Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is slamming Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over statements he made relating to childhood vaccines and their potential links to Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Healey hosted a forum Wednesday at the Department of Public Health headquarters in Boston, where she urged members of the public to maintain their trust in childhood vaccines against what she calls “misinformation” spread by Sec. Kennedy, HHS and the CDC.

The governor also warned about an upcoming vote this week by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which could result in an overhaul on how the federal government advises on children’s vaccines.

“We know that Secretary Kennedy removed and hand-picked members of the ACIP committee. We understand that within the next two days they will be looking at childhood and adolescent immunizations as well as Hepatitis B vaccines and general issues related to vaccine safety,” Healey said as she opened up the forum. “Based on everything that we’ve seen and heard so far from Secretary Kennedy over the last nine months, ten months, we have real concerns and very little confidence that what they put out will be sound and based in science.”

Healey this year signed legislation allowing the DPH to issue its own vaccine recommendations she says are “rooted in science and data,” and says the department will do the same if the CDC votes to delay Hepatitis B shots to children.

“No matter what ACIP does in the next couple of days, we are going to make sure that vaccine (Hepatitis B) remains available here in Massachusetts,” Healey said.

The governor also slammed Kennedy in a press release last week for a post on the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) website that she says “insinuates a link between vaccines and autism,” calling it “the latest troubling installment.” The governor went on to say Kennedy and the CDC’s claims were “based on conspiracy theories and false information,” and not rooted in science.

But HHS is pushing back, defending the CDC web update in a statement sent to the Herald.

“Governor Healey is just simply wrong. This is a common-sense update that brings CDC’s website in line with our commitment to transparency and gold standard science,” HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said.

“As the updated page explains, the claim that ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not supported by comprehensive evidence, as studies to date have not definitively ruled out potential associations. Some research suggesting possible biologic mechanisms has been ignored or dismissed by public health agencies, and HHS is committed to finding a definitive answer,” he said.

The Herald asked Healey and DPH Commissioner Dr. Robert Goldstein if they would respond to Nixon’s words. Healey deferred to Goldstein.

“They’re wrong in their interpretation of the data. There are multiple studies – study after study after study – that have demonstrated the safety of vaccines, study that have looked at the full pediatric immunization schedule that shows no increased risks of autism or other adverse events, studies that have looked at individual vaccines and have shown no increased risk of autism or other adverse events, and studies adjuvants – the other ingredients that are in the vaccine – and it showed no increased risk of autism or other adverse events,” said Goldstein.

“So, I would ask them to go back and share what data they are looking at and to make sure they are interpreting it correctly,” he said.

Nixon went on to defend Kennedy’s effort to find the causes of autism, again emphasizing the Department’s focus on transparency.

“Secretary Kennedy has launched a comprehensive review of autism’s causes, including investigations into environmental and biologic factors, with an emphasis on transparency, reproducibility, and gold-standard science. The CDC’s site updates are part of that broader effort to ensure all public-facing information reflects ongoing scientific inquiry,” he said.

The governor also says the state will continue to provide its own, individual vaccine recommendations, regardless of how the CDC committee votes. She then placed the blame on Secretary Kennedy and the Trump Administration that she says has “led to an erosion of trust around the country.”

“At the end of the day if the federal government or an administration or a secretary at the federal level is not going to do their job, governors here and around the country are going to continue to do theirs,” Healey said.

“And one of our responsibilities is to make sure that we’re straight with the public, that we’re providing information, we’re providing the science and that we’re informing Bay Staters about what’s happening and what their options are, and correcting some of the really egregious untruths and misstatements that are out there that have unfortunately led to confusion and an erosion of trust around the country,” she said.

The ACIP committee is expected to debate and vote on recommendations on vaccines for children and adolescents by the end of the week.

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