For more than 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the public that studies show no link between vaccines and autism . On Nov. 19, it revised its messaging, acknowledging that current evidence does not rule out a possible association. This was not an announcement of a newly discovered risk; it was a correction of an earlier claim that exceeded what the science had demonstrated. The CDC update to its website was a long-overdue correction of the messaging.

The reality of the research on autism and vaccines is clear. All the foundational studies on this topic — the ones cited to say that the science is settled — were designed to detect moderate to large increases in the risk of autism. None of them were designed to detect small increases, and by “small” think

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