CDC Rewrites Vaccine-Autism Webpage, Casting Doubt on Scientific Consensus

On November 19, 2025, the CDC replaced its longstanding webpage stating that vaccines do not cause autism with new language asserting that the claim is "not evidence-based" because, it said, studies have not fully ruled out a link. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, confirmed he personally ordered the change.

The rewrite runs counter to decades of research: more than 40 large studies across seven countries and over 5.6 million people have found no causal link between vaccines and autism. Medical groups, including the American Medical Association, said the revision misrepresents settled science and could erode public trust in immunization.

Public health experts warned the change risks lowering vaccination rates and legitimizing fringe theories by presenting them as an open scientific question. It fits a broader pattern in which agency communications have been altered to reflect the views of political appointees rather than the underlying research record.