The director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Sameer Vohra, joined a chorus of doctors, epidemiologists and other public health professionals this week in admonishing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest change to its vaccine safety webpage, which states “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,” a reversal from decades of established science.
Vohra, who has been IDPH director since 2022, reiterated his support of vaccinating infants and said the CDC’s website is posting “inaccurate information linking vaccines to autism.
“In Illinois, we follow scientific evidence, and the science is clear: vaccines are safe, effective and save lives. Unfortunately, the nation is seeing our federal government, once again, reject established research and cause confusion about long debunked claims between autism and vaccines,” Vohra wrote. “Both real-world experience and decades of research confirm that vaccines safely and reliably prevent diseases like measles, influenza, chickenpox, pertussis, Hepatitis B, polio and more. Without vaccination, these infections can lead to severe complications including pneumonia, brain swelling, paralysis and death.”
Public health officials fear the change will lead to decreased vaccination rates and an increase in what would be otherwise obscure infections. Vohra also criticized the CDC’s move as inconsiderate.
“It also perpetuates harmful stigma against individuals with autism and their families, while doing nothing to advance scientific understanding. People with autism are valued members of our communities, and they deserve our respect,” he wrote.
National policy and research organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and Autism Science Foundation, also issued statements decrying the CDC and debunking the agency’s recent update.
“There’s no link between vaccines and autism. Anyone repeating this harmful myth is misinformed or intentionally trying to mislead parents,” wrote Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “We call on the CDC to stop wasting government resources to amplify false claims that sow doubt in one of the best tools we have to keep children healthy and thriving: routine immunizations.”
Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, said the move has cratered the CDC’s credibility going forward under U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“The CDC has always been a trustworthy source of scientifically-backed information but it appears this is no longer the case,” Singer said in a statement. “Spreading this misinformation will needlessly cause fear in parents of young children who may not be aware of the mountains of data exonerating vaccines as a cause of autism and who may withhold vaccines in response to this misinformation, putting their children at risk to contract and potentially die from vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Autism Science Foundation’s statement listed the fields of ongoing research into potential causes of autism, most of which are related to genetics and pregnancy.
