Finding More Autism Among Adults

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the uncertainty surrounding estimates of autism prevalence. 

Until recently, there was very little research into prevalence among adults.

And getting a diagnosis as an adult is difficult.

Grosvenor LP, Croen LA, Lynch FL, et al. Autism Diagnosis Among US Children and Adults, 2011-2022. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(10):e2442218. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.42218

Question How have autism diagnosis rates changed over time among children and adults seeking care from a network of health systems in the US?

Findings In this cross-sectional study of electronic US health and insurance claims records for over 9 million individuals per year from 2011 to 2022, relative increases in autism diagnosis rates were greatest among young adults compared with all other age groups, female compared with male individuals, and some racial and ethnic minority groups compared with White individuals among children but not adults.

Meaning Patterns of increase in autism diagnosis rates reflect a need for expanded health care services and continued research on sociodemographic disparities among this growing population.

Abstract

Importance An improved understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence over time and across the lifespan can inform health care service delivery for the growing population of autistic children and adults.

Objective To describe trends in the prevalence of ASD diagnoses using electronic records data from a large network of health systems in the US.

Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study examined annual diagnosis rates in health records of patients in US health systems from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2022. Eligible individuals were included in the study sample for a given calendar year if they were enrolled in a participating health system for at least 10 months out of the year. Data were extracted from 12 sites participating in the Mental Health Research Network, a consortium of research centers embedded within large, diverse health care systems.

Main Outcome and Measures Diagnoses of ASD were ascertained using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) and International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) revision codes. Annual diagnosis rates were calculated as the number of unique members diagnosed, divided by the total members enrolled.

Results A total of 12 264 003 members were enrolled in 2022 (2 359 359 children aged 0 to 17 years [19.2%]; 6 400 222 female [52.2%]; 93 002 American Indian or Alaska Native [0.8%], 1 711 950 Asian [14.0%], 952 287 Black or African American [7.8%], 2 971 355 Hispanic [24.2%], 166 144 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander [1.4%], and 6 462 298 White [52.7%]). The ASD diagnosis rate was greatest among 5-to-8-year-olds throughout the study period and increased by 175% among the full sample, from 2.3 per 1000 in 2011 to 6.3 per 1000 in 2022. The greatest relative increase in diagnosis rate from 2011 to 2022 occurred among 26-to-34-year-olds (450%) and increases were greater for female vs male individuals among children (305% [estimated annual percentage change (EAPC), 13.62 percentage points; 95% CI, 12.49-14.75 percentage points] vs 185% [EAPC, 9.63 percentage points; 95% CI, 8.54-10.72 percentage points], respectively) and adults (315% [EAPC, 13.73 percentage points; 95% CI, 12.61-14.86 percentage points] vs 215% [EAPC, 10.33 percentage points; 95% CI, 9.24-11.43 percentage points]). Relative increases were greater in racial and ethnic minority groups compared with White individuals among children, but not adults.

Conclusions and Relevance In this cross-sectional study of children and adults in the US, ASD diagnosis rates increased substantially between 2011 and 2022, particularly among young adults, female children and adults, and children from some racial or ethnic minority groups. Diagnosis prevalence trends generated using health system data can inform the allocation of resources to meet the service needs of this growing, medically complex population.

Pertussis Is Surging

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 -- and pertussis, aka whooping cough.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the myth.

Hatty Willmoth at Newsweek:

Cases of whooping cough are on the rise in the United States, according to preliminary data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC's website says that more than five times as many cases of whooping cough were reported in 2024 compared to 2023 when looking from January to October of both years.

There are some whooping cough hotspots. Out of more than 19,000 cases nationally, more than a thousand cases have come from Minnesota.

Whooping cough can kill

Vaccines can prevent it.

Trump promises to cut off federal funds to schools that mandate vaccines.

Prenatal Cannabis Use

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition. 

A previous post reported on research suggesting a connection with prenatal cannabis use.  New studies reach a different conclusion.

Elana Gotkine at HealthDay:

Prenatal cannabis use is not associated with child autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or with child early developmental delays, according to two studies published online Oct. 18 in JAMA Network Open.

