Put an anti-vaxxer in charge and you get an anti-vax CDC
Put a known science-denying anti-vaxxer in charge of the CDC, and surprise, you get a CDC that talks like an anti-vaxxer. The agency just rewrote its vaccine guidance to suggest long-debunked autism links are still on the table. Why? Because RFK Jr really wants it to be true.
The CDC’s website, once unequivocal that studies show “no link” between childhood vaccines and autism, now carries a very different message.
The updated page says the statement “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not an evidence-based claim,” falsely arguing that research has “not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines contribute to the development of autism.”
It also incorrectly states that public health authorities have “ignored” studies pointing to a supposed connection. That framing mirrors arguments long pushed by one of the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine advocates: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC.
Scientists were blindsided. Career staff are fuming. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., once the face of vaccine misinformation, now oversees the department, calling science “not evidence-based.” You can’t make this up, but apparently the CDC can.
Operation "Discredit the Government" is in full swing.
Hurrah! I believe the U.S. is now the stupidest country on the planet! (If not yet, we soon will be.) What an honor! /s