“US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his anti-vaccination views, said he personally directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to abandon its long-standing official position that vaccines do not cause autism, citing his own view of scientific validity and his intention to bend the health department to his beliefs, which conflict with generally accepted medical standards.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: The New York Times
Details: The minister said he had instructed the CDC to withdraw previous wording that claimed there was no link between vaccines and autism. According to him, the decision was made due to alleged gaps in the safety studies of a number of vaccinations given to children in the first year of life, including the hepatitis B vaccine and the combined vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.
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“Everything about the claim that ‘vaccines were tested and this conclusion was made’ is simply a lie,” Kennedy said.
“The phrase ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not supported by science,” he claims.
At the same time, Kennedy acknowledged that large-scale epidemiological studies of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine have found no link to autism, and studies of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal have also found no link to the disease.
Former CDC employees emphasized that such changes are usually initiated by the agency’s scientists, not by the minister personally. They called the intervention of the head of the Ministry of Health atypical, given that scientific recommendations within the agency are usually formed on the basis of expert analysis.
Experts interviewed by the publication note that in some cases, certain studies have not yet been conducted, but at the same time point out that Kennedy requires scientific evidence, which is extremely difficult to obtain. Thus, Dr. Arthur Kaplan, head of the department of medical ethics at New York University, noted ironically that “it is impossible to prove that Coca-Cola does not cause autism.”
Most leading health experts, including representatives of the American Medical Association, the former director of the CDC and the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, consider the lack of a link between vaccines and autism settled. Kennedy’s critics point out that he uses selective facts and fact-finding that support his biased vision.
According to a study published in The Lancet, vaccination has prevented 154 million deaths since 1974, of which 146 million were in children under the age of five. The CDC calls vaccination one of the ten most important public health achievements of the 20th century. Before the introduction of mass immunization in the USA, up to 200,000 cases of whooping cough and about 9,000 deaths from it were registered every year. Before the use of the measles vaccine in 1963, about 450 people died annually from this disease.
Dr. Sandra Adamson Freihofer, a board member of the American Medical Association, said the organization is “deeply concerned that the proliferation of misleading claims about vaccines will lead to further confusion, mistrust and, ultimately, dangerous consequences for individuals and public health.”
Current research also does not support a link between vaccines and autism. In particular, a 10-year study of 600,000 children published in 2019 found no connection. Another 2018 study of 82,000 pregnant women found that vaccination against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis did not increase the risk of autism in children.
Literally: “Critics say that by focusing on a theoretical, unproven risk, Kennedy is using his position as health secretary to discourage people from getting the vaccinations that have earned him millions of dollars in the past and boosted his political career. They accuse him of playing on parents’ fears about autism while ignoring indisputable evidence that vaccines have saved millions of lives.”
For reference: Robert Kennedy, Jr. has previously repeated disproven claims about the link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his non-profit organization “Protecting Children’s Health” became one of the most influential spreaders of fear and mistrust of vaccines in the world.