RFK Jr. Personally Told CDC To Change Website On Vaccines And Autism

The New York Times: RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC To Change Vaccines And Autism Language On Website
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview that he personally instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to abandon its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism — a move that underscores his determination to challenge scientific consensus and bend the health department to his will. (Gay Stolberg, 11/21)

KFF Health News: What To Know About The CDC’s Baseless New Guidance On Autism
The rewriting of a page on the CDC’s website to assert the false claim that vaccines may cause autism sparked a torrent of anger and anguish from doctors, scientists, and parents who say Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wrecking the credibility of an agency they’ve long relied on for unbiased scientific evidence. Many scientists and public health officials fear that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, which now baselessly claims that health authorities previously ignored evidence of a vaccine-autism link, foreshadows a larger, dangerous attack on childhood vaccination. (Allen, 11/21)

KFF Health News: Kennedy Sharpens Vaccine Attacks, Without Scientific Backing
As the federal government prepares for the next meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has intensified his attacks on aluminum vaccine components used in many shots to boost the body’s immune response. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before seeking public office, claims that aluminum adjuvants are neurotoxic and tied to autism, asthma, autoimmune disease, and food allergies. But science and medicine advances a different view. (Gounder, 11/24)

The Hill: Bill Cassidy Reiterates Push For Trust In Vaccine Efficacy After CDC Shift
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) said that the science on vaccine efficacy should not be undermined, days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contradicted its long-standing position that vaccines do not cause autism. “Anything that undermines the understanding, the correct understanding, the absolute scientifically based understanding that vaccines are safe and that, if you don’t take them, you’re putting your child or yourself in greater danger, anything that undermines that message is a problem,” Cassidy, a physician, told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” (Rego, 11/23)

MedPage Today: 'Dangerous': Medical Groups Slam CDC Changes On Vaccines And Autism
The American Medical Association (AMA) and other groups warned that recent changes to the CDC website may ignite a dangerous surge in vaccine misinformation and erode public trust. (George, 11/21)

AP: Experts Question Trump And RFK Jr.'s 'Gold Standard' Science
The message is hammered over and over, in news conferences, hearings and executive orders: President Donald Trump and his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., say they want the government to follow “gold standard” science. Scientists say the problem is that they are often doing just the opposite by relying on preliminary studies, fringe science or just hunches to make claims, cast doubt on proven treatments or even set policy. This week, the nation’s top public health agency changed its website to contradict the scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism. The move shocked health experts nationwide. (Shastri, 11/22)

RFK Jr.'s cousin announces she has terminal cancer —

The New York Times: Tatiana Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy’s Granddaughter, Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis 
Tatiana Schlossberg, the 35-year-old daughter of Caroline Kennedy and a granddaughter of John F. Kennedy, revealed in an essay published in The New Yorker on Saturday that she is fighting a rare and aggressive blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia. Ms. Schlossberg, an environmental journalist, said in the essay that her cancer was discovered in May 2024, while she was in the hospital for the birth of her second child. ... Ms. Schlossberg, a former science writer for The New York Times, lashes out at her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for policy decisions and budget cuts that put the nation’s well being, and her own fragile health, at risk. (Russell, 11/22)

Vaccine news on hepatitis B, HPV, and covid —

CIDRAP: CDC Outlines New Initiatives Such As Expanded Hepatitis B Screening With Potential Vaccine Policy Impacts
This week, leaders at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) circulated a list of 16 strategic initiatives that offer the clearest view yet of the Trump administration's plans for the agency under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The list, shared in an internal memo obtained by STAT, includes initiatives such as decreasing animal testing, advancing diagnostic preparedness, and "invigorating the CDC workforce." (Bergeson, 11/21)

Bloomberg: HPV Research Bolsters Case For Vaccine In Misinformation Battle
Vaccination against a common virus that causes cervical cancer is highly effective, new research shows, providing welcome evidence for health-care providers as they try to counter misinformation around the shots. HPV vaccination reduces the incidence of cervical cancer by about 80% in people vaccinated at or before the age of 16, according to findings published Monday in two Cochrane reviews, which combine evidence from multiple studies and are considered the gold-standard of research.Protection remains significant when the vaccine is given later, though the reduction in cancer risk is lower, according to the research. (Ahmadi and Furlong, 11/24)

Newsweek: COVID Vaccine Tech May Reduce Disabilities In Snakebite Victims
COVID vaccine technology could help reduce disabilities in people caused by injuries from snakebites. Researchers at the University of Reading, England, found that the same mRNA tech used in coronavirus vaccinations could help to prevent muscle damage in snakebite victims and the knock-on impacts that linger even after treatment. (Millington, 11/24)

Axios: Long COVID Systems Can Start And Stop 8 Different Ways. Here They Are
There are eight different ways people experience long COVID symptoms, according to a new study from the National Institutes of Health's research initiative. The new study represents one of the most substantive findings on long COVID from the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) project, launched by the NIH in 2021. (Scribner, 11/22)