HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised that “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures.” This alarming claim is untrue, impossible, and ableist. Like the hiring of David Geier, RFK Jr.’s comment is a clear signal that HHS intends to produce rigged and fraudulent research that supports Kennedy and Trump’s pre-existing beliefs in a connection between autism and vaccines.
ASAN has previously condemned RFK Jr.’s anti-science worldview and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, which have resulted in multiple deaths. RFK Jr.’s actions since he was confirmed make it clear that his anti-vaccine agenda has not changed. In today’s comments, including in a subsequent Fox News interview, he made it clear that he is not listening to the many studies that have shown genes associated with autism. He only wants to demonstrate that it is caused by “exposures”—by which he means childhood vaccines. His insistence that we will know the cause of autism by September demonstrates his disregard for scientific studies, and his dangerous conviction that he has already found the answer.
Even if he were not clearly committed to pushing dangerous and debunked pseudoscience about vaccines, it is simply impossible that actual research into a supposed environmental cause of autism could be completed by September–real science does not move that quickly, because real science cares about truth. This notion is particularly absurd given the decades of time and billions of dollars that have already been spent on research to identify the causes of autism, far outstripping the time and effort spent on researching how to improve the health and well-being of living autistic people. The president echoed RFK Jr’s absurd claims, saying that “Maybe it’s a shot” and continuing his own long history of promoting misinformation about vaccines and autism.
In March, Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine official since 2012, resigned. He said in his resignation letter that, “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” This was confirmed when HHS hired David Geier to run its upcoming study on vaccines. In previous experiments on children by David Geier and his father Mark, they used a fake Institutional Review Board made up of their own family members and business associates. They failed to disclose a financial conflict of interest, and their study was “riddled with basic flaws.” These methodological and ethical failures allowed them to claim their study proved a link between vaccines and autism when none existed. RFK Jr. clearly welcomed David Geier into HHS to repeat this misconduct in the upcoming HHS study, glorifying anti-vaccine conspiracy theories at the national level.
Right now, measles is spreading throughout the country and unvaccinated children are dying. Very few people have had an updated COVID-19 vaccine. Many people have already lost confidence in vaccines because of misinformation, and when that misinformation is coming from the federal government, the problem will get much worse. This will pose a substantial danger for everyone, but—as we saw at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—people who cannot be vaccinated due to health conditions, or who live in institutions or group homes where they are in close proximity to many other individuals, will be particularly at risk.
When top officials spread misinformation about autism, autistic people suffer. The false idea that autism is caused by an “injury,” by something external going wrong, makes people more afraid of autism and of autistics. So does the idea that it is better for a child to die of a vaccine-preventable disease than to live as an autistic person. This fear and stigma makes it harder for autistic people to find inclusion and acceptance in school, in the workplace, and in our communities. It leads frightened families to pursue fraudulent “cures”—such as those that David Geier has sold in the past—that actually do risk unnecessary injury and death.
It is disgusting that Secretary Kennedy is calling for efforts he believes will reduce the amount of autistic people who exist, whether through a “cure” or “prevention.” Our existence is not a “cataclysm,” as he called autism in his Fox News interview. There is no evidence that autism is actually becoming more common (rather, we as a society are getting better at identifying it, and diagnostic standards have appropriately been widened). Even if it were however, autistic and other disabled people belong in our society. To claim otherwise, and to speak as though our existence is some kind of calamity that must be eliminated, is a form of eugenics–the dangerous ideology based on the idea that “some people are born to be a burden on the rest.”
Such ideas led directly to disabled people being incarcerated and forcibly sterilized in this country, and murdered in Nazi Germany, and it is profoundly disturbing to see this administration bringing back yet another hallmark of authoritarian policy. Eugenics is also deeply ingrained with racism—and, right on cue, Secretary Kenendy Jr. specifically mentioned rising rates of autism diagnosis among Black children as a particular cause for concern, something particularly worrying in light of his prior comments about sending Black young people to “wellness farms.”
ASAN will continue to fight against these attacks on our community. These comments are unacceptable. The current administration is trying to drag our community back to a time where many of us did not have civil rights and were forced into institutions. Autistic people are neither a plague, nor the bogeyman. We have a right to exist, and we deserve a government that cares about our well-being, rather than one that spreads misinformation about us to score political points, attacks our civil rights, and cuts services that autistic people need to live full lives in our communities.
