Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally directed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its website to contradict its longtime guidance that vaccines don’t trigger autism, he advised The New York Times in an interview printed Friday.
His feedback present readability into who directed the CDC’s web site change, after many present and former staffers on the company have been stunned to see new printed guidance on Wednesday that defies scientific consensus. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, has upended the general public well being businesses he oversees and pushed for and enacted adjustments which have unsettled a lot of the medical neighborhood, which sees his insurance policies as dangerous for Americans.
“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made,’ is just a lie,” Kennedy mentioned within the interview, which was performed Thursday.
The CDC’s “vaccine safety” web page now claims that the assertion “vaccines do not cause autism” is just not based mostly on proof as a result of it doesn’t rule out the chance that toddler vaccines are linked to the dysfunction. The web page additionally has been up to date to recommend that well being officers have ignored research displaying a possible hyperlink.
Public well being researchers and advocates strongly refute the up to date web site, saying it misleads the general public by exploiting the truth that the scientific methodology can’t fulfill a requirement to show a unfavourable. They observe that scientists have completely explored potential hyperlinks between vaccines and autism in rigorous analysis spanning many years, all pointing to the identical conclusion that vaccines don’t trigger autism.
“No environmental factor has been better studied as a potential cause of autism than vaccines,” the Autism Science Foundation mentioned in an announcement Thursday. “This includes vaccine ingredients as well as the body’s response to vaccines. All this research has determined that there is no link between autism and vaccines.”
Kennedy, a longtime chief within the anti-vaccine motion, acknowledged to The New York Times the existence of research displaying no hyperlink to autism from the mercury-based preservative thimerosal or from the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. But he advised the newspaper there are nonetheless gaps in vaccine security science and a necessity for extra analysis.
The transfer creates one other disagreement between the well being secretary and Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor and Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate well being committee. During his affirmation course of, Kennedy pledged to Cassidy he would go away the assertion that vaccines don’t trigger autism on the CDC web site. The assertion stays on the web site however with a disclaimer that it was left there due to their settlement.
Kennedy advised The New York Times he talked to Cassidy in regards to the up to date web site and that Cassidy disagreed with the choice.
“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,” Cassidy posted on X on Thursday. “Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.”
The up to date web site comes as Kennedy has taken other steps as well being secretary that sow doubt in immunizations. He has pulled $500 million for their development, ousted and changed each member of a federal vaccine advisory committee and pledged to overhaul a federal program for compensating Americans injured by pictures. He additionally fired former CDC Director Susan Monarez lower than a month into her tenure after they clashed over vaccine coverage.
Dr. Sean O’Leary, head of the infectious ailments committee on the American Academy of Pediatrics, advised reporters in a briefing Thursday that the CDC’s web site replace was perpetuating a lie.
“This is madness,” he mentioned. “Vaccines do not cause autism, and unfortunately, we can no longer trust health-related information coming from our government.”
The Department of Health and Human Services, which didn’t make Kennedy accessible for an interview with The Associated Press this week, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.