…holy crap.
I’m trying to get back to blogging, because, damn, I miss commenting on events relevant to medicine and quackery, and then I heard about HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s press conference on autism and saw parts of it. I feel almost like Chief Brody in Jaws saying, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” only substituting blog for boat. I mean, all the antivax and autism biomed tropes are there, including the “autism epidemic” (which “can’t be genetic”) or “autism tsunami, but especially the portrayal of autistic people as diseased and broken by “something”—cough, cough, vaccines. I mean, I saw that part, and that was straight up social Darwinist, “useless eaters,” “life unworthy of life” shit right there, plus all the usual suspects in terms of “environmental factors.”
Anyway, given the constraints on my blogging since all the events that I mentioned a couple of months ago, I don’t think I can grind something out tonight, mainly because I don’t have the time to watch that whole monstrosity. (Even if I did, I don’t know if I could take that much RFK Jr. in concentrated form.) But I’m going to try. Things have settled down, and I need to get back to it. I feel as though I’ve never been more needed, even as I’ve never been more constrained.
Until then, though, feel free to comment here, if only to vent about how far down the rabbit hole we are as a country when it comes to science policy. After all, much of RFK Jr.’s press conference appears to have been, as far as I can tell from my limited perusal, the same old nonsense that I started debunking on this blog 20 years ago. It hasn’t changed much. It hasn’t even evolved much.
32 replies on “I saw RFK Jr.’s press conference on autism and…”
I blogged about this. But from your post, I didn’t even scratch the surface.
https://autismjungle.wordpress.com/2025/04/15/we-know-what-causes-autism-and-its-not-vaccination/
Just when I think we’ve reached bottom, RFK brings out an excavator.
Yep. I’ve listened to part of the press conference, and holy crap.
And here I thought we’d gone beyond the idea of autism being some horrible terrible affliction. But then, what is RFK Jr doing for people for whom their autism does negatively affect their quality of life? Certainly not anything helpful, like advocating for accessibility aids.
This resident antivaxxer thought Kennedy did an excellent job during the conference. He obliterated the ‘no increase’ nonsense by citing real science. Bringing in Walter Zahorodny as the foremost expert also served as an excellent cherry topping.
You can judge how successful Kennedy was by The Press reactions. They largely ignored Kennedy’s evidence, and opted instead to dismiss him by saying experts disagree with him that there is a true increase. Giving everything away is the fact they conviently forgot to mention Zahorodny.
Zahorodny has been collecting autism statistics, this is not same thing as researching causes of autism, even environmental ones
Of course, medical facts are not decided by the government. Experts indeed disagree-
It is very strange, too, that Kennedy says that he has results by September. How he can know that, if there would be real research ?
Yep. He clearly doesn’t understand how easily the number of diagnoses can change a lot, even without a change in the actual number of people who have a condition.
He had to go deep into his vault of lies and false hoods to get back in the good graces of the general anti-science crowd after his very mild endorsement of vaccines for dealing with measles. He can’t afford to lose face with the conspiracy folks who support him.
I have a feeling that some of you guys will soon descend into contradicting the CDC, science denial (as the science evolves), conspiracy theories etc
Nope. Because we have the science on our side. RFK Jr. and you think you have science on your side but do not.
“I have a feeling that some of you guys will soon descend into contradicting the CDC…”
Well, if JFK jr gets his way and the CDC becomes the cesspool of misinformation and false statements he usually makes and you echo then yes, intelligent people will contradict its message. There has to be some source for real medical information, and people like you certainly don’t qualify.
Yes, you are indeed needed more than ever!
Thanks. I’m trying to get back into the swing of regular blogging, but it’s gotten difficult. I’m now at the point of debating whether I should do this post about this here this weekend or just wait until Monday and post it on SBM, possibly also crossposting it here.
I WILL get there. Maybe not back to every day (which I hadn’t been doing for a few years anyway), but back to 3-4 times a week, which was my regular posting schedule here before my parents’ health cratered.
Two things.
Firstly, Cracked decided to have a go at RFK Jr.
https://www.cracked.com/article_46246_the-funniest-tweets-from-baseball-fans-roasting-rfk-jrs-autism-comments.html
Secondly, a whole bunch of autism organisations have issued a statement condemning Kennedy’s comments. One of the organisations? Autism Speaks.
When even Autism Speaks thinks you’ve gone too far…
Also, as if we needed more evidence that RFKjr is utterly ignorant, to say that “autistic people can’t play baseball” – like, I don’t even like sports and I know that baseball is full of stats nerd with extended rituals – in the Major Leagues!
