Tag: autism

RFK Jr. Says CDC Ordered Scientist to DESTROY Autism Data Linking Measles Vaccine to Black Children in 2002

During a stunning Senate hearing, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that in the early 2000s, a senior CDC scientist was ordered to destroy data from an internal study that showed a staggering link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism risk in young Black boys.

In 2004, a CDC-backed case-control study in Atlanta compared 624 children with autism to 1,824 without, assessing whether timing of MMR vaccination (before vs. after 18 or 24 months) was linked to autism risk. It found no significant association.

While the 2004 study did not find a causal link, a later re-analysis of the same data received significant attention.

A 2014 study published in Translational Neurodegeneration re-examined the CDC’s dataset and claimed to find an increased autism risk among African American boys who received the MMR vaccine before 36 months of age.

According to the 2014 study, “The present study provides new epidemiologic evidence showing that African American males receiving the MMR vaccine prior to 24 months of age or 36 months of age are more likely to receive an autism diagnosis.”

According to RFK Jr., the findings were explosive:

“The data from that study showed that black boys who got the vaccine on time had a 260% greater chance of getting an autism diagnosis than children who waited,” Kennedy testified.

“The chief scientist on that, Dr. William Thompson, the Senior Vaccine Safety Scientist at CDC, was ordered to come into a room with four other co-authors by his boss, Frank DeStefano, who’s the head of the safety press, and ordered to destroy that data. Then they published it without that fact.”

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RFK is Right! Autism Rates Skyrocketing, Autistic People Largely Unable to Live Independently

RFK Jr.’s warning about skyrocketing autism rates has drawn sharp criticism from advocates who insist that “kids with autism are not broken” and can lead full lives. Yet their rebuttals often support his point.

They highlight students graduating only with extensive assistance from multiple social workers and lowered academic standards, and adults employed just a few hours a week in heavily accommodated roles, sometimes unpaid.

Rutgers University’s Center for Adult Autism Services reports that in New Jersey, 1 in 20 boys and 1 in 85 girls are diagnosed with autism.

Nationwide, data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows prevalence rising from 1 in 36 children to 1 in 31, nearly five times higher than when the CDC began tracking children born in 1992.

The National Center for Special Abilities cites a 6,000% increase, overwhelming schools, healthcare systems, and social services.

Current CDC figures place autism rates at 23 per 1,000, compared with just 0.5 per 1,000 in the 1960s and 1970s and about 1 per 1,000 in the 1980s.

The contrast with earlier decades is striking. In his landmark 1943 paper, child psychiatrist Leo Kanner described his 11 autism cases as “markedly and uniquely different from anything reported so far.”

If today’s rates had existed then, autism would hardly have been considered novel. A 2009 study found autism incidence rose 7- to 8-fold from the early 1990s to 2007.

Diagnostic changes, inclusion of milder cases, and earlier detection explain only part of that growth, about a 4.25-fold increase, leaving much of the surge unexplained.

California data further undermines the “better diagnosis” argument, showing no evidence of a hidden population of autistic adults born between 1931 and the early 1980s.

Early U.K. studies support this. Victor Lotter’s 1966 survey in Middlesex schools found autism in just 0.045% of children. Wing and Gould’s 1979 Camberwell study reported 0.049%, while 1980s research using broader DSM criteria raised prevalence only slightly, to about 0.077%.

Personal testimony reinforces these findings. RFK’s team recalls local schools struggling to absorb what staff called a “convulsive growth” in autism. A speech therapist friend noted that in the 1980s, autism was barely covered in training because so few cases were seen.

Even Dr. Thomas Insel, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, observed that when his brother trained at Harvard’s Children’s Hospital in the 1970s, the admission of one autistic child was rare enough that residents were brought in to see.

Psychology Today claims that autistic people may possess exceptional memory, recall, or math skills, and praises their “organization and attention to detail.”

It contrasts this neurodiversity view with the “medical model,” which treats autism as a disorder.

The American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics takes a similar position, describing autism as a “complex combination of strengths and challenges” and urging society to value neurobiological diversity as it does race, gender, or religion.

The National Autism Society even warns against sources that discuss “curing” or “treating” autism.