Lyndsay A. Avalos, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Pleasanton, and colleagues examined the association between maternal cannabis use in early pregnancy and ASD in children in a population-based retrospective birth cohort study. The study cohort included 178,948 singleton pregnancies among 146,296 unique pregnant individuals, 4.7 percent of whom screened positive for cannabis use. The researchers found that 3.6 percent of children were diagnosed with ASD. Maternal prenatal cannabis use was not associated with child ASD after adjustment for maternal characteristics. After confounder adjustment, no statistically significant associations were observed when self-reported frequency of cannabis use was assessed.

In a second study, Avalos and colleagues examined associations between maternal prenatal cannabis use in early pregnancy and child early developmental delays in a cohort study involving 119,976 children born to 106,240 unique individuals followed up to age 5.5 years or younger. Maternal prenatal cannabis use was documented in 5.6 percent of pregnancies. The researchers observed no association between maternal prenatal cannabis use and child speech and language disorders, global developmental delays, or motor delays. The frequency of maternal prenatal cannabis use was not associated with child early developmental delays.

"Additional studies are needed to evaluate cannabis use throughout pregnancy, mode of administration and product strength, as well as potential factors that may mitigate adverse associations and neurodevelopmental outcomes that may emerge later in childhood," Avalos and colleagues write in the second study.

More information: Lyndsay A. Avalos et al, Maternal Prenatal Cannabis Use and Child Autism Spectrum Disorder, JAMA Network Open (2024). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.40301

Lyndsay A. Avalos et al, Early Maternal Prenatal Cannabis Use and Child Developmental Delays, JAMA Network Open (2024). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.40295
Journal information: JAMA Network Open

Trump to RFK: Go Wild

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism quackery.  There have been lots of bogus "cures" over the years:, including chelation. 

Trump says he would give RFK Jr. a role in a future administration and let him do whatever he wants on health.  His agenda -- which includes chelation -- would put Americans at risk.

Brett Samuels at The Hill:

Former President Trump said Sunday that he would let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” in dealing with issues related to food, medicine and health in a potential second administration.

“I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines,” Trump told supporters at Madison Square Garden.

...

Kennedy has denied being against vaccines outright but has long peddled debunked conspiracy theories about them. At a congressional hearing last year, he denied telling people to avoid getting vaccinated, but two years earlier he said on a podcast that he regularly tells strangers not to vaccinate their babies. And on CNN in December, he denied saying no vaccines are “safe and effective,” despite having said exactly that in an interview last July.

Derek Lowe at Science:

Since 2015, he led a nonprofit called Children's Health Defense that engaged in relentless anti-vaccine propaganda. As recently as 2019, CHD (and Kennedy himself) were both involved in stocking anti-vaccine fears in Samoa, which directly led to a measles outbreak that killed dozens of children. Kennedy has tried to cover up his role in this completely preventable tragedy, but the record is clear. As far as I'm concerned, he and Children's Health Defense have blood on their hands.

RFK Jr. and Chelation

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism quackery.  There have been lots of bogus "cures" over the years:, including chelation. 

Trump says he would give RFK Jr. a role in a future administration and let him do whatever he wants on health.  His agenda -- which includes chelation -- would put Americans at risk.

FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 25, 2024

From the Autism Science Foundation:

Chelation: Chelation therapy involves administering chemicals designed to bind to heavy metals and eliminate them from the body. Chelating agents have a legitimate use in the treatment of poisoning from lead, mercury and other metals. There is no evidence that supports chelation as a safe treatment alternative because autism is not caused by metal poisoning. In 2005, a child with autism died from chelation therapy, when the chelating agent bonded with calcium in his body and caused his heart to stop. No paper published in the peer-reviewed literature has reported abnormal levels of mercury in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, symptoms of mercury poisoning are unlike symptoms of autism, making chelation an impractical way to improve symptoms.

From the Association for Science in Autism Treatment:

Chelation is not a benign intervention; it is associated with many adverse and potentially harmful side effects. Some of the side effects noted in the research include rash, gastrointestinal upset, generalized toxicity, fatigue, hypocalcemia (low calcium levels), thrombophlebitis (increased blood clots), nausea, dysgeusia (distorted metallic taste), nephrotoxicity (toxicity of the kidneys), and even death (James et al., 2015).

Trump Will Let RFK Jr. Do Whatever Wants on Health

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.

