New Delhi:The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), the national public health agency of America, has quietly taken up an anti-vaccine stand, hinting at the association between vaccines and autism.

However, experts on Friday thwarted the claims. Once a key opponent of growing global anti-vaccine sentiment, the change in CDC reflects an anti-vaccine stance by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which is also endorsed by President Donald Trump.

“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,” read the US CDC website.The updated page also says studies supporting a link “have been ignored by health authorities” and mentions that HHS is doing a “comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism.”

However, the old webpage had stated: “No links have been found between any vaccine ingredients and ASD”.Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan of the Indian Medical Association, Kochi, told IANS that the scientific evidence is clear that vaccines do not raise the risk of autism.

He cited a large Danish study following more than 650,000 children, which found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Source:Ndtv