These claims about “superpowers,” however, are not supported by the data. Research shows only about 10% of autistic individuals have true savant skills, and some estimates put the figure as low as 1 in 200.

Even newer studies that cite one-third with “exceptional abilities” often include modest talents, not savant syndrome.

Meanwhile, executive functioning studies consistently find deficits in planning, problem solving, and organization, directly contradicting the idea of a natural strength in attention to detail.

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RFK Jr. Tells Trump He’s Discovered What Is “Clearly” Causing Autism

During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. informed President Trump that his department has discovered what is “almost certainly” causing autism in kids.

Kennedy vowed earlier in the year to investigate and get to the bottom of what is behind the massive increase in cases that once afflicted only one in every 10,000 children, but now account for one in every 31 nationwide.

In the state of California, a shocking one in every 12.5 boys is now diagnosed as autistic, while for kids overall, it’s one in 19.

Turning to Kennedy during the meeting, Trump stated “Bobby, autism is such a tremendous horror show, what’s happening in our country and some other countries, but mostly our country. How are you doing on that?”

“We are doing very well. We will have announcements as promised in September,” Kennedy replied, adding “We’re finding certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly, causing autism.”

“We’re going to be able to address those in September,” he further revealed, noting that a full public announcement will be made next month.

Referring to the numbers of cases, Trump declared, “It’s not even believable that that could be. And that was one in 10,000 not so long ago. I’ve been hearing these numbers, and they get worse and worse every year. There’s got to be something.”

He continued, “I think there’s nothing—including favored nations and everything else—there’s nothing that can be… If you can find out the reason that that’s happening, and I know we’re going to do some things.”

Strongly hinting that vaccinations are behind the huge increase in cases, Trump said “I think we maybe know the reason, and I look forward to that press conference—to be with you on that press conference. That’s going to be a great thing.”

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An Evidence-Driven Critique of the Allegedly Reassuring Study on Aluminum-Adjuvanted Vaccines

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. published a sharp and comprehensive critique of the recent study by Andersson et al., which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study made headlines for claiming that aluminum-adjuvanted vaccines administered in early childhood are not associated with increased risks of autoimmune, allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders.

Kennedy did not mince words. He described the study as “so deeply flawed it functions not as science but as a deceitful propaganda stunt by the pharmaceutical industry.” Among the many questionable features he identified, one stood out to me in particular. Kennedy wrote:

“These sleights of hand magnify the potential for allowing the authors to reach their absurd suggestion that higher aluminum exposure is somehow protective against asthma, allergies, and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.”

This sentence stopped me in my tracks because I had noticed the exact same thing. While Kennedy voiced this concern from the standpoint of public health advocacy, I approached the same issue from an academic and data-driven perspective. What I found not only aligns with his observation but adds further empirical grounding to it. In fact, this very point was at the heart of a formal comment I submitted to the Annals of Internal Medicine. The authors of the study responded — but, in my view, did not adequately address the core contradiction. In this short article, I lay out the full story, supported by the data, to show why this implausible pattern of protective effects cannot be ignored.

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Calls Grow For Journal To Retract Danish Study After Corrected Data Show Link Between Aluminum And Vaccines

The authors of a recent Danish study widely reported on by mainstream media claimed they found no link between the aluminum in vaccines and autism.

However, corrected data added after the study’s original July 15 publication date show the authors got it wrong — in fact, the data in the study of 1.2 million children clearly indicate a link between aluminum in vaccines and autism, according to scientists with Children’s Health Defense (CHD) who reviewed the study and the corrected data.

On July 17, the Annals of Internal Medicine, which published the Danish study, added a disclaimer stating that it “included an incorrect version of the Supplementary Material at the time of initial publication.”

The updated materials are available with the link to the study at “Correction: Aluminum-Adsorbed Vaccines and Chronic Diseases in Childhood.”

CHD Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski broke the news of the buried autism link on Monday’s episode of “Good Morning, CHD.” Today, Jablonowski told The Defender:

“According to the corrected data, nearly 10 (9.7) of every 10,000 children who were vaccinated with a higher dose of aluminum (compared to a moderate dose) developed a neurodevelopmental disorder — mostly autism — between ages 2 and 5.”

