Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scrambling after discovering that the agency has quietly rewritten long-standing vaccine language to give oxygen to a debunked autism claim.
The CDC website, for many years, stated that studies have shown there is ”no link” between receiving vaccines and developing autism spectrum disorder.”
The new vaccine skeptic line claims “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,” and alleges health authorities have supposedly “ignored” research suggesting a link.
Even the header “Vaccines do not cause autism” has an asterisk by it. The header remains only because of an agreement with Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
The CDC is part of the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services, run by vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
Inside the CDC, the reaction was immediate and panicked. Five agency officials told The Washington Post that the scientists responsible for vaccine-safety communications had no warning and no role in the changes. They spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation—another striking sign of the pressure inside an agency now overseen by vaccine skeptic and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
To many who fled the CDC this year, the episode simply confirmed their worst fears. The revisions show that the “CDC cannot currently be trusted as a scientific voice,” said Demetre Daskalakis, the former head of the unit overseeing respiratory viruses and immunizations.
Daskalakis, who resigned in August alongside two other senior leaders over what they described as political interference, added, “The weaponization of the CDC voice by validating false claims on official websites confirms what we have been saying.”
The false claim that childhood vaccines cause autism originated with a now-retracted 1998 paper, and it has been dismantled repeatedly through dozens of studies involving hundreds of thousands of children across multiple countries. Yet it remains central to anti-vaccine activism—much of it propelled by Kennedy and, at times, by President Donald Trump.
The newly posted language left former officials stunned. “My question is, how language that misrepresents decades of research ended up on a CDC website,” said Debra Houry, the agency’s former chief medical officer, who also resigned in August. “Public health communication must be accurate, evidence-based, and free from political distortion. Anything less erodes trust and puts lives at risk.”
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, insists the update is rooted in scientific rigor, not politics. “We are updating the CDC’s website to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science,” spokesperson Andrew Nixon said.
Anti-vaccine activists quickly claimed victory. Children’s Health Defense, the group formerly led by Kennedy, applauded the shift. “The CDC is beginning to acknowledge the truth about this condition that affects millions, disavowing the bold, long-running lie that ‘vaccines do not cause autism,’” the group said on X.
Kennedy has long tied vaccines to autism and has pushed to overhaul national immunization policy. Trump, for his part, has suggested—without evidence—that autism may be linked to pregnant women taking Tylenol.
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