Following ICAN Lawsuit, CDC Removes Claim “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism” from its Website

ICAN's FOIA requests for studies CDC relies upon to claim vaccines given during the first 6 months of life do not cause autism proved CDC has no such studies.

AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, January 25, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Following more than three years of legal back-and-forth with the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), the Center For Disease Control has removed its claim “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism” from the organization’s website.

“This latest capitulation from a Federal health organization shows the power of determined persistence and the American justice system,” says Emmy-award winning producer Del Bigtree, founder of ICAN and host of the popular health and medical science news series The HighWire with Del Bigtree.

ICAN’s opening salvo against the CDC’s claim came in an October 2017 letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). That letter challenged the CDC to explain how it claims that “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism” when the Institute of Medicine recently found that there is not a single study to support that a common vaccine given to babies does not cause autism.

HHS’s response failed to provide any proof that any of the vaccines given during the first six months of life do not cause autism. ICAN responded as much on December 31, 2018 again demanding that the CDC provide the studies for this claim.

When those studies were not produced, ICAN submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for copies of the studies the CDC relied upon to claim the vaccines given during the first six months of life -- three doses each of DTaP, HepB, Hib, PCV13 and IPV – do not cause autism.

When the CDC failed to produce a list of the studies to support this claim, ICAN sued the CDC in federal court, where the CDC finally entered into a stipulation, signed by a federal court judge, whose details reflect that the CDC did not have the science to support that these vaccines do not cause autism.

In the stipulation and order¹, the CDC was only able to identify 20 studies:

1 relating to MMR (not a vaccine ICAN asked about);
13 relating to thimerosal (not an ingredient in any vaccine ICAN asked about);
4 relating to both MMR and thimerosal;
1 relating to antigen (not a vaccine) exposure; and
1 relating to MMR, thimerosal, and DTaP.

The one study relating to DTaP on the CDC’s list was a recent review by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), paid for by the CDC, which conducted a comprehensive review looking specifically for studies relating to whether DTaP does or does not cause autism. The IOM concluded that it could not identify a single study to support that DTaP does not cause autism.

In other words, the only study the CDC listed that actually looked at any of the vaccines given to babies during the first six months of life concluded that there are no studies to support that DTaP does not cause autism.

Following the conclusion of this court case and with ICAN continuing to press on the CDC regarding vaccine-autism its claim through other legal demands, the CDC finally removed its claim that “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism.” Compare the CDC’s autism-vaccine webpage on August 26, 2020² versus August 27, 2020³.

“This is a watershed moment for the vaccine risk awareness movement, and a victory for families and children everywhere,” says Bigtree. “This is a game changer.”

While the CDC does continue to claim that there is “no link between vaccines and autism,” ICAN is pleased with the result. It explains that saying “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism” means the question of whether vaccines cause autism is settled -- no further research is needed. Saying there “is no link between vaccines and autism” means that the question of whether vaccines cause autism is not settled – that further research is needed to prove whether or not vaccines cause autism.

The CDC’s website also claims that “Vaccine ingredients do not cause autism,” without specifying if it means all ingredients or just the one discussed on that page, thimerosal. ICAN intends to get to the bottom of that claim, including forcing the CDC to admit it cannot make that claim for aluminum adjuvants used in vaccines. Bigtree explained that “whether one or more ingredients, like water used in vaccines, does or does not cause autism is not really the issue. The question is whether the vaccine, the product itself as formulated, causes autism. And we now know that the CDC finally understands that it can no longer claim that ‘Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism.’”

Bigtree continued that “with the removal of this unsupported claim, it is ICAN’s sincere hope that our public health authorities will fund independent scientists to conduct the desperately needed studies of autism and the cumulative impact of the vaccines given during the first six months of life.” He continued that “the cries of parents who know that vaccines caused their child’s autism should no longer be ignored. The science must be done.”

Catharine Layton
Informed Consent Action Network
+1 201-233-6458
email us here

¹ https://www.icandecide.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Stipulation-and-Order-Fully-Executed.pdf
² https://web.archive.org/web/20200826160313/https:/www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html
³ https://web.archive.org/web/20200827173042/https:/www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html