The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to end its monkey research program will affect studies involving some 200 macaques, and the fate of the animals is unclear

The rewriting of a page on the CDC’s website to assert the false claim that vaccines may cause autism sparked a torrent of anger and anguish from doctors, scientists, and parents who say Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wrecking the credibility of an agency they’ve long relied on for unbiased scientific evidence.

The CDC has alarmed doctors and public health experts by changing language on its website related to vaccines and autism.

Kennedy told The New York Times he personally ordered the language change. There’s no evidence to support the claim. Kennedy tried to thread the needle in his interview with the Times, emphasizing that he’s not saying vaccines cause autism, rather that he doesn’t believe the claim that they don’t.

Public health experts warn that a major communication failure could worsen mistrust of vaccines, a problem brought to light by the CDC’s sudden revision of its long-standing autism and vaccines webpage.

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.

Many large studies have found no link between vaccines and autism, and the changes to the CDC’s website upend years of work by the agency to combat misinformation. Here’s what key groups were saying Thursday about the CDC’s shifting position on vaccines.