With Trump and RFK Jr. Working Together the CDC Has Finally Found Their Balls

A stunning reversal buried in website fine print admits decades of “settled science” was never actually proven - and millions of patients were gaslit for asking questions

So here’s a fun story about how I learned that doctors wearing white coats can lie to your face with absolute confidence while having exactly ZERO evidence to back up what they’re saying.

(Spoiler alert: it happened to me twice. Because apparently I’m a slow learner.)

But first - yesterday, something genuinely remarkable happened.

The CDC - the same agency that has spent literal decades telling parents with the certainty of Moses descending from Mount Sinai that vaccines do not cause autism - quietly updated their website to admit they never actually had the evidence to make that claim.

I’ll wait while you re-read that sentence.

The CDC’s updated webpage now admits what they’ve denied for decades: the science was never settled. Oops.

The new language is stunning in its honesty: “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.”

They go further. They admit this connection “has not been properly and thoroughly studied by the scientific community.” They cite multiple authoritative reviews - from 1991, 2012, and 2021 - all concluding the evidence was “inadequate to accept or reject” a causal relationship.

Translation for those in the back: FOR DECADES, THEY’VE BEEN STATING AS SETTLED FACT SOMETHING THE ACTUAL EVIDENCE NEVER SUPPORTED.

If you’re a parent who was gaslit, dismissed, or shamed for asking whether your child’s reaction might be connected to something they received hours before - this admission matters.

Because the doctor wearing the white coat who told you with absolute certainty “it definitely wasn’t that” was lying. Maybe not intentionally.

But my kindergarten teacher SWORE on all of my Skittles that stating as fact something that has never been established is, in fact, a dirty, dirty lie.

I know this personally. Because I lived it twice. (See: slow learner, above.)

The Day My Kid Went Blue

Years ago, I took my daughter to the pediatrician for routine shots. Standard good mom stuff. That afternoon, she went down for a nap.

She woke up having a seizure.

I remember walking into her room and screaming because I didn’t know what to do. She was blue and shaking, and I couldn’t stop it. “Febrile seizure,” they said, despite the fact that she HAD NO FEVER. “It’ll pass.”

Dear Reader, it did not pass.

The episodes continued. Eventually she ended up at Johns Hopkins Hospital Pediatric Neurology - presumably some of the smartest brains in the baby brain business. My sweet little one was sedated and placed into an MRI machine multiple times over the following months.

Their diagnosis: the nerve cells in her brain were “spontaneously demyelinating” - the protective coating on her nerves was breaking down ‘spontaneously.’ They couldn’t say why.

I had obvious questions:

• Would she die?

• Would it get worse?

• Could it correct itself?

• Why did this happen at all?

• What would it mean for her life?

And the one that seemed most obvious to literally anyone with functioning, healthy curiosity: Did it have anything to do with the medicines she got that morning - because she was scheduled for more.

Here’s what I got from presumably some of the best pediatric neurologists in the world:

“Look, we don’t know what will happen or what set it off. We do know that if this continues to progress, it won’t be good. All we can do is wait and see. There is no treatment. There is no cure. No, we don’t know what caused it, but it definitely was NOT THE VACCINES - they simply don’t do this.”

That last part - delivered with absolute confidence. Zero hedge. Complete certainty.

And that was the end of my questioning. Some very smart doctor wearing a white coat said it wasn’t the vax, so it couldn’t be.

(Kids - if you’re reading this - yes, I was gullible. I know.)

Plot Twist: I’m Also a Slow Learner About My Own Body

Fast forward a few years. I’m living in Europe, dancing professionally, traveling the world and getting frequent infections.

I’m not sleeping, eating exclusively at restaurants, practicing all day & performing every night.

After like the 4th doctor visit, my doctor offered me an experimental vax to prevent these infections. She told me it would ‘strengthen my immune response’ and end my misery. I asked about risks. She told me vaccines are incredibly safe, and I had nothing to worry about.

The consent form was in German - detailed, technical, intimidating. But signing was the only way to get my “magic drug,” so I skimmed, signed, took the shot and headed home.

The chills started that night. Then fever. Then body aches that made me feel like I’d been hit by a truck.

Over the coming weeks and months, the fever became intermittent and new symptoms appeared - food intolerances, horrific reflux, nausea, massive stomach bloating.

Over the next six months, I got worse. I had to stop traveling, then stopped performing, then took a leave of absence, lost over 20 pounds.

I weighed 98 pounds but still had to wear maternity jeans because of how my stomach would bloat. I was pale, had no energy and looked like a walking skeleton.

I was in and out of doctors’ offices, desperately searching for answers.

It was during that very dark time that I started reading everything I could find. Prescription inserts. Toxicity data on EPA and CDC websites. Research studies used to approve medications and the ones used to debunk “conspiracy theories” about risk.

The more actual data I consumed, the more I realized: no definitive conclusion could be made.

And above all, I realized that the confidence with which I’d been told it was “crazy” to think my daughter’s reaction could be associated with something given to her less than 6 hours before a neurological meltdown was totally unfounded.

The physician should have had zero confidence in that statement. The temporal association alone was reason enough not to dismiss the possibility.

What Honesty Actually Sounds Like (Spoiler: It’s never “we have no idea, but we’re certain it’s not that”)

Many years later, as a clinician myself, I now know that to utter the words: “We don’t know what caused xyz but we know with 100% certainty that it wasn’t THAT” is complete bullshit.

It’s not science. It’s just dogma and shilling masquerading as smarts.

Real science says: “We don’t know what caused your daughter’s reaction. The timing is concerning, and we should document it. We should study whether there’s a pattern with what happens to other kids. Here’s what we do know…, here’s what we don’t know…, and here’s how we’ll monitor going forward…”

That’s honesty. That’s integrity. And it’s what builds trust.