May he become one with his ravens soon.
I can’t play baseball. I must have autism.
I’m sure all the folks I know with autism are thrilled that they get to stop paying taxes on their earned income! /s
Kennedy is an ableist monster who is determined to denigrate people with neurological differences and to cause the deaths of many, many children by (I am assuming, but based on extensive history) blaming vaccines.
Vaccines do not cause autism.
Vaccines save lives.
Letting children die of vaccine-preventable diseases will not “stop” autism. It will only cause children to suffer, cause children to die.
I’m currently trapped between rage and despair.
Testing 1,2,3! Hello?! Anybody home?
Oh well, at least Orac me my one alloted comment.
Yeah, there was also that faux outrage that Kennedy was slandering autistic people. Propaganda media such as the NYT and WaPo ran with it. Interestingly, in there comment sections, there were a significant minority of readers that came to Kennedy’s defense and explained that he was accurately capturing the stories of profoundly autistic kids and family members care for them.
Notice what’s hidden under the faux sympathy. What’s the first thing that RFK Jr. mentions? What he leads with is telling: “…these are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job…” (Emphasis mine.) Let me say right here, this is some real, top grade, “useless eaters” rhetoric. If RFK Jr. had said simply that many severely autistic children require lifelong care and never be able to live independently, that would be one thing (and not particularly objectionable), but no. He had to say first that they’d never be productive taxpaying members of society who can hold down jobs! Of course, none of this is unique to antivaxxers or anything new. There has long been a eugenicist strain in psychiatry and medicine.
Yes, those arguments seem to come directly from the Nazi playbook. Like schoolbooks giving calculations about how much it costs society to keep alive one mentally handicapped person.
Musk doesn’t pay taxes and isn’t married
More on the backlash against RFK Jr.’s remarks from the autism community:
https://kfor.com/news/local/autism-community-reacts-to-rfk-jr-s-comments/
http://msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rfk-autism-cdc-report-jobs-rcna201638
Who would’ve thought that people on the autism spectrum would resent being characterized as hopelessly crippled and drains on society?
The Republican regime is in the early stages of setting up a gulag and Kennedy want to send people with mental health diagnoses to labor camps. Combine that with the various bigotries which are SOP in this administration and the signs are very concerning.
The GOP is now the political wing of the anti-vax cult.
We all know, come September, Kennedy with announce what he’s though for decades, they vaccines cause autism. The fact every study ever carried out shows this is not the case will not stop him. The damage these cranks are doing will take decades to put right. I mean they are actively wanting dead kids, how messed up is that?
I suspect its gonna take a lot of dead and damaged kids before this anti-vax fever will break.
There are plenty of people, with a variety of disabilities, who cannot work, play baseball, pay taxes. So what? The only people who think those are the measure of a worth of a person are neck deep into Nazi ideology. We all know the antivax movement always has been. They’re just saying the quiet part outloud now.
Oh, the preposterous idea that curing a disability is eugenics. If we could take steps to avoid defective DNA in Down’s, would that be eugenics? What about finding a cure for blindness, would that be eugenics against blind people?
If truth be told, if autism is preventable and we do nothing about it then that’s the true eugenics. It’s eugenics against neurotypical kids.
“the preposterous idea that curing a disability is eugenics”
More preposterous is the notion that jr’s goal is “curing” anything. If he can find enough con men to do at “study” to “show” vaccines cause autism the next move will be to remove those vaccines from use, while doing nothing to “cure” anyone.
There is nothing about improving the health of the general public in anything he, or his lackeys, want.
“If we could take steps to avoid defective DNA in Down’s, would that be eugenics? ”
Yes.
We already know you’re a Nazi, Fred. You don’t have to keep reminding us.
“If we could take steps to avoid defective DNA in Down’s, would that be eugenics?”
Yes.
We all know you’re a Nazi. No need to keep reminding us.
Oh, brother!
Terry, I think you should also call out the Nazis bastards who are researching cancer and trying to cure it. Why can’t they get that cancer is a natural variation of our genome?! Some people have cells which divide and stop dividing; for others, they keep dividing. What is the big deal?! To-meh-toes, to-mah-toes….
You would cure not paying taxes or not being able to play baseball ? Truly horrible diseases. these.
Wow… Just saw some of Marty Makary’s “Interview” on Fox News. Talk about a two bit shill for his lord and master RFK.
He will clearly compromise his values and medical knowledge for power. He basically stated Autism was all based on exposure when solid data from years of hard research suggests around an 80% genetic contribution.
These guys will stop at nothing and will not stop spewing misinformation and lies.