The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s webpage, which once declared that vaccines do not cause autism, has been rewritten to now suggest, without evidence, that health officials are “ignoring” a possible link between vaccinations and autism.
“The claim that ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because research has not ruled out the possibility that childhood vaccines cause autism,” the new language says. The changes were posted Wednesday and first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The webpage also notes that the Department of Health and Human Services has launched a “comprehensive evaluation” to investigate the causes of autism. It is unclear what the evaluation will look like or how it will be conducted.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the website was updated to “reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.” Questions about how officials define such science were not immediately answered.
Pediatricians and vaccine experts have long said that autism is one of the most well-studied childhood diseases, and that there are no reliable studies that have suggested a link between autism and vaccines.
It also remains unclear who made the changes or where the new information came from.
The Autism Science Foundation said in a statement that it was “appalled” by the change, calling it “anti-vaccine rhetoric and blatant lies about vaccines and autism.”
“The CDC has always been a trusted source of scientifically supported information, but that no longer appears to be the case,” ASF President Alison Singer said in a statement. “Spreading this misinformation will cause unnecessary fear in parents of young children who may be unaware of the mountain of data proving that vaccines cause autism and may withhold vaccines in response to this misinformation, thereby putting their children at risk of contracting vaccine-preventable diseases and potentially dying.”
The message change was not reflected across the CDC website. “Scientific studies and reviews continue to show that there is no link between vaccines and autism,” the page for parents says.
This is a developing story. Please check back for the latest information.
