The CDC revised its website in 2024 at the direction of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine advocate, to suggest a possible link between vaccines and autism despite extensive research disproving such a connection. A study published in Science surveyed 2,989 US adults and found that participants who read the revised CDC messaging judged vaccines as riskier, were less likely to trust the CDC or get vaccinated, and were more prone to conspiracy-based reasoning, with effects consistent across political affiliations. Public health experts warned the revision could cause parents to skip lifesaving vaccines amid already declining US childhood immunization rates. Lead researcher Robert Böhm of the University of Vienna called for mandatory peer review of vaccine information before publication on government websites, noting that the CDC serves as an authoritative voice for most Americans who don't closely follow health guidelines.
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