As recently as Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website reflected the scientific consensus, alerting the public to the fact that vaccines do not cause autism.
As of Wednesday, that was no longer the case.
Instead, the revised online resource told the public, “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” This was a ridiculous assertion at odds with Logic 101, and it’s certainly unbecoming of the CDC, which used to represent the international gold standard in its field.
As for who was responsible for the change, the game of “Clue” has been resolved: It was Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in his powerful office, with his radical agenda. The New York Times reported:
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview that he personally instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to abandon its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism — a move that underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy and bend the health department to his will.
The Times’ report added that it’s “highly unusual for a health secretary to personally order a change to scientific guidance.” In fact, former CDC officials told the newspaper “that such changes are usually initiated by agency scientists.”
But RFK Jr., a notorious anti-vaccine activist known for peddling scientific nonsense (my personal favorite is his claim that Wi-Fi causes “leaky brain”) took a hands-on role in this instance anyway, ensuring that the CDC resources reflect his weird ideas, rather than the scientific cannon.
Demetre Daskalakis, who formerly led the agency’s center responsible for respiratory viruses and immunizations, told The Washington Post this week that the online revisions show that the “CDC cannot currently be trusted as a scientific voice.” That’s clearly true, since the CDC’s voice apparently now reflects Kennedy’s voice. As for conditions within the centers, Mother Jones spoke to several CDC officials who were mortified by the website changes that Kennedy ordered. “The best way I can put it is it feels like we’re on a hijacked airplane,” one official said. With Kennedy in the pilot’s seat, those concerns are unlikely to change anytime soon.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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