Podcaster Joe Rogan has given RFK Jr. a platform to spread vaccine misinformation.

Aimee Picchi at CBS:

Rogan pressed Trump on whether he's "completely committed" to bringing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into his administration.

"Oh, I completely am," Trump responded, but added he and Kennedy disagree on environmental policies. He said he'll tell Kennedy to "focus on health, do whatever you want."

Kennedy has been instrumental in spreading skepticism about vaccines, rejecting the overwhelming consensus among scientists that the benefits of inoculation outweigh the rare risk of side effects.

MERT and Evidence

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

The conventional wisdom is that any kind of treatment is likely to be less effective as the child gets older, so parents of autistic children usually believe that they are working against the clock. They will not be satisfied with the ambiguities surrounding ABA, nor will they want to wait for some future research finding that might slightly increase its effectiveness. They want results now. Because there are no scientifically-validated drugs for the core symptoms of autism, they look outside the boundaries of mainstream medicine and FDA approval. Studies have found that anywhere from 28 to 54 percent of autistic children receive “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), and these numbers probably understate CAM usage.

Corinne Purtill at LAT:

Developed and trademarked by a Newport Beach-based company called Wave Neuroscience, MERT is a version of transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, which is approved by the FDA to treat major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and cigarette addiction. Clinics offering cash-pay TMS treatments for a variety of off-label conditions have proliferated in recent years. MERT, in particular, has become popular among families with autistic children.

Thousands of parents have sought MERT for their autistic children, often paying $10,000 or more for treatments and related expenses. The Times spent nearly a year evaluating research and interviewing psychiatrists and neuroscientists about the science behind MERT providers’ claims. Here are the key takeaways from our investigation.

...

No large scientific studies show MERT is significantly better than a placebo in altering symptoms of autism, according to nine psychiatrists and neuroscientists with expertise in brain stimulation and autism. Wave Neuroscience, the therapy’s developer, has not conducted any clinical trials on MERT and autism.

Multiple researchers are currently examining whether TMS could improve certain symptoms of autism. But researchers interviewed for The Times’ articles said there isn’t yet enough evidence to recommend TMS as an autism therapy, or to say with confidence that it works for that condition.

“Off-label treatment can be just fine so long as there’s data to support this and the risks are low,” said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, director of UCLA’s TMS Clinical and Research Service. For autism, he said, “the evidence base is not very strong. … And I don’t think that there is sufficient evidence to recommend the use of TMS for the treatment specifically of autism.”

Measuring Quality of Life and Mental Health

Uncertainty is a major theme of The Politics of Autism. In the concluding section, I write:

A key question in autism policy evaluation is simple to pose, hard to answer: How do autistic people benefit? How much better off are they as a result of government action? While there are studies of the short-term impact of various therapies, there is surprisingly little research about the long term, which is really what autistic people and their families care about. As we saw in chapter 4, few studies have focused on the educational attainment of autistic youths. For instance, we do not know much about what happens to them in high school, apart from the kinds of classes that they take. One study searched the autism literature from 1950 through 2011 and found just 13 rigorous peer reviewed studies evaluating psychosocial interventions for autistic adults. The effects of were largely positive, though the main finding of the review is that there is a need for further development and evaluation of treatments for adults.

Timmerman, A., Totsika, V., Lye, V., Crane, L., Linden, A., & Pellicano, E. (2024). Quality-of-life measurement in randomised controlled trials of mental health interventions for autistic adults: A systematic review. Autism, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241287586. Lay abstract:

Autistic people are more likely to have co-occurring mental health conditions compared to the general population, and mental health interventions have been identified as a top research priority by autistic people and the wider autism community. Autistic adults have also communicated that quality of life is the outcome that matters most to them in relation to mental health research and that they want to be involved more actively in the research process. Our systematic review aimed to determine the extent and nature of (1) quality of life measurement in randomised controlled trials of mental health interventions for autistic adults and (2) community involvement taking place within identified randomised controlled trials. We searched Medline, Embase, APA PsycInfo, Web of Science and grey literature sources. After screening over 10,000 records, 19 studies were eligible and five of those studies measured quality of life as an outcome. Of those five, three included community involvement and two did not report on community involvement. We conclude there is a need for increased use of quality of life measurement when trialling mental health interventions, including the use of measures validated for autistic adults – which would be facilitated by greater autistic involvement in the research process

Trump Despises People With Disabilities, continued

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in campaign politics.   In the 2016 campaign, a number of posts discussed Trump's bad record on disability issues more generally.   As his words and actions have shown, he despises Americans with disabilities.   He told his nephew Fred that severely disabled people -- such as Fred's son -- should "just die."

 Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic:

Kelly and others have taken special note of the revulsion Trump feels in the presence of wounded veterans. After Trump attended a Bastille Day parade in France, he told Kelly and others that he would like to stage his own parade in Washington, but without the presence of wounded veterans. “I don’t want them,” Trump said. “It doesn’t look good for me.”

Milley also witnessed Trump’s disdain for the wounded. Milley had chosen a severely wounded Army captain, Luis Avila, to sing “God Bless America” at his installation ceremony in 2019. Avila, who had completed five combat tours, had lost a leg in an improvised-explosive-device attack in Afghanistan, and had suffered two heart attacks, two strokes, and brain damage as a result of his injuries. Avila is considered a hero up and down the ranks of the Army.

It had rained earlier on the day of the ceremony, and the ground was soft; at one point Avila’s wheelchair almost toppled over. Milley’s wife, Holly­anne, ran to help Avila, as did then–Vice President Mike Pence. After Avila’s performance, Trump walked over to congratulate him, but then said to Milley, within earshot of several witnesses, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.” Never let Avila appear in public again, Trump told Milley.

Reupping other examples:

Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, and Shane Goldmacher at NYT:

Donald J. Trump took his seat at the dining table in his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower on the last Sunday in September, alongside some of the most sought-after and wealthiest figures in the Republican Party.

...

He disparaged Vice President Kamala Harris as “retarded.” He complained about the number of Jews still backing Ms. Harris, saying they needed their heads examined for not supporting him despite everything he had done for the state of Israel.

He has also used the r-word before, and Lordy, there are tapes.

In welcoming the US Olympic team to the White House , Trump said:

So today, on behalf of the United States, I want to thank every Olympian and Paralympian. And what as just incredible. And what happened with the Paralympics was so incredible and so inspiring to me. And I watched — it’s a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could.

Trump thinks it's "tough to watch" disabled people play sports.  This comment is the latest sign of his aversion to people with disabilities.

On November 26, 2015, Jose A. DelReal at The Washington Post:

On stage Tuesday, Trump berated Times investigative reporter Serge Kovaleski for his recent recollection of an article he had written a few days after the [9/11] attacks. Trump appeared to mock Kovaleski's physical condition; the reporter has arthrogryposis, which visibly limits flexibility in his arms.

“Now, the poor guy — you've got to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don't know what I said! I don't remember!' " Trump said as he jerked his arms in front of his body.

On August 3, 2015, Celeste Katz wrote at The New York Daily News:

"While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses?" Trump wrote in a 1991 letter to John Dearie, then-chairman of the state Assembly's Committee on Cities.

"Do we allow Fifth Ave., one of the world's finest and most luxurious shopping districts, to be turned into an outdoor flea market, clogging and seriously downgrading the area?" Trump demanded.

New York's original peddling exceptions for veterans date back to 1894 — created to give those disabled during the Civil War a chance to support themselves.

In 2004, when the regulations had come up for renewal, Trump piped up again.

John Hendrickson at The Atlantic:

Former president Donald Trump, perhaps threatened by President Joe Biden’s well-received State of the Union address, mocked his opponent’s lifelong stutter at a rally in Georgia yesterday. “Wasn’t it—didn’t it bring us together?” Trump asked sarcastically. He kept the bit going, slipping into a Biden caricature. “‘I’m gonna bring the country tuh-tuh-tuh-together,’” Trump said, straining and narrowing his mouth for comedic effect.

Trump has made a new habit of this. “‘He’s a threat to d-d-democracy,’” Trump said in his vaudeville Biden character at a January rally in Iowa. That jibe was also a response to a big Biden speech—one tied to the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. (Guess who the he was in that sentence.)

...

