Big picture view:
The change is the latest move by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to revisit — and foster uncertainty about — long-held scientific consensus about the safety of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products.
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WATCH Trump: "I'm a vaccine believer"
President Trump discussed vaccines at a cabinet meeting in the White House with HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
The other side:
"HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links. Additionally, we are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science," said HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon, in an email Thursday.
The Source: This report includes information from The Associated Press and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.