{"id":298259,"date":"2025-11-21T21:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298259\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T21:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:15:07","slug":"rfk-jr-says-he-told-cdc-to-change-position-on-vaccines-and-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298259\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. says he told CDC to change position on vaccines and autism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the New York Times that claims about vaccine safety were not supported by science.Rebecca Noble\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.<\/p>\n

Countering decades of science showing vaccines to be safe, the U.S. public health agency\u2019s website was changed to say, \u201cThe claim \u2019vaccines do not cause autism\u2019 is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the interview, Kennedy said that while the large-scale epidemiological studies of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had found no link to autism, and that studies of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal had also shown no link, there are gaps in the vaccine safety science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing about \u2019vaccines have been tested and there\u2019s been this determination made,\u2019 is just a lie,\u201d Kennedy said in his first interview with a major print publication.<\/p>\n

RFK Jr. demands scrutiny of vaccines and autism in latest \u2018Make America Healthy Again\u2019 report<\/a><\/p>\n

Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic and not a scientist. Before he took up his role as head of Health and Human Services, the CDC was a key opponent of growing global anti-vaccine sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe phrase \u2019Vaccines do not cause autism\u2019 is not supported by science,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

Public health experts, doctors and scientists have decried the update as the kind of misinformation the CDC has fought for decades as it promoted the use of life-saving childhood vaccines both in the U.S. and abroad.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization and other health agencies around the world have repeatedly said evidence shows vaccines do not cause autism.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany large-scale studies in hundreds of thousands of children across the world have thoroughly investigated the claim that vaccines cause autism and found no link between vaccines and autism. Based on existing evidence, vaccines do not cause autism,\u201d the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Factchecking Trump on Tylenol: What the research says about the painkiller, pregnancy and autism<\/a><\/p>\n

In the interview, Kennedy said he ordered the CDC to change its guidance in part because high-quality large studies had not been conducted to examine a potential link between autism and other shots given in the first year of life.<\/p>\n

Those include the hepatitis B vaccine and a combination shot that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough.<\/p>\n

A revamped committee that advises the CDC on vaccine policy is scheduled to meet early next month to consider new recommendations for hepatitis B vaccines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,84,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-298259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}