The CDC, Autism, and the Collapse of Reason
Week Ending November 23, 2025
The Story
This week, the CDC quietly revised its vaccine-safety webpage, suggesting that the statement “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not evidence-based.”
No new research was cited. No expert review prompted the change.
Just a quiet undoing of decades of scientific consensus, a betrayal of public trust at the worst possible time.
Vaccines and Autism: The Facts
Extensive, high-quality evidence demonstrates that vaccines do not cause autism. This isn’t conjecture — it’s settled, peer-reviewed, reproducible science.
Meta-analyses covering over 1.2 million children show no link between vaccination and autism.
Large cohort studies, including the Danish nationwide analysis of 650,000 children, show no increased risk of autism after MMR vaccination, even among siblings of autistic children.
Reviews by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American Academy of Pediatrics rate the evidence that vaccines do not cause autism.
Comprehensive reviews in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and JAMA Pediatrics confirm that repeated studies in multiple countries have found no causal link.
That infamous 1998 Lancet paper is retracted, discredited, the author stripped of his medical license.
This is one of the most rigorously studied questions in medicine. The consensus is overwhelming and global:
Vaccines do not cause autism. Period.
For the CDC to now equivocate is not being “open to evidence” — it’s a surrender of scientific integrity.
As Christopher Hitchens might have said: this is what happens when cowardice masquerades as curiosity.
The CDC didn’t move the goalposts.
It burned them.
Measles: The Real Crisis
And while the CDC undermines confidence in established science, measles is roaring back.
Canada has lost its measles-free status, and the United States has seen increasing outbreaks this year.
Some pundits claim it’s because of undocumented immigrants. Let’s be clear: that is false.
There is no ambiguity about the cause.
The rise in measles cases in North America is primarily due to:
Declining vaccination rates
Vaccine hesitancy
Importation of cases from regions where measles remains endemic
Recent outbreaks have disproportionately affected under vaccinated communities, often after travelers returned from endemic regions and introduced measles locally.
Most cases occur in unvaccinated individuals or those with unknown vaccination status.
The outbreaks spread through close-knit communities with low immunization coverage.
Vaccine hesitancy, fueled by misinformation, distrust, and social media amplification of anti-vaccination sentiment, has led to an increase in non-medical exemptions and a decline in MMR uptake.
The COVID-19 pandemic further disrupted routine childhood immunizations, widening immunity gaps.
Modeling studies show that even modest increases in vaccine exemptions lead to exponential rises in measles cases and public-health costs.
This is not speculation. It is measurable.
It is preventable.
CDC’s Trust Crisis
In a bold commentary titled “CDC Cannot Currently Be Trusted as a Scientific Voice”, the publication ConscienHealth laid bare the depth of the problem.
The article confirmed that the CDC changed its site overnight — without input from scientists — to reflect the anti-vaccine agenda of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
Specifically, the language: “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.” — which the article states is plainly false.
Pediatric infectious-disease experts quoted in the piece warned that trust in the CDC is now on very shaky ground.
“With this change, it really is a dark day in terms of, can we trust what’s coming from the CDC anymore?”
– Dr. Sean O’Leary, University of Colorado
Whether this is a moment of “temporary insanity” or a structural collapse of scientific credibility remains to be seen. But one fact is clear: the CDC’s institutional integrity has been compromised — at precisely the moment when trust matters most.
The Rest of This Week in Medicine
NIH Funding Cuts — Science Starved, Fantasy Fed
Over 74,000 patients have been affected, as National Institutes of Health funding pauses 383 ongoing clinical studies — including trials in cancer, heart disease and infectious diseases.
This is real science that has enrolled thousands of willing participants, and now this has stopped. This is horrific.
We are cutting real science to make room for the fantasy that is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Smoking “Just a Little” Is Still Deadly
A PLOS Medicine study found that even two to five cigarettes a day significantly increases the risk of heart disease, heart failure and death.
Quitting cuts that risk by 80 percent within 20 years. Proof that it is never too late to stop.
Exercise and Dementia Prevention
In JAMA Network Open, midlife and late-life physical activity reduced dementia risk by up to 45 percent.
Translation: walk, dance, move. You’re literally building brain resilience.
CRISPR Breakthrough in Cholesterol Control
A first-in-human gene editing study cut LDL cholesterol and triglycerides by half with a single infusion - a potential one-time therapy to prevent heart disease.
Coffee and Heart Rhythm
JAMA researchers found coffee drinkers had fewer recurrences of atrial fibrillation.
Caffeine, once demonized, may protect more than it provokes.
Yes, I remember my dad’s cardiologist telling him he had to quit coffee after his first heart attack in 1980. My dad didn’t quit drinking coffee, and lived another 44 years, outliving both the cardiologist and his family doctor.
Nutrition and the Modern Plate
Ultra-processed foods increase early precancerous colon growths by 45 percent (JAMA Oncology).
DASH-diet deliveries in food deserts lowered blood pressure and LDL cholesterol — but benefits vanished when the program ended.
High fiber continues to help colorectal cancer survivors manage bowel symptoms years post-treatment.
Food still works — when we use it right.
HRT Black Box Warning Removed
The Food and Drug Administration will remove the decades-old black-box warning on hormone-replacement therapy.
Starting estrogen within 10 years of menopause is now recognized as beneficial for long-term health — a long-overdue correction.
GLP-1s and Addiction
Beyond weight loss, GLP-1 receptor drugs (like Ozempic) may reduce addictive behaviors.
Research suggests GLP-1 receptor activation in the brain reduces cravings and compulsive consumption.
From food noise to booze noise — perhaps the same pathway quiets both.
Closing Thoughts
This week reminded us that science doesn’t die from lack of data.
It dies from cowardice, neglect, and distraction.
But unlike politics, medicine corrects itself.
Because reality — inconvenient as it is — always wins.