Pavlo Gonchar|Getty Images

A medical syringe and small figures of people are seen in front of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logo.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, America’s federal public health agency, is spreading misinformation on its website – putting thousands of young children and their families at risk for contracting preventable illnesses. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. changed the CDC page on autism and vaccines to state that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”

As an autism scientist for nearly 30 years, I have never seen anything this dangerous to the health and well-being of our country. These claims were posted without input from CDC experts and are not based on real science. Instead, they stem from misinterpretations of the scientific process, biased selection of flawed research and rejection of rigorous studies that show there is no link between vaccines and autism. Within two days, professional organizations rallied against this new attempt to gaslight the American public.

The increase in the number of autism cases is not an epidemic, like some people believe. Broader criteria, increased awareness and improved access to screening and diagnosis have made it so that more children, adolescents and adults are diagnosed with autism each year. But this increased awareness has brought with it a flood of information – both true and false – about autism. Now, people are faced with the increasingly difficult question of what to believe and who to trust.

In today’s age of misinformation, I have seen parents immobilized by conflicting advice from social media and well-meaning but uninformed loved ones. Some parents on a Listserv I belong to reject evidence-based early intervention (play-based........

© U.S.News