Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Oval Office on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
1. Disinformation
Yesterday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the nonpartisan agency whose work has long been the global gold-standard for health science—made a change to the section of its website on the nonexistent link between autism and vaccines. The CDC went from stating that “vaccines do not cause autism” to saying that:
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.
Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
We’re going to get into the details of this change in a minute, because they’re important. Kids will get sick because of what the CDC just did. Some of them will die.
But the even bigger story is that the U.S. government is no longer a reliable source of information. The consequences of this corruption will ripple through American society for years.
And despite my fit of optimism yesterday, this is not a thing that can be put back together. ...
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