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Study Claiming No Link Between Aluminum in Vaccines and Autism Riddled with Flaws, Critics Say

Mainstream media widely promoted a new study by Danish researchers that found no link between aluminum in vaccines and 50 negative health outcomes, including autism, asthma and autoimmune disorders.

However, critics told The Defender the study used flawed methodology and “statistical tricks” that muddied the findings.

The authors published their report on July 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. On July 14, even before the study went live, mainstream and health industry media, including NBC News and STAT News, publicly announced the results.

Chris Exley, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading experts on the health effects of aluminum exposure, and Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said that in order to determine if aluminum exposure is linked to health conditions, the researchers should have compared children with no aluminum exposure to children with aluminum exposure.

But that’s not what the Danish scientists did. Instead, they compared children who received vaccines containing aluminum to children who received vaccines with slightly less aluminum.

Not only that, but there was only a one-milligram difference between the amount of aluminum in the vaccine doses received by the children in one of the groups compared to those in another group. Comparing children with similar aluminum levels rather than comparing children with low levels of aluminum to children with high levels of the metal further muddled the findings, Hooker said.

The researchers examined national vaccination records of about 1.2 million children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2018 and tracked the rates of 50 chronic health conditions.

Using statistical analyses, the authors concluded there was no link between aluminum content in vaccines and increased risk of developing autism, autoimmune diseases, asthma or allergic conditions, including food allergies and hay fever.

Anders Hviid, a professor and department head of epidemiology at the Statens Serum Institut and lead study author, told MedPage Today, the results “provide robust evidence supporting the safety of childhood vaccines.”

“This is evidence that parents, clinicians, and public health officials need to make the best choices for the health of our children,” Hviid said.

In a press release, Hviid called the results “reassuring” and said large studies like his are important in “an era marked by widespread misinformation about vaccines.”

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85 Minnesota Autism Clinics Under Investigation for Millions in Medicaid Fraud

About 85 autism clinics in Minnesota are under investigation for tens of millions in Medicaid billing fraud.

The state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) is under a microscope for paying out outrageous amounts for services supposedly delivered by the state’s burgeoning autism treatment sector, according to KSTP-TV.

The records show that DHS paid out claims totally about $700 million since the state’s autism program began in 2014. But millions of that seems to be paying for services that were never rendered. And investigators say that some $20 million has been fraud.

Now, DHS is reportedly visiting every one of the state’s locations after data shows that at least 85 of them fraudulently billed the program.

One expert says that the state ignored the warning signs.

Dr. Eric Larsson with the Lovaas Institute Midwest says that some of the bills were obviously suspicious. “No apparent email address, no website. Nobody is answering the phone,” he said. “They’re certainly not trying to deliver services.”

The problem first came to light last December when the FBI raided two Minnesota autism clinics under suspicions of fraudulent billing, KROC radio reported at the time.

State DHS officials are now scrambling to make sure that the hundreds of autism centers in the state are submitting legitimate bills.

Two of the clinics under investigation are Smart Therapy Center, LLC in Minneapolis and Star Autism Center LLC in St. Cloud, which also had ties to the Feeding Our Future child meal fraud case.

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Top Psychiatrist Says Autism Should Be Diagnosed With a Pencil

While Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., brings in the best and brightest to conclude, once and for all, what caused the epic increase in Autism cases in the US, the answer may have just become very easy to discern due to the “guilt” admitted by one of the nation’s leading psychiatrists.

Those who long have been aware of the fraud associated with psychiatric diagnosing are not surprised to learn that the psychiatric community is behind the horrific number of Autism cases in the United States. The only thing that is surprising is how long it has taken for the fraud to be exposed. 

Dr. Allen Francis, former chair of the Task Force responsible for overhauling and updating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III), reflecting a greatly expanded diagnosis for Autism in the DSM-IV. Francis referred to the increase in Autism cases as an “epidemic” of overdiagnosis. One might argue that, based on his own words, it is an “epidemic of misdiagnosis.”

In the 1980’s the rate of Autism in the US was one in 2,000. With the help of Dr. Francis and his DSM-IV team, the rate had skyrocketed to 1 in 150 by 2000 and, unbelievably, today has settled at one in