CDC changes stance on vaccine autism link. AIBU to be furious and appalled?

[helpsent]

I just saw this on another thread so had a look online. It’s ridiculous, irresponsible, downright dangerous and absolutely not based on science.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/autism.html

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/11/20/nx-s1-5615040/cdc-rfk-childhood-vaccines-autism

Yes, it is - I was really shocked to hear of it being prescribed in Europe to a child.

Seems to me they are saying there’s no studies to prove vaccines give autism or they don’t. Reading the whole article it sounds like they are basically saying they have no idea but covering themselves both ways because America loves a lawsuit. One good thing about it is they are funding more studies so maybe one day they’ll be able to say for definite one way or another.

As someone who has ADHD I welcome any studies into it and find them interesting.

With respect, I think you are the one that needs to educate yourself, and you need to step away from the conspiracy theories. You are putting your child at risk.

They are talking shite. Plenty of studies disprove the link

https://www.vaccinesafety.edu/do-vaccines-cause-autism/

They changed the name because Dr Asperger was a fairly unpleasant Nazi who sent autistic children off to be murdered as subhumans. Not somebody I would want to memorialise every time I met somebody with autism.

Similarly Wegener’s disease was renamed granulomatosis with polyangiitis because Dr Wegener was a war criminal who experimented on Jewish concentration camp victims.

Mine too.

As a person with autism (and ADHD) this upsets me so, so much. I have a family member who was very unwell with TB. It destroyed so many aspects of their life and they nearly died.

AuDHD has also affected me so much. In fact, I am waiting to find out if I have lost a new contract because I didn't understand some basic instructions BUT whilst I do not believe that my neurodivergence is linked to vaccines, even if they were I would be so FUCKING glad that I ended up like this instead of dead or nearly dead with TB or Polio or Measles. I am so glad that my son doesn't have to grow up at risk of such hideous diseases that almost meant that neither of us were alive.

Is the risk of autism worse than the risk of death?? Is my life really worse than your child dying? Even if this wasn't complete and utter bullshit, which it is. Really concerned about where this is going. There are so many people believing this stuff now, much worse since the Covid vaccine. I am genuinely frightened of the world right now.

There have been no studies that show a link between autism and vaccinations / the MMR. There is a whole wealth of scientific research done around this and not a single study has shown a link. Nothing has been “ignored” or “censored”. There’s nothing TO ignore or censor.
Unless you want to consider the Andrew Wakefield study which was shown to be utter nonsense and for which he was struck off.

And it’s been clearly explained why there are no placebo studies done for childhood vaccines.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12373718/

There are hundreds of studies proving vaccines don’t cause autism or ADHD.

That is terrifying and repulsive. How can this be happening!?

There is no point in reasoning with people who have been sucked in to conspiracy theories, unfortunately. They are beyond reason and beyond help. I do feel very sorry for the children of the anti-vaxers.

Sadly, it seems that they have now infiltrated CDC. The damage that they do will be immeasurable.

Scientists have not proven the vaccines do not cause autism.

They have also not proven there isn't a planet out there made entirely from candy floss, doesn't mean that's saying there might well be

"Have not proven there is not" is a huge cop out that can be said about almost anything.

Because Trump, and the rise of the idiocracy

I didn't mean they shouldn't have changed the name because of unpleasant connotations. I didnt know the history, but that makes sense.

I meant that there should have remained two distinct categories of autism.

Why three doses of MMR? What country and what decade was this? Three doses would be unusual. It used to be 1 dose and was increased to 2 doses in the late 1980s in the UK.

Whatpisses me off is that almost all of the people who don't vaccinate their kids choose not to because deep down they actually do believe that the vaccines work in preventing certain illnesses like measles etc but they rely on everyone else "taking the risk of vaccine injury" because they rely on their own child benefitting from herd immunity.

We've seen what life without vaccines is like.

I'd bet most of the anti vax community would be queuing up to get their kids vaccinated if they all had to live together. In fact, i know they would because we've literally seen through history what life without vaccines was like and had an extremely high take-up of them.

History has a short memory.

Not read this. Undoubtedly vaccine uptake will drop. In which case it might become worth doing some proper scientific research off the back of disease uptick.

Correlation is not Causation.

I believe the initial study suggesting a link found a correlation between the age of children getting vaccinated and the age at which development concerns are usually first picked up on (around 18 months or so) and there was a relatively small sample size of children involved. So many people don't know that's all there actually was to it. No medical evidence or scientific explanation whatsoever just a potential correlation which can be explained as a coincidence.

**edited to add, before anyone asks me for a source I studied this years ago for a psychology degree and this is what I can remember..don't have a source to hand..

That suggests that there hasn’t been any proper scientific research done so far. But there has absolutely loads. What exactly do you want?

This. I’ve always thought this. It is unhelpful to make these matters impossible to discuss by dismissing anyone who wants to question as “anti vaxxers”.

I have two children with autism. I don’t believe vaccinations caused it but I do think it’s possible in some children, where multiple causations aline and vaccinations are the final straw.

I didn't say that it wasn't because more people are diagnosed, just that I don't think it is the ONLY reason for an increase in cases. A diagnosis does not create the symptoms, the symptoms create the diagnosis.

If we just assume that it because of more increases in diagnosis and awareness, then we rule out other contributory factors that we might possibly be able to do something about. I think some people don't realise when they say this that they are providing a convenient excuse not to research autism and the increase in cases because it is "just more awareness". I agree that older generations have been under diagnosed like myself, but we can't rule out environmental factors such as plastics and other substances known to cause problems. We do need to be open any possibility without being biased towards a particular opinion.

I personally would rather my son had autism than would be dead, so I was happy to take the risk of vaccines, but I'm not going to accept there are no other causes for it that exist and it is just more people being diagnosed. Thats not a cause itself, is just a trend in diagnosis rates. There is very limited research really, considering the impact and prevalence of ASD.

If vaccines cause autism then wouldn’t every child who was vaccinated have autism, makes no sense 🤦🏻‍♀️.

The problem is this isn't what is being discussed. I am seeing a lot of 'vaccines cause autism', 'don't get your children vaccinated' and 'The Covid vaccine caused deaths'. It's not a case of 'Could there be a link here?' it is scaremongering and it is working. People are listening and they are not vaccinating their children. People aren't asking questions, they are spreading this as truth and that is very dangerous. Measles is on the rise. That could kill your children, autism won't.

I didn't vaccinate my children until they were 7 and 9 because of the controversy over this the first time.
They were both already neurodivergent before the vaccines, they weren't diagnosed because this was in the early 2000s.

However looking back for the eventual diagnosis it was obvious they were already autistic/neurodivergent.

Bs. I have lived on meat, cheese, nuts and eggs for many years, have never eaten any processed foods or sugar because of orthorexia. It hasn’t improved my symptoms if ADHD or autism one bit.
Your clutching at straws.