Stuttering is one of many disabilities to have entered Trump’s crosshairs. In 2015, he infamously made fun of a New York Times reporter’s disabled upper-body movements. Three years later, as president, when planning a White House event for military veterans, he asked his staff not to include amputees wounded in combat, saying, “Nobody wants to see that.” Stuttering is a neurological disorder that affects roughly 3 million Americans. Biden has stuttered since childhood. He has worked to manage his disfluent speech for decades, but, contrary to the story he tells about his life, he has never fully “beat” it.

 

Abbott Would Have Let Roberson DIe

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.

An autistic man is on death row for a crime he didn't commit.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott would not grant a reprieve.  Now he objects to a delay in his execution.

Berenice Garcia at The Texas Tribune:

Gov. Greg Abbott's office condemned the actions of a bipartisan group of Texas legislators Monday, effectively breaking his silence in the pending execution of Robert Roberson.

In an amicus brief filed by James P. Sullivan, the governor's general counsel, the governor's office said lawmakers “stepped out of line” when they intervened to save Roberson’s life.

The brief argued the power to grant clemency in a capital case, including a 30-day reprieve, lies with the governor alone.

"Unless the Court rejects that tactic, it can be repeated in every capital case, effectively rewriting the Constitution to reassign a power given only to the Governor," Sullivan argued.

Bayliss Wagner and John C. Moritz, Austin American-Statesman:

After a dramatic flurry of weekend court filings, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Monday opted to delay hearing testimony from death row inmate Robert Roberson, scuttling a controversial plan that drew national attention and avoiding what might have been a developing constitutional crisis in state government.

But the committee did hear from one member of the jury that convicted Roberson, who told the panel that if she had known of new evidence that calls into question the foundational premise of the trial — that the condemned man had killed his daughter by shaking her to death — she would have voted to set him free at trial.

Greg Abbott Did Nothing

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.

An autistic man is on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

Terri Langford at The Texas Tribune:

In a state where the death penalty is as ingrained as cowboy boots and conservative politics, news of Robert Roberson’s death sentence broke through in Texas after the rarest of phenoms: a noisy, bipartisan effort that bypassed the governor’s office to save a man from lethal injection.

For years, the appeals of Roberson’s capital murder conviction for the 2002 death of his chronically ill, 2-year-old daughter had lumbered through the courts, tracing a byzantine process that often fails to register with residents of the nation’s execution capital, where 591 inmates have been put to death in the state since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

But while lawmakers were making historic interventions, many Texans took note of the silence by the person traditionally empowered to step in at the last minute: Gov. Greg Abbott.

“Abbott’s silence is deafening,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston.

...

Roberson, 57, of Palestine, was convicted of his daughter’s death in 2003 after an autopsy determined his daughter, Nikki, who had been ill with a fever, had died of shaking and blows. Investigators believed that Roberson’s emotionless demeanor was further evidence of his guilt. Roberson has since been diagnosed as having autism, which could explain Roberson’s behavior at the time. A police detective whose investigation sent the East Texas man to death row, now supports Roberson’s claims of innocence.

Healthcare Providers on Vaccines and Autism

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.

Amanda L. Eiden, Sheila Drakeley, Kushal Modi, deMauri Mackie, Alexandra Bhatti, Anthony DiFranzo, "Attitudes and beliefs of healthcare providers toward vaccination in the United States: A cross-sectional online survey," Vaccine, Volume 42, Issue 26, 2024, 126437, ISSN 0264-410X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.126437 .  Abstract:

Background

Healthcare providers' (HCPs') beliefs and practices regarding vaccination influence vaccine acceptance in patients.

Objective

To describe HCPs' beliefs and practices regarding vaccines and perceptions of patient perspectives related to vaccine hesitancy.

Methods

This was a non-interventional, cross-sectional, online survey administered to 1213 HCPs based in the United States from December 2021 through January 2022. HCPs provided responses regarding their demographic and professional characteristics, beliefs about vaccine safety and effectiveness, vaccination practices, and their views regarding patients' willingness to receive vaccination.

