November 21, 2025 -- On November 19, 2025, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an agency charged with safeguarding the health of people in the United States and globally, made significant changes to their website page that previously stated clearly that “vaccines do not cause autism.” This true statement, based on decades of the highest quality studies investigating putative links between childhood vaccines and autism, is now being questioned based on a distortion of the scientific facts that are well established and accepted by all researchers, major medical organizations, and the broader autism community.

 

The Coalition of Autism Scientists condemns this move by the political leadership that has been installed at the CDC in defiance of the advice of the scientific establishment.  The negative consequences of calling into question the safety of childhood vaccines cannot be overstated.  As with previous recent announcements from the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the role of Tylenol in causing autism, reopening discussion about vaccines and autism will only lead to fear and confusion among parents and weaken trust between families and clinicians. 

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By altering and distorting the evidence on vaccine safety, the CDC can no longer be relied on to provide the public with accurate information.

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On November 20, 2025, members of the Executive Committee of the Coalition of Autism Scientists also provided these remarks:

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From Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Director of the Center for Autism Research EXCELLENCE (CARE),  Boston University 

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• "This statement from the CDC is filled with misinformation and a distortion of the science, which has repeatedly shown that neither vaccines nor adjutants used in some vaccines in the past or now (such as thimerosal and aluminum) cause autism or are risk factors associated with autism.  This represents a new and devastating turn by the CDC, which has been effectively dismantled by the Secretary of HHS .  He has eliminated thousands of scientists and replaced them with known leaders of the ‘anti-vax’ movement, including David Geier, Lynn Redwood and Mark Blaxill, who have claimed that autism is caused by childhood vaccines.  I suspect this CDC statement is in anticipation of an announcement of new findings from data mining carried out by Geier and his colleagues.  We cannot underestimate the impact this statement will have on parents and the clinical community.  It will sew confusion and fear and ultimately lead to more serious illnesses and deaths among vulnerable children."

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From David S. Mandell, ScD, Kenneth E. Appel Professor and Director, Penn Center for Mental Health, Leader, Section on Population Mental Health, Vice-Chair for Faculty Development, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

 

• “15 studies using the CDC's own data show that vaccines don't cause autism. Another dozen studies from other countries show the same. The two "ignored" studies to which the CDC refers were conducted by a discredited father-son team, Mark and David Geier. One had his medical license stripped from him and the other was convicted of practicing medicine without a license for giving autistic children chemically castrating drugs. They also were found to have stolen data from the CDC.”

• “The sentence on the CDC website, “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” is bizarre. First, that is exactly what all these studies have shown. As any scientist knows, you can’t “prove” the lack of association. You conduct related studies, over and over, until the bulk of evidence finds no association. The CDC language reminds me of RFK Jr. saying “we’re going to conduct the studies to find the proof.” That’s how a lawyer acts. It’s not how a responsible scientist acts.”