In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio. A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
Since President Trump took office in 2025, the U.S. has recorded more confirmed measles cases than in the previous 20 years combined.
Margaret Manto at NOTUS:The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s webpage about vaccines and autism was revised this week as an olive branch to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who now says he supports President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the agency.
The page, however, still references a recently retracted study linking vaccines and autism.
The CDC changed its webpage on vaccines and autism with a new statement making clear that scientists “have not identified the root causes” of autism — a change Cassidy, who has been critical of Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr. anti-vaccine sentiments, called an act of “good faith,” The New York Times first reported.
Until that change, Cassidy was a significant holdout on the committee’s vote on Erica Schwartz, the nominee for CDC director.
But the recent changes to the site did not include removing a reference to a 2010 study on the hepatitis B vaccine and autism rates in boys, despite its publication retracting the study in May. That study found that boys vaccinated with the hepatitis B vaccine had a significantly higher chance of being diagnosed with autism. An independent statistical reviewer found its conclusions were unsound.
And the CDC site still makes these misleading claims:
- 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.
