In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.
A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.
Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen."
He recently ran for president as an independent and has now endorsed Trump. If Trump wins, RFK could get a major job in the administration.
Even though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended his presidential bid in August, he appears to be as busy as ever—but now, on the campaign trail for former President Donald Trump, where he’s modified the MAGA slogan to MAHA: Make America Healthy Again. Trump has picked up some of Kennedy’s favorite lines, as well: At a recent event, where Kennedy was a featured speaker, Trump bemoaned the epidemic of chronic illness in the United States, which Kennedy long has said he believes is caused by vaccines, toxins in food, and overreliance on medication. Kennedy would be included in a presidential panel, Trump promised supporters, that would focus on “the decades-long increase in chronic health problems, including autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility and many more.”
By adopting these talking points and embracing the failed third-party candidate, Trump is making a bid for a much-coveted group of crossover voters. Over his years as an environmental activist and then an anti-vaccine crusader, Kennedy has built up a vast network of allies in the political gray zone where far-left natural health enthusiasts meet libertarian-leaning independents and Republicans who rail against government overreach. In a race that is predicted to be won on razor-thin margins, Trump needs all the voters from that left-meets-right zone that he can get. Kennedy is expected to woo a small but meaningful number of them to team Trump—especially if he succeeds in getting his name removed from the ballots in the two swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin.
One emissary from this political gray area is Zen Honeycutt, the founder and executive director of the anti-GMO organization Moms Across America. In a wide-ranging conversation with Mother Jones this week, Honeycutt described her years of work with Kennedy, and what she sees as a sea change in the political leanings of her group’s core followers in the 13 years since she founded Moms Across America. A decade ago, the group attracted a predominantly left-leaning audience who were concerned mostly about toxins in food and what they saw as the dangerous unknowns of genetically modified organisms. But now, the group appeals to many Independents and Republicans who worry more about government overreach.
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Honeycutt founded Moms Across America in 2011 as a group to oppose genetically modified ingredients in food, which she considered to be potentially dangerous to both human health and the environment. But in the years since, she has weighed in on myriad other health issues, such as staunchly opposing childhood vaccine requirements. She believes, that the shot that protects against measles, mumps, and rubella contains GMOs and traces of pesticides, and that it causes autism. (The theory that vaccines cause autism has been widely debunked.)
