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

"Do something about it"? So against the voices of actually autistic people, you would like to start preventing or curing autism?

Sorry to disappoint you, but it isn't going to happen. Autism isn't an illness or a "problem", it's genetic and an autistic person is just as worthy or living as their authentic selves as an allistic person.

You can't cure autism anymore than you can cure having brown hair or being tall.

We cannot effectively compare the rates of autism 100 years ago to now, because 100 years ago autism wasn't even known about. Children who were autistic- and we know they did exist- were either high support needs in which case they were institutionalised, or low support needs in which case they were just seen as a bit quirky or naughty and in need of punishment.

We can't even compare the rates of autism 20 years ago, because the diagnostic criteria have changed a lot as we've recognised that autism can present very differently in different people. If you went and got an autism diagnosis tomorrow, on paper, that's another person with autism on the record. You didn't become autistic because of plastics or toxins. You were always autistic. It was just not noticed because of a lack of awareness.

However, we can absolutely say that as long as we have records going back, we have records of people who would undoubtedly meet the criteria for autism diagnosis today, despite the lack of vaccines. Just as we know that thousands of children died from preventable diseases.

@platform2 are you keto though? Are you producing ketones?

Start there.

trigger the brain being wired differently?

"One analysis found that the 2019 CDC vaccine schedule resulted in 4.925 mg of total vaccine-related aluminum exposure by age 18 months."

Just reading the links in the OP, nothing is being actually said other than they are not happy to stand by the claim that "vaccines do not cause autism' because there is actually no evidence for it.

I picked out the quote above because that is the crux of the MAHA investigation - there is concern about the number of vaccines given to very young children, not necessarily individual vaccines (which do have safety data) and there is nothing to prove that that level of aluminium, cumulatively built up through the schedule, is safe.

Autism isn’t caused by anything, you are born with it but its not noticed until they start to struggle with milestones/ social skills/ sensory skills, a baby with sensory issues will just cry if they have a scratchy top they don’t like and you just assume they are tired/need a feed etc whereas a 1/2/3 year old can let you know they have sensory issues in some way by pulling at the top/ telling you they don’t like the top etc so you then start to notice if that makes any sense.

I'll go against the grain and bet my life that in a few years, a link between childhood vaccines and autism will indeed be found. There will probably be an alarming number of scientists and Dr's come out of the wood work with tales of how they had their lives threatened if they published any findings to support this. Very similar to the covid vaccine. One day....

@AlltheHedgehogsontheWall I think you are missing the point I'm making, which is if we just put it down to one thing without considering anything else, then we are potentially missing things that might explain ASD. I don't want to cure people who are autistic, but someone who is autistic might want to know why they are the way they are. My son is amazing and he is my world, but I had a different experience of it and not always positive. My son has very high level of support needs and ID and most parents really do want to know why this has happened with their child, it doesn't mean we'd change them.

You really cannot speak for all autistic people, and if they are curious about other possible causes they should be able to speculate and ask for more research. I won't be fobbed off with "it's just more recongition of ASD" yes this has changed, but a lot of other environmental factors have too.

You didn't become autistic because of plastics or toxins how do you know this inst the case if we haven't researched all of these? Genes might be a factor in my case, but it might not just be that. If we don't look into it then we don't know if it does, or if it doesn't.

I agree the world should accept ND more, but that isn't a reason to not explore possible causes of it.

I wonder what caused my son’s autism/adhd from time to time.
Then I continue with my extensive research on the most effective Pokémon to use in certain battles or work on my playlists that I have to listen to so I can focus on specific tasks with.

so mny people re going to get ill or die

They already are - of turbo cancers, myocarditis, MS, Lupus.

The drop in cases of every one of these ‘lethal’ diseases, small pox included, can be linked to improvements in public sanitation and dietary improvements. Every. Single. One.

My dc are all fully vaccinated and 4 of them have autism. I don't think vaccines had anything to do with their autism. I think the increase in people being diagnosed with autism is a combination of babies not dying from things like arfid and pica, babies surviving traumatic/premature births and an increase in people with ND conditions having children together.

I think they will make progress with genetic research personally. I believe there is talk of neanderthal genes being linked to autism.

Mostly greater autism awareness and increasing diagnosis.

And yes, as pp have stated, greater survival of very premature or sick babies, who are at higher risk of being autistic.

More speculatively, chances of autism may increase with increaing parental age, and average age of becoming a parent is higher than in the past.

Go against the grain? No, you're going against multiple scientific studies.

There is no link, none whatsoever.

Get out of your social media bubble. Read more widely, stop propagating bullshit propaganda.

What the fuck is a turbo cancer? You're talking absolute shite.

Seriously, read more widely and stop following the dickheads on social media who push this shit.

Turbo cancer? Turbo bullshit

Absolutely no studies have shown a link with autism. And there have been many.

This doesn’t mean that there is no link though. It all depends on what the studies have been looking for and how that have been doing it.

• 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.

This is true, and has always been obvious IMO. My dc are grown so I haven’t paid attention to recent research for a long time, but it was certainly the case when the Wakefield scandal was at its height. We were expected to believe that vaccines were automatically safe because a link hadn’t been found, when children whose parents believed their children had vaccine induced autism were never included in any other study.

We always knew that the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ couldn’t be proved, and if the government hadn’t treated us as if we were too stupid to work that out, we’d have had less reason to mistrust them.

I understand what you're saying but then these people would just home educate (like so many people who are scared of vaccines do - it's very common in home ed circles) and those children will potentially be disadvantaged and not exposed to the variety of opinions that school children are.

I'm not even anti home education overall (did it myself) but I do think these communities are quite anti-mainstream and sometimes quite closed off. Certain conspiracy theories are common in home ed circles in my experience.

The day Trump took office all the US government websites were changed to reflect his biases. This includes CDC guidelines. Should that happen, no, but u fortunately he hold some sick and twisted power over people and they just bend to his ridiculous whims.

He has also decided through the DOE that the following degrees are not professional degrees anymore: Nursing, Physician assistants, Physical therapists, Audiologists, Architects, Accountants, Educators, Social workers and many others. Why? Because he said so and that is the only reason.

Right now he is a dictator spewing venomous rules and miseducation. When he leaves office it will go back to previous guidelines. The misinformation and harm though will already be done.

My first thought on reading the OP was....

It's now under the contol of a notorious Anti-Vaxxer who has made it clear that he is going to twist facts to go along with his viewpoint - Absolutely no way I'll be taking anything it says like this at face value

I'd need to hear it from a from a source with some sort of integrity before I'd pay any heed to this

Thank you. This is exactly how I interpreted it further up the thread, I thought I was the only one who thought this. They don’t say anywhere in the statement vaccines cause autism at all as far as I could make out.

https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-degrees-professional-trump-administration-11085695

This no longer means anything.

What conspiracy theories?

The fact that an increasing number of people choose to stick their fingers in their ears and dismiss the extensive research and mainstream scientific consensus does not mean that the research itself no longer means anything.

It merely means that an increasing number of people are no longer willing to listen to the actual experts because they prefer to listen to nutjobs on the Internet instead.

It is a reflection on the quality of our collective critical thinking skills, and not on the quality of the scientific research.