Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at the inaugural Make America Healthy Again summit in Washington earlier this month.Rod Lamkey/The Associated Press

Sometime, in the not-too-distant future, we’re going to look back and wonder: Whatever happened to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at one time the single most powerful and influential public-health agency on Earth?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (which oversees the CDC), and a fervent anti-vaccine activist, seems hell-bent on using his position to destroy the CDC.

Last week, in his latest salvo, Mr. Kennedy personally instructed the agency to change its long-standing position that vaccines do not cause autism.

Before the update, the CDC website said studies have shown that there is “no link” between vaccines and developing autism, and that “no links” have been found between any vaccine ingredients and the disorder.

The page now says that studies supporting a link between vaccines and autism “have been ignored by health authorities.”

Then it adds: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that........

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