It would be wonderful, in a way, if it were true that vaccines cause autism. Such an easy explanation would mean that public health officials have a simple way to address the surge in recorded cases of the cognitive disorder over the past few decades. It would also mean parents of children with severe symptoms have a culprit to blame and direct their frustration.
But this is a fantasy, which is obvious to anyone with eyes. Vaccination rates among children have, lamentably, fallen steadily for most of the last decade. In fact, the vaccine ingredients that activists have pointed to as the cause of autism have long been removed from almost every shot. Yet in that time, the prevalence of autism in children has only grown.
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its website to surrender its steadfast adherence to vaccine science. The link between immunizations and autism, the site now reads, “have been ignored by health authorities.” It disputes the agency’s once-firm assertion that “vaccines do not cause autism,” stating now that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”
The Post reports that the change, which echoes the views of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump, was made without consulting career scientists at the agency that is responsible for vaccine safety. It also blatantly violates a pledge that Kennedy made to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who delivered the key vote for his confirmation, that the “CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”
In a statement to The Post, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said: “We are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.” The heart-breaking reality, however, is that the website, long viewed as an unshakeable source of accurate scientific information, has clearly been corrupted by anti-vaccine ideology.
Kennedy and his allies might have the power to edit government websites, but they cannot erase the dozens of high-quality studies that have thoroughly shown that children who are vaccinated are no more likely to be diagnosed with autism than their unvaccinated peers. Nor can they deny the consequences of their anti-vaccine movement: The United States recorded its highest number of measles cases this year in more than three decades thanks to epidemics in areas with low vaccination rates. This led to the deaths of two children and one adult, all unvaccinated.
Next month, the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee — which Kennedy has staffed with his own hand-picked appointees — is scheduled to meet to discuss changes to the childhood vaccine schedule and recommendations for the hepatitis B shot, which has long been a target of Kennedy. The website changes seem like a harbinger of something worse to come.
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