"If Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, did bother to ask CDC scientists about using their website to turn anti-vaccine talking points into agency guidance, it didn't matter much. "My understanding is that none of the leadership were asked about it, or if they were asked about changing the website, they did not agree with the change," Daniel Jernigan, the former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told me."
"The decision appears not to have passed through the normal channels, which would involve staff at the Immunization Safety Office, Jernigan said. When asked via email whether CDC scientists had been bypassed, Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, didn't answer. Instead, he reiterated bullet points from the website update, including the claim that studies supporting a link between autism and vaccines "have been ignored by health authorities"-essentially, the CDC accusing itself of having disregarded scientific evidence."
"The new language appears in the "Vaccine Safety" section of the agency's website. Until yesterday, that page laid out autism researchers' long-standing consensus that vaccines do not cause the disorder. It noted that no link has been found between vaccine ingredients and autism, and that a National Academy of Medicine review of eight routine immunizations found that, "with rare exceptions, these vaccines are very safe.""
CDC website language was changed to state that "studies have not ruled out the possibility" that routine childhood immunizations contribute to autism. Agency leadership and Immunization Safety Office staff were reportedly not consulted or did not agree with the change. Many CDC employees learned of the revision only hours before it launched. An HHS spokesperson did not answer whether scientists were bypassed and instead reiterated claims from the updated page, including that studies supporting a vaccine-autism link "have been ignored by health authorities." Prior website content affirmed consensus that vaccines do not cause autism and noted broad safety findings.
Read at The Atlantic
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