Results

Study participants included doctors (55.4 %); physician assistants (11.2 %); pharmacists (11.7 %); nurse practitioners (11.1 %); and registered nurses (10.6 %) from across the United States (West, 35.6 %; Midwest, 27.0 %; South, 25.6 %; Northeast, 11.9 %). HCPs belonged to group practices or clinics (34.5 %), private practices (31.9 %), hospital-based practices (21.9 %), or pharmacies (11.7 %). Most HCPs strongly believed it was their duty to promote vaccination (78.1 %) and used in-person conversations to educate patients about vaccines (85.0 %); 95.1 % had been vaccinated against COVID-19. HCPs reported that 54.9 % of patients accept all vaccines without hesitation, 21.0 % accept all vaccines but hesitate, 16.8 % accept only select vaccines, and 7.2 % reject all vaccines. Reasons commonly cited by patients for being hesitant to accept vaccines or refusal included negative media (hesitancy: 64.6 %; refusal: 73.2 %), the influence of friends or family (hesitancy: 60.5 %; refusal: 68.7 %), distrust of the government (hesitancy: 45.8 %; refusal: 68.4 %), concerns over long-term side effects (hesitancy: 56.1 %; refusal: 68.3 %), and worries about vaccine-related autism or infertility (hesitancy: 49.7 %; refusal: 71.9 %). HCPs reported that the largest contributors to vaccine misinformation among patients were social media (91.0 %), celebrities/TV personalities (63.5 %), and mass media (61.1 %).

 

A Trump Post for RFK Jr. ?

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.

 Lottie McGrath at Newsweek:

Appearing on Fox and Friends, Trump said that "a lot of the people" who were at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner last night would be in his prospective cabinet.

"We had some tremendous people [at the dinner.] That room really had some great people," Trump told hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade and Lawrence Jones.

The only candidate Trump directly named was Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who pulled out of the election as an independent to throw his support behind Trump.

When pressed by Earhardt as to whether RFK Jr would be involved, the former president confirmed it, saying, "He's going to be a part of it."

Stay of Execution

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.

An autistic man is on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

Moises Avila with Chris Lefkow at AFP:

The Texas Supreme Court issued a last-minute stay of execution on Thursday to an autistic man whose murder conviction was based on what his lawyers say was a misdiagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome."

Robert Roberson, 57, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on Thursday for the February 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.

But the Texas Supreme Court temporarily stayed the execution following an appeal from Texas lawmakers who issued a subpoena to Roberson so he can testify before a House committee that is examining his conviction.

"If the sentence is carried out, the witness obviously cannot appear," wrote Justice Evan Young.

A bipartisan group of 86 Texas lawmakers has urged clemency for Roberson, citing "voluminous new scientific evidence" that casts doubt on his guilt, and the committee has subpoenaed him to testify on Monday.

Of Mice and Research Incentives

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition and how to treat it.  I also write:  "If the science were not confusing enough, its coverage in the mass media has added another layer of murk.  News reports hype tentative findings and weak correlations as “breakthroughs” in the quest for autism answers. "

Celia Ford at Vox:

When I asked senior scientist Brigitta Gundersen, who manages Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) funding for autism studies involving rodents, for an example of a tangible quality of life improvement that this line of research has given us, she paused. “I struggle to think of examples across all of psychiatry, frankly.”

...
Many symptoms, especially those related to social interactions and communication, are distinctly human — so much so that they’re nearly impossible to reproduce in mice. “You know,” Gundersen said, “no mice talk.”

Today, more scientists are rejecting the idea that mice can actually exhibit autistic-like behaviors. “Nobody thinks that mice are people,” Gundersen told me. “Nobody thinks that mice are modeling autism.”

But the number of publications featuring “mouse model(s) of autism” in the title has steadily increased since they were first introduced in the mid-2000s. A cynic might wonder why scientists are continuing to pursue this line of research, when both autistic self-advocates and a growing number of leaders in biomedicine are saying that it doesn’t make any sense.

Ne’eman said that some people in the autistic community jokingly refer to autism research as a “geneticist’s Full Employment Act” — a parallel to the proposed Autism Full Employment Act, which would create incentives for workplaces to hire autistic people.

The grant application system is really competitive. To boost their chances of getting research funding, applicants increasingly have to twist their research proposals to align with whoever will give them money. A lab interested in studying how gene expression guides brain cells to form connections with each other, for example, could pitch it as an autism study to open up additional funding opportunities.

Roberson Still Faces Execution

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.

