… On November 19, 2025, the CDC updated its webpage about one of the central antivax claims dating back to the 1990s, the false claim that vaccines cause autism, a claim that originated in efforts in the 1990s by barristers to sue vaccine manufacturers on behalf of parents of autistic children that culminated in Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent 1998 Lancet case series linking the MMR vaccine to autism.
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Now, here are the CDC’s misleading key points that lie to you about vaccines and autism:
- 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.
- Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
- HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.
You might wonder why the first heading still reads, “Vaccines do not cause autism.” The new webpage explains:
The header “Vaccines do not cause autism” has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.
Yes, as part of the deal that garnered him critical support for his nomination, RFK Jr. promised Sen. Bill Cassidy, the physician-politician and chair of the Senate HELP Committee who betrayed his Hippocratic oath twice, first to send RFK Jr.’s nomination for HHS Secretary to the full Senate and then to vote for his confirmation, that the CDC webpage continue to say that vaccines don’t cause autism. Of course, what has really happened is that RFK Jr. has broken his pledge not to change CDC messaging on vaccines and autism because he put an asterisk next to the statement that vaccines do not cause autism and then added all sorts of antivax propaganda after it.
