Keeping Americans Misinformed: Cassidy Requires CDC to Retain False Claim
Ideology is holding the truth hostage.
In a stunning development, the CDC’s “Autism and Vaccines” dedicated webpage was updated to include a factual summary of the scientific literature evaluating autism and vaccines. For the first time, the CDC acknowledged that the research base is incomplete and that studies ruling out a connection do not exist. Included are these three key points:
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.
HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.
After decades of gaslighting families about autism and vaccines, an evaluation of the data, without scientific or political bias, finds no evidence to support the claim that “vaccines do not cause autism.” A unique feature of the updated CDC webpage is the inclusion of sourced statements. This is unusual for the agency, which is notorious for citing itself, or linking to another CDC page, to justify its claims.
The author of the updated webpage notes that the Data Quality Act (DQA) requires federal agencies to ensure the accuracy, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information they publish, meaning the page was updated “because the statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.” Under the DQA, the CDC is legally obligated to correct information that lacks evidentiary support. Now, a summary of existing literature, including a parent survey, as well as a timeline of key findings are provided to justify the dramatic change.
In 2017, the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), began proceedings to force the CDC to provide supporting evidence for the claim that “vaccines do not cause autism.” The agency was finally forced to remove the claim in 2020, but defiantly added it back with no new evidence days after it was publicized, a move that signaled institutional discomfort rather than scientific certainty.
Despite years of legal battles to remove the unsupported claim and the current summary of evidence on the CDC website proving it is without merit, why does the statement “vaccines do not cause autism” remain on the updated CDC website?
Bill Cassidy.
Louisiana’s U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is the asterisk behind the statement that still remains on the website: Vaccines do not cause autism.* As noted on the CDC website, as HELP chair, Cassidy has exerted political pressure to preserve the statement, even though doing so appears to conflict with federal requirements mandating accuracy and transparency in public health communications.
The chair of a Senate committee refusing to acknowledge that the CDC’s claim lacks evidentiary support, and pressuring the agency to keep the statement online, is a startling reminder of what happens when ideology overrides scientific integrity.
Physicians like Cassidy have repeated the claim that “vaccines do not cause autism” for so long and so often that an actual evaluation of the existing literature, absent the influence of the industry, is sure to cause some mental discomfort. At least we hope so.
In 2024, Health Freedom Louisiana replicated ICAN’s request to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) regarding the agency’s claim on its website that “vaccines do not cause autism.” LDH provided a list of studies, none of which substantiated the claim that vaccines, specifically DTaP, Hep B, Hib, PCV13, and IPV, do not cause autism. Predictably, the studies by LDH focused on MMR and thimerosal while ignoring the remaining 66+ dose schedule.
During a Senate confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this year, Senator Cassidy held up one of the studies LDH had provided to us as “proof” that vaccines do not cause autism. We wrote an article analyzing that study, and others, showing why it lacks substance.
Senator Bill Cassidy and the Louisiana Department of Health Cannot Support the Claim that "Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism"
Senator Bill Cassidy made a disturbing comment during Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation hearing on Thursday, January 30th. Cassidy was pressuring RFK Jr. to state his allegiance to vaccines by de…
Parents deserve the truth. Yet every time Secretary Kennedy attempts to present documented evidence, Senator Cassidy steps in to defend an entrenched ideology that cannot survive honest scrutiny. Now he’s strong-arming a federal agency into keeping a false claim online.
Parents have carried the weight of this unanswered question for decades, while agencies and politicians traded certainty for convenience. Now that the CDC itself has acknowledged the evidence doesn’t support its old claim, only politics stands in the way of the truth. Senator Cassidy may cling to ideology, but parents deserve clarity, accountability, and science that is allowed to speak for itself.
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