An autistic man is on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

Kim Bellware and Tobi Raji at WP:

The path to stopping the country’s first execution based on the widely refuted theory known as “shaken baby syndrome” narrowed Tuesday after a district judge in Texas declined to vacate the death warrant for Robert Roberson, a 57-year-old man with autism who is scheduled to die by lethal injection this week.

Roberson’s case has galvanized a bipartisan coalition of 86 Texas lawmakers, scientists and even the former lead detective from his 2002 case to fight for a reprieve. Supporters cite Roberson’s case as a prime example of a conviction wrongfully secured by a decades-old theory many scientists and legal experts say is unreliable “junk science” in the vein of discredited forensics such as bite-mark and bloodstain-pattern analysis.

Lawyers for Roberson argue he faces execution over a nonexistent crime: His 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis died in 2002 from an undiagnosed case of double pneumonia, lawyers said; doctors incorrectly presumed symptoms such as brain swelling and bleeding were from abuse and did not investigate other possibilities. Suspicion of Roberson’s guilt was fueled by his seemingly unemotional response to Nikki’s dire condition — the result, lawyers say, of autism spectrum disorder, which he was not formally diagnosed with until 2018.

The Autism Society of America and @AutismTx are urgently appealing to Texas Governor Abbott to grant clemency to Robert Roberson, an Autistic individual facing execution in less than a week. See how you can take Action in our Press Release. https://t.co/7cQRGsSz8F

— autismsociety (@AutismSociety) October 15, 2024

Voters with Disabilities

 In The Politics of Autism, I write:  "Support from the general public will be an important political asset for autistic people. Another will be their sheer numbers, since a larger population of identified autistic adults will mean more autistic voters and activists."

Trump has a horrible record on disability, both on policy and his personal behavior.

KENYA HUNTER and AYANNA ALEXANDER at AP:

A new report from Rutgers University estimates that about 40.2 million eligible voters in the quickly approaching U.S. presidential election are disabled. Add those who cohabitate with people who have a disability, and you’re looking at close to one-third of the voting population for an election in which health care is among the key campaign issues.

The disabled voting bloc is growing as the U.S. population ages, but voters and advocates say the hurdles that make people feel excluded from the electoral process aren’t being addressed. That ranges from inaccessible campaign materials to former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris seldomly mentioning how issues like COVID-19 impact the disability community, as well as Trump making a statement at a rally last month that advocacy groups considered discriminatory.

“They should be treating us like we’re their path to victory because we are, frankly,” said Dom Kelly, the founder and CEO of New Disabled South, an advocacy group that focuses on disability rights in the South. “You win or lose because of disabled people, and if you don’t take our community seriously, that will reflect on the outcome of your campaign.”

Lisa Schur and her husband Doug Kruse lead the Program for Disabilities Research at Rutgers and co-wrote the new report, which also shows there are 7.1 million disabled voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

...

The Harris campaign recently hired Anastasia Somoza as its disability engagement director. Somoza, who has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair, said the Harris campaign will host an event with disabled entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh on Monday. Somoza also said she tries to make sure there’s a virtual option for all campaign events.

In 2023, the vice president met with leaders in the disability space about transportation issues, and she has proposed paying for home care with Medicare and eliminating subminimum wage for disabled workers.

But the two presidential campaigns could do more, said Holly Latham at #MEAction, which advocates for people with chronic fatigue syndrome. She said ads, fliers and events need to be accessible to all disabled people.

Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse, "Projecting the Number of Eligible Voters with Disabilities in the November 2024 Elections"

The number of eligible voters with disabilities is growing with the aging of the population and advances in medical technology. This brief report summarizes projections of how many people with disabilities will be eligible to vote in the November 2024 elections, based on analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s 2018-2022 American Community Survey combined with Census Bureau population projections for 2024. The methodology is described at the end of the report. 

The key findings, as shown in Table 1 and pictured in Figure 1, are: 

• A projected 40.2 million people with disabilities will be eligible to vote in the November 2024 elections, representing close to one-sixth of the total electorate. 
• The number of eligible voters with disabilities has increased 5.1% since 2020, compared to an increase of 2.5% among eligible voters without disabilities. 
• There will be 72.7 million eligible voters who either have a disability or have a household member with a disability, almost one-third of the total electorate.