Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed in an interview published Friday that he personally commanded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slap a notice on its website reversing the agency’s longstanding position that childhood vaccines do not cause autism.
“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made’ is just a lie,” Kennedy, 71, told the New York Times. “The phrase ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not supported by science.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr confirmed in an interview that he commanded the CDC to reverse the agency’s stance that childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Getty Images
Beginning this week, the CDC’s “Vaccines and Autism” webpage contains three admonitions: “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,” followed by “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities,” and “HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.”
Further down, the phrase “vaccines do not cause autism” remains, with an asterisk denoting that is “due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee” — Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — “that it would remain on the CDC website.”
“I’m a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Cassidy wrote on X Thursday in response to the change. “What parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism. Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.”
“I did talk to him,” Kennedy told the Times of discussions with Cassidy about the website alteration. “He disagreed with the decision.”
The move follows other shake-ups at the CDC, whose director Susan Monarez was fired in August after being instructed by Kennedy to rubber-stamp recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
“I refused to do it,” Monarez told senators in a hearing later, “because I have built a career on scientific integrity, and my worst fear was that I would then be in a position of approving something that would reduce access to lifesaving vaccines to children and others who need them.”
“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made’ is just a lie,” Kennedy, 71, told the New York Times. Puwasit Inyavileart – stock.adobe.com
“He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause,” she added in the Sept. 17 hearing.
“He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign. I responded that I could not pre-approve recommendations without reviewing the evidence, and I had no basis to fire scientific experts.”
Kennedy has denied that he ordered her to do those things. Former CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry also resigned in protest following the move.
Republican senators helped RFK Jr. clear the final procedural votes before his confirmation based on promises that the HHS nominee wouldn’t rock the boat too much on immunizations.
“He told me he believed in the efficacy of the polio vaccine and said he would help restore Americans’ confidence in vaccines and our health agencies,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in a February statement.
“Based on Mr. Kennedy’s assurances about vaccines and his platform to positively influence Americans’ health, it is my consideration that he will get this done,” Cassidy also said in a floor speech at the time. “I want Mr. Kennedy to succeed in making America healthy again.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) helped the Kennedy scion advance in a procedural vote — but was the only Republican to not back his final confirmation on Feb. 13, saying later in a statement that as “a survivor of childhood polio” he could “not condone the relitigation of proven cures.”
“[A]nd neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” the Kentucky Republican added.