nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com

In remarks laced with scientific inaccuracies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Wednesday that autism was preventable while directly contradicting researchers within his own agency on a primary driver behind rising rates of the condition in young children.

https://archive.ph/JXfWe

  • Lung@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 days ago

    I genuinely don’t understand why people here are railing him. All the article said was he wanted to research environmental causes for an increasingly common condition. That seems totally reasonable. Look at car pollution reducing avg brain capacity. Look at plastics pollution. Look at toxins in ultraproceassed food, many of which are banned in EU but not USA. Look at our water quality and lead pipes problem

    Look, I know he has talked about vaccines before, but literally didn’t mention it here. It’s totally reasonable and good for all of us to tackle pollutants, toxins, environmental quality. Yes, it’s likely that many health problems would be resolved if we understood this better; that’s a valid theory to pursue. But yes, I know, I know “maga bad”

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 days ago

      That would be reasonable if it was in good faith. RFK is not performing research to gain a better understanding of neurodivergence. He’s looking to affirm his personal opinion by finding a correlation to conflate into causation.

      Blaming environmental risk factors for the uptick, he accused the media and the public of succumbing to a “myth of epidemic denial” when it came to autism. He also called research into the genetic factors that scientists say play a vital role in whether a child will develop autism “a dead end.”

      He’s rejecting existing findings.

      “Genes don’t cause epidemics,” he said. “You need an environmental toxin.”

      And prescribing his belief as the correct one.

      Do you notice how he said “toxin” instead of “factor” as well? This is an intentional choice of words, framing autism as a disease caused by harmful factors. This is not somebody who is interested in understanding it.

      Autism rates among children have increased nearly fivefold since 2000, when the C.D.C. first began collecting data on the condition’s incidence in children. The C.D.C.’s new report attributed some of the increase in autism’s prevalence to more screening for the condition. And researchers have pointed to several other factors, including greater awareness of what autism looks like, more access to services, more parents having children later in life and broader definitions of the disorder.

      There’s more awareness and openness about autism than there used to be? How shocking similarity with the “increase” in homosexuality some decades ago. Maybe it’s new-fangled chemtrails turn people gay and autistic.

      Mr. Kennedy vowed that under his leadership, the health department would focus on looking into certain substances, like mold and food additives, and parental obesity to try to reverse rising rates of autism in children.

      Again, he is not looking to understand what autism is or how it affects those living with it. Those are not words of support for a demographic of disadvantaged people. Those are words aspiring to eradicate an extrinsic medical condition like HIV or cancer.

      “These are kids who, many of them, were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they’re 2 years old,” he said.

      Yeah, because children that young aren’t screened for it.

      But again, notice the word choice? “Regressed.” This is somebody who sees neurodivergents as undesireable and beneath himself.

      Make no mistake: RFK isn’t promising any other solution to autism than a Final Solution.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        Yes, the type of crap that RFK jr is pulling is classic denialist bullshit.

        If you’ve debated any of the various denialist dumbasses on various topics, you’ll see it over and over and over again. Doesn’t matter if they are evolution deniers, vaccine deniers, HIV deniers, moon landing deniers, Holocaust deniers, they all use the same exact set of dishonest tactics - the Gish Gallop, the “just asking questions” trope, the “teach the controversy” stuff, and it all comes with lots and lots of logical fallacies.

        Most all of them never learn a fucking thing, never apologize for their inherent dishonesty and certainly never change. You’ll point out how what they said was bullshit on one day and within hours/days, they’ll be back again, doing almost the exact same thing. Many of them are too stupid to know how much they are owned by others in online forums; some others are just fully aware, but they just don’t care because the immorality that goes along with lying at that level runs so very deep.