For years, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has bluntly stated the truth: “Vaccines do not cause autism,” the agency affirms on its website. Yet, nearly a quarter of Americans still don’t believe it.
Inย an April 2024 survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, 24 percent of US adults denied or disputed that the CDC ever said that. Specifically, the survey asked them to assess the accuracy of the statement that the CDC has said there is no evidence linking vaccines to autism. Six percent called the statement “very inaccurate,” and 18 percent said it was “somewhat inaccurate.” An additional 3 percent responded that they were “not sure.” Of the remaining 73 percent, only 41 percent considered it “very accurate,” and 32 percent said it was “somewhat accurate.”
In all, it’s a bleak finding that bodes poorly for the collective health of Americans, who are now seeing rises in cases of measles and other vaccine-preventable illnesses.
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CDC experts have cautioned thatย the US is at risk of losing its measles elimination status, attained in 2000 after a decades-long fight against the airborne virus. The US will lose its status if the virus circulates continuously over a 12-month period. In 2019,ย the US was close to losing its statusย amid two prolonged outbreaks in New York, which helped the year’s case count hit 1,274. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, measles is having a global resurgence, and vaccinations in the US haveย fallen below target rates that would protect against continued spread.
