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 agency’s revamped vaccine-safety page enshrines Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s fringe beliefs as government guidance.

A page of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website was changed to include a false claim about autism and vaccines. Multiple CDC officials familiar with the situation said the change was made by political appointees inside the Department of Health and Human Services without input from relevant agency staffers.