But that’s not what we got. Not for my daughter. Not for me. Not for millions of other patients.

Instead, we got certainty where none existed. We got dismissal. We got shaming. We got told not to question. We got called names for asking obvious questions.

And now - decades after I was told with absolute confidence that my questions were unfounded - the CDC admits they never had the evidence to support that confidence in the first place.

The Burden of Proof Bait-and-Switch

This week, my X feed brought me a fascinating tweet that perfectly captures the sleight of hand that’s been happening for decades.

Oh Dr. Glaucomflecken…

The framing here sounds scientific - until you realize what’s being mandated and who’s doing the mandating.

Dr. Glaucomflecken, a physician with a large social media following, posted: “’Vaccines don’t cause autism’ has never been proven.” But we don’t have to.

His point? That’s just ‘not how science works’

If I say “sunning your perineum twice per day increases your IQ by 10 points,” he argued, I haven’t proven anything. The burden of proof is on me to prove my claim, not on everyone else to disprove it.

Sounds reasonable, right?

It’s also where his argument falls apart completely:

• I’m not forcing anyone to sun their perineum.

• I’m not threatening to fire them or keep them from attending school unless they comply with said ‘perineum-sunning’ protocol.

• I’m not using the power of government and medical institutions to mandate that every parent follow the recommendation.

But that’s exactly what’s happening with childhood immunization schedules and vaccine mandates across the board.

If you are forcing me to take a pharmaceutical product to keep my job, if you are threatening to exclude my child from education unless they comply, if you are using institutional power to mandate an intervention - then yes, the burden of proof absolutely IS on you to prove it’s safe.

When something is compulsory or strongly coerced through institutional requirements, the burden of proof flips entirely.

You don’t get to say “well, you haven’t proven it causes harm” when you’re the one wielding the power of the state to force compliance.

That’s not me being anti-science. That’s basic medical ethics. It’s informed consent. It’s the Nuremberg Code. It’s every principle we supposedly hold sacred about bodily autonomy and medical freedom.

If these interventions were truly voluntary - if parents could freely choose without coercion, without school exclusions, without social shaming - then fine, the burden of proof framework might apply differently.

But when you’re using institutional force? When doctors are telling parents with absolute certainty that something is safe when the evidence doesn’t support that certainty? When health agencies are making definitive claims they can’t back up?

No. That’s coercion and dishonesty.

And as the CDC just admitted: they never had that proof. They just acted like they did for decades while dismissing anyone who dared to ask questions.

Why This Actually Matters (Beyond Vindication, Though That’s Nice Too)

This isn’t about proving anything causes autism. The data on that question remains genuinely uncertain - which is exactly the point.

What matters is what happens when institutions prioritize protecting their authority over protecting the truth.

When you tell parents with absolute certainty something you cannot prove, and then dismiss their lived experiences when they don’t align with your narrative, you don’t build trust. You destroy it.

When you shame people for asking legitimate scientific questions because you’re afraid of where those questions might lead, you’re not defending science. You’re defending dogma.

When you mandate interventions while simultaneously refusing to study potential harms, you’re not practicing evidence-based medicine.

You’re actually practicing evidence-resistant authoritarianism.

The CDC now admits what many of us learned the hard way: The science was never as settled as they claimed. Multiple authoritative bodies - including the Institute of Medicine in 1991, 2012, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2021 - all concluded the evidence was “inadequate to accept or reject” a causal relationship.

That’s not anti-anything hysteria. That’s what the actual scientific reviews said.

Yet for decades, parents were told the science was settled. Doctors were trained to dismiss concerns with absolute confidence. Researchers who wanted to investigate were ostracized. And anyone who dared to question was labeled dangerous, anti-science, a threat to public health.

What Happens When Institutions Finally Tell the Truth

Did a vaccine cause my child’s neurological crisis? I don’t know.

Did a vaccine cause mine? I don’t know.

But the fact that I don’t know - and that the CDC now admits they don’t know either - is the entire point.

The problem was never the uncertainty. The problem was pretending certainty existed when it didn’t.

The problem was wielding institutional power to mandate interventions while refusing to acknowledge legitimate questions about safety.

The problem was telling parents their lived experiences didn’t matter because they contradicted the approved narrative.

This CDC revision isn’t an ending. It’s a beginning.

The agency now says HHS has launched “a comprehensive assessment” into the causes of autism, including investigations into “plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.”

This is what honest science looks like. Not blanket denials. Not certainty where none exists. But genuine investigation into legitimate questions.

Because here’s what we know for certain: When institutions project false certainty to protect their authority rather than admitting uncertainty to pursue truth, everyone loses.

When doctors dismiss parents’ concerns with confidence unsupported by evidence, trust erodes.

When health agencies use their power to mandate interventions while refusing to study potential harms, they’re not executing science - they’re executing coercion.

Pay attention to the people who don’t allow questions to be asked. Pay attention to those who mistake defending their authority for defending science. Pay attention to those who demand you prove harm while they mandate interventions without proving safety.

Real science is a dynamic process, an ever-changing iteration of best practices. It requires humility. It requires updating when evidence changes - or when we finally admit the evidence was never as strong as we claimed.

My child didn’t die. Thankfully, neither did I. I found answers through my own research and recovered.

But how many others were dismissed? How many parents were gaslit? How many children didn’t get the investigation they deserved because asking questions became heresy?

The CDC’s quiet admission this week changes nothing about what happened to us. But it validates what we knew all along:

Science was never settled. The questions were always legitimate. And the certainty used to silence us was always a lie.

Until next time

-Tiffany

PS: If you made it to the end please ‘like’ or comment, so more people have the opportunity to read it.

PPS: Until then I’ll be here waiting for my apology from Hopkins, not holding my breath.