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 helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order establishing a "Make America Healthy Again Commission," which RFK Jr. will chair. Among other things, it will investigate the causes of autism. We can expect that the commission will employ junk science to support the lies that Trump and Kennedy have repeated.
Emily Kennard at NOTUS:
Republicans in Congress want to spend taxpayer money to research the repeatedly debunked link between vaccines and autism — all as they continue to cheer on the Trump administration’s cuts to what they consider excessive spending.
So far in his presidency, Donald Trump has aggressively talked up government efficiency, giving Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency aides unprecedented power to review, and cut, federal spending wherever they see fit — including medical research funding. But lawmakers who told NOTUS they’d support more research into whether vaccines cause autism didn’t see it as wasteful or redundant.
...Republicans largely told NOTUS they shared the same concerns as Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants his administration to look into this disproven link. Just last week, Trump pointed again to the increase in autism diagnoses in children.
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The relationship between autism and vaccines has been studied — and repeatedly debunked. Many peer-reviewed studies and analyses spanning decades have refuted that vaccines can cause autism. Meanwhile, the 1998 study that first tried to causatively link the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism was retracted 12 years later, after the study’s author was found to have altered medical records to support his conclusions.
From the Autistic Self Advocacy Network:
Under the leadership of Trump, who has publicly claimed that he believes in the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has founded an anti-vaccine group, claimed that no vaccine has been proven safe and effective, that the recommended vaccine schedule for children is dangerous, and that “autism does come from vaccines,” ASAN is deeply concerned about the call for increased causation research. Trump claimed in December that he would direct the HHS to investigate a connection between vaccines and autism, which has already been proven to be nonexistent. The executive order also directs the Make America Healthy Again commission to look into the “potential over-utilization of medication, certain food ingredients, certain chemicals, and certain other exposures pose to children.” While some of these things may indeed be connected to or cause other disabilities, such as lead poisoning and fetal alcohol syndrome, they do not cause autism. We also ask the president, why, if he is concerned about the link between toxic chemicals exposure for American children, he, in his first term, rolled back many regulations aimed at reducing toxic emissions and, in his second, has cut programs enforcing restrictions on toxic emissions, and pledged to further roll-back regulation aimed at eliminating and decreasing pollutants.
We are deeply concerned at the Trump administration’s commitment to further research thoroughly debunked myths about autism and his disregard for established science and research. We are also deeply concerned about the potential damage caused by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy using official channels and government agencies to promote false “cures” and “treatments” for autism, as well as other disabilities. This will not only decrease American confidence in public health agencies, but also cause real harms, such as the decrease in childhood vaccination in the United States since the beginning of the pandemic and the death of 83 people in Samoa, both attributable to anti-vaccine advocacy and specifically now-Secretary Kennedy. Autism causation research is dangerous, ignores decades of science and research, and ignores the autistic community, which has been insistent that we do not need or want a cure for autism, and that we will fight for the civil rights and services and supports needed for us to fully participate in all aspects of society.
