Public health groups and physicians across the country have widely denounced new wording on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website suggesting that vaccines could be linked to autism, despite decades of evidence showing they are safe.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recast the vaccine safety section of its website on Wednesday to align with the view of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that childhood vaccines cause autism,

Cuts to funding and personnel at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are endangering the public’s health and threatening to disrupt the development of lifesaving vaccines, said former CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky at the Boston Globe Summit on Wednesday.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s dismantling of the CDC is being criticized by former officials who warn his actions are crippling the ability to grapple with health crises and at odds with his pledge to restore public trust in the agency.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed new initiatives for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including a program to increase hepatitis B screening for pregnant women,