In late July 2026, the CDC's web page on vaccines and autism was rewritten to cast doubt on the scientific consensus it had affirmed for two decades. Where the agency long stated plainly that vaccines do not cause autism, the page now says that claim is “not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,” and adds that “scientists have not identified the root causes of autism.”
The change came in two stages. In November 2025, the CDC first added language calling the denial “not an evidence-based claim.” Then, around July 22-23, 2026, the page was updated further, reporting tied the timing to securing Senate HELP Committee votes to confirm Trump's CDC director nominee, Dr. Erica Schwartz. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he had personally instructed the CDC to change its longstanding position.
The scientific record is not in dispute. More than twenty years of studies involving millions of children have found no link between vaccines and autism; the original study claiming one was retracted as fraudulent. The site does not assert that vaccines cause autism. What it does is convert a settled scientific conclusion into an open question on the federal government's own public-health authority, days before the midterms and in the middle of a confirmation fight. The American Medical Association condemned the change (see RFK Jr. Tells Congress 'I've Never Been Anti-Vaccine' as Measles Cases Pass 1,700, With His Own Recorded Quotes Contradicting Him and After a Presidential Memo, HHS and CDC Cut the Number of Vaccines Recommended for All Children).