Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed in an interview published Friday that he personally commanded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slap a notice on its website reversing the agency’s longstanding position that childhood vaccines do not cause autism.
“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made’ is just a lie,” Kennedy, 71, told the New York Times. “The phrase ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not supported by science.”
Beginning this week, the CDC’s “Vaccines and Autism” webpage contains three admonitions: “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,” followed by “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities,” and “HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.”
Further down, the phrase “vaccines do not cause autism” remains, with an asterisk denoting that is “due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee” — Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — “that it would remain on the CDC website.”
“I’m a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Cassidy wrote on X Thursday in response to the change. “What parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism. Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.”
“I did talk to him,” Kennedy told the Times of discussions with Cassidy about the website alteration. “He disagreed with the decision.”
