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.
[Not] long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, one in 10,000 children have autism. One in 10,000. And now it’s one in 36. There’s something wrong. One in 36. Think of that. So we’re going to find out what it is and there’s nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you. You have the best to figure out what is going on. OK, Bobby, good luck. It’s a very important job. Thank you. Thank you.
Adam Edelman and Jane C. Timm at NBC:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this ratio is correct. But the statistic is often used to justify opposition to vaccination.Teddy Rosenbluth at NYT:
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pointed to vaccines to explain the substantial rise in autism diagnoses in recent decades, which have ballooned from an estimated 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 today.
But the science is clear that vaccines don’t cause autism.
Rather, research suggests that much of the increase is due to increasing awareness and screening for the condition, changing definitions of autism to include milder conditions on the spectrum that weren’t recognized in previous years and advances in diagnostic technology.
Finding the causes of autism is complicated, because it’s not a single disorder, scientists and experts have told NBC News. In addition, those scientists and experts have said they believe that people develop autistic traits because of a combination of genetic vulnerability and environmental exposures.
As a measles outbreak expands in West Texas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, on Tuesday cheered several unconventional treatments, including cod liver oil, but again did not urge Americans to get vaccinated.
In a prerecorded interview that aired on Fox News, Mr. Kennedy said that the federal government was shipping doses of vitamin A to Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, and helping to arrange ambulance rides.
H.H.S. officials previously said they were shipping doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to Texas, but Mr. Kennedy did not discuss vaccination.
Texas doctors had seen “very, very good results,” Mr. Kennedy claimed, by treating measles cases with a steroid, budesonide; an antibiotic called clarithromycin; and cod liver oil, which he said had high levels of vitamin A and vitamin D.
While physicians sometimes administer doses of vitamin A to treat children with severe measles cases, cod liver oil is “by no means” an evidence-based treatment, said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases.
Dr. O’Leary added that he had never heard of a physician using the supplement against measles.
