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.
In light of the Trump administration's dishonesty and threats to privacy, plans for an autism registry are most disturbing. Because Trump and RFK Jr. have a long history of lying about autism, we have to assume bad faith.
What they're saying: Kennedy's expedited timeline for the effort, and his resistance to the body of evidence disproving a link between vaccines and autism, suggest that he's looking to use the data to arrive at a specific conclusion, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The other side: Data is necessary for health care research, and there's always more research that can be done.
- "I think RFK Jr. has what no scientist should ever have, which is a non-falsifiable hypothesis," Offit said.
- HHS did not respond to a request for comment on these concerns.
- There is already ample evidence that factors like genetics and older parental ages at time of conception increase the likelihood of developing autism.
Yes, but: Many people with autism and other disabilities are rapidly losing trust in federal health officials, which could have a ripple effect through the autism research effort and beyond.
- Kennedy and Bhattacharya have said they want to make replication of medical studies a centerpiece of what NIH does, pointing to fraud in the research community. The question is at what point could repeating accepted studies undermine science for political gain.
- "I was really happy to see renewed focus on the power of data and what data can do to transform the health care space," said Mitesh Rao, CEO of health data sharing company OMNY.
- The autism data collection effort could yield valuable insights for the federal government if it's done right, he said.
- A public-private partnership could help ensure everything runs smoothly, with private companies' expertise in privacy law and platforms that aid collaboration at scale, he said.
- Eli Brottman, policy director for a Chicago-based good government organization who has autism, told Axios he asked his therapist not to use diagnostic codes for autism in insurance claims after hearing about the NIH research initiative.
- "They've already reached all sorts of false conclusions," he said. "What makes me believe that the research is going to do anything other than attempt to support those conclusions?"
- "The concern isn't necessarily that the government has access to a diagnosis," said AJ Link, an autistic person and director of policy for New Disabled South. "It's that the government may weaponize it."
