last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the language on a vaccine safety webpage, appearing to legitimize the long-disproven link between childhood vaccines and autism. The switch has sparked confusion among parents, as experts say it contradicts decades of scientific research and consensus.
“It goes against everything we’ve learned from countless peer-reviewed studies and the health data of millions of children,” Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, tells TODAY.com.
The new language and its widespread media coverage have left many parents wondering: What changed? Has new research come out? Should I be worried?
Doctors tell TODAY.com the answer is clear: The science hasn’t changed at all.What has changed,they say,is that since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – a longtime anti-vaccine activist – has taken office,they’ve seen an increase in confusion among parents,especially due to social media.also contributing, experts say, are new scrutiny of the childhood vaccine schedule under Kennedy and President donald Trump, the dismissal of a prominent, independent vaccine advisory committee and the cherry-picking of vaccine data displayed on the CDC site.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon told NBC News that the website had been updated “to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science,” but did not immediately answer a follow-up question about how the agency defines such science.
According to the newly updated webpage, the assertion that “vaccines do not cause autism” is not “evidence-based,” and “studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.” But other pages on the CDC site still reflect the fact that hundreds of scientific studies have found no relationship between autism and vaccines.
In an interview with The New York Times, Kennedy said he requested the change because “the whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made,’ is just a lie.” However, pediatric and vaccine experts say that autism is one of the most studied childhood c## Addressing Vaccine Concerns: What Doctors Want Parents to Know
With autism diagnoses on the rise, and misinformation readily available online, many parents are understandably questioning vaccine safety. Doctors are now facing a surge of these concerns, and are working to provide clear, evidence-based answers.
### The MMR Vaccine and Autism
Dr. Mobeen rathore,a pediatrician at Duke Children’s Hospital,explains that a common concern is the timing of the MMR (measles,mumps,and rubella) vaccine and the emergence of autism symptoms.”I respond by validating that the apparent timing can be confusing,” she tells TODAY.com. “But then I explain that when this occurs, it’s correlational, not causal.” The correlation happens simply because signs of autism typically emerge around 1-2 years of age, the same age most kids receive the shot.
She adds that we now have over two decades of data tracking autism rates in kids who have received the MMR vaccine, “and the science is absolutely clear: MMR does not cause autism.”
### Giving Multiple Vaccines at Once
Bracho-Sanchez says the question of whether it’s safe to give multiple vaccines at once has also been popping up. In response, she explains that vaccines have been extensively studied both individually and together and that it is safe to get multiple vaccines at once.
“Many (parents) don’t realize that children are exposed to a significantly higher amount of antigens, the foreign substances that trigger the immune system, in their daily lives than they ever will be through vaccines,” she adds.
### Safety of vaccine Ingredients
Dr.Heather Viola, a primary care physician at Mount Sinai Doctors-Ansonia in New York, tells TODAY.com that she, too, is getting a surge of questions about the safety of vaccines, notably about vaccine ingredients aluminum and thimerosal.
Aluminum is a naturally occurring metal used in tiny amounts to help vaccines create a stronger and longer-lasting immune response. It isn’t worrisome, Viola tells parents, because it is processed quickly by the body, has never been known to cause autism, and the amount used is so small that it’s even “less than babies ingest through formula or breast milk.”
Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative that is used in some vaccines, though it has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, according to the CDC.
viola notes that many parents are understandably concerned about the possibility of mercury poisoning, but they don’t know there are two types of mercury, methylmercury and ethylmercury, and the latter, used in thimerosal, is much less likely to build up in the body and has been proven to be safe.
“Extensive testing shows these ingredients are safe and not linked to autism,” she stresses.
### “Did Vaccines Cause my child’s Autism?”
Hadland tells TODAY.com that one of the most heartbreaking questions he now receives from parents of a child diagnosed with autism is: “Did I cause my chi
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