On April 16, the newly appointed U.S Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a speech during a press conference that has led to a myriad of backlash. By now, the speech has been dissected by the public and called out by many for painting the autistic community in an ableist light.
Despite having already read breakdown after breakdown surrounding the speech, I still find myself irked by its contents, especially in relation to the greater actions of the Trump administration. What drew the public’s attention and outrage to his press conference was one of his closing statements, where he tries to pull the public’s heartstrings, saying the following about autistic children: “These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
Autism is a complicated disorder, one that can have only a slight effect on one’s life or can be more severe, as it is often said, autism is a spectrum. The speech in its entirety covers Kennedy’s new initiative to find the cause for what he calls the “autism epidemic” and his belief that the country needs to switch focus from infectious disease to chronic disease. As he argues at his April 16 press conference, “We don’t wait two years to react to a measles epidemic, and we should not and do not for any kind of infectious disease. We shouldn’t have to do that for diabetes or autism.”
The comparison of autism, a neurological disorder that is heavily caused by genetic factors, to infectious diseases such as the measles is not only factually incorrect, but also demonstrates Kennedy’s ignorance over the disorder that he seems to be obsessed with. In the speech, there are factually incorrect statements in almost every other line. He claims autism rates have risen by 480% since 1990 and that out of that, 25% of autistic children are “nonverbal, non-toilet trained, and have other stereotypical factors.”
Both of the factoids above are exaggerated, as PBS News’ article Fact Checking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s statements on Autism revealed. “A 2023 study written by CDC officials and university researchers found that one-quarter of people on the autism spectrum have severe limitations. But this is on the high end of studies, and many people in that one-quarter of the autism population do not have the limitations Kennedy mentioned.”
The narrative Kennedy spins is a false representation of the autistic community; it pushes the narrative of autism (and disability) being a tragedy that creates burdens, a rhetoric tied back to a mindset cemented in ableism. However, the misinformation Kennedy is spreading does not stop there; he seems unable to give up his hypothesis that autism is caused by an environmental factor (though he has restrained from saying vaccines as he once did).
During the same press conference as his other controversial statements, Kennedy said, “These are kids, and this is a preventable disease. We know it’s an environmental exposure. It has to be that genes do not cause epidemics.”
The science behind Autism and other chronic diseases that Kennedy claims are caused by environmental exposures is spotty, with most professionals disagreeing. As the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences said, “Progress has been made toward understanding different environmental contributors, and the clearest evidence involves events before and during birth. But these factors alone are unlikely to cause autism. Rather, they appear to increase a child’s likelihood for developing autism when combined with genetic factors.”
Claiming autism is something that can be prevented or avoided instead of something one is born with stems from an ableist and potentially dangerous mindset that is placing Kennedy on a path to do real damage to the autistic community. Kennedy is the man who is in charge of the country’s health department- and worse, the man in charge of a research program centered on finding the cause of autism.
As CBS News explains, “The National Institutes of Health is amassing private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new effort to study autism.”
When private medical records become involved, and the fact that this collection of data has been described as being used to make a registry of autistic Americans, I begin to feel uneasy. There is no community more vulnerable than that of the disabled, a group that has been systematically mistreated and has only seen progress in recent decades.
As the Autistic Self Advocacy Network said, “This country (as well as others) has a history of eugenics that resulted in heavy-handed governmental intervention in disabled people’s lives. This brought about forced sterilization and forced institutionalization. Forced institutionalization, which kept disabled people out of sight and out of mind, laid the groundwork for the widespread use of people with disabilities as unconsenting subjects for unethical research.”
When put into context with the actions of the Trump administration, Kennedy’s lies turn from ableist to dangerous. There is a clear threat to not just the autistic community, but also the disabled community as a whole. The rolling back of DEI practices, something that offered protection and workplace accommodations for disabled individuals, is just one instance that the current administration shows a disregard for disabled Americans.
The one minority anyone can become is being disabled, it is a community most Americans end up joining as they age, but also one that someone can become a part of in a moment’s notice.
In 2021, out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic disease that affects the nerves of the brain and spinal cord. Luckily, it was caught and treated quickly, leaving me with little to no symptoms. But there was a catch- MS is treated through medication that represses the immune system, to put it simply, it means that if I get sick, it can get bad fast. I bring this up because Kennedy has repeatedly refused to make a direct statement pertaining to vaccination, something that he not only believes could cause autism, but also serves as one of the only protections immuno-compromised people have.
“Kennedy’s campaign against vaccines has limiting and dangerous implications for the health of individuals with disabilities, many of whom have immunocompromising comorbidities,” said the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities. Kennedy continues to refuse to make a solid statement regarding vaccines, instead favoring to use language coated in mistrust for vaccination. While he has made a statement endorsing the measles vaccination, he continues to push a distrust of vaccination, something especially clear in the hiring of David Geier.
According to The New York Times, “David Geier has been hired as a senior data analyst at H.H.S. According to several people, he will examine any potential links between vaccines and autism.”
The decision is questionable given Geier’s personal and family history. David Geier’s father is well-known for his controversial statements regarding the danger of vaccinations and the scandal of a 2012 study that cost the man his medical license.
“Dr. Mark Geier was previously a doctor in Maryland and lost his medical license after parents reported that both Geiers were endangering children with autism,” said Senator Margaret Wood Hassan in a letter to Kennedy regarding his choice to hire David Geier. David Geier’s history is a complicated one, involving several falsified studies pertaining to vaccination and autism, and his involvement in his father’s illegal medical practice. As Senator Hassan explained, “David Geier was disciplined by the State of Maryland in 2012 for endangering children’s health by falsely diagnosing and treating medical conditions in children with autism without a medical license.”
Kennedy hires a man who has a history of taking advantage of and exploiting children with autism and their families, a man who believes vaccination is linked to autism- something that has been repeatedly disproven, and in doing so, shows his lack of care regarding autistic children and ethical science.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the U.S Health and Human Services Secretary. He is a man who holds more influence in the medical community than most, and he is a man who uses rhetoric that promotes practices that will harm disabled Americans. His press conference on April 16 is just one time where the light is shone onto this fact, it is about more than just autism, it is about the beginning of an attack on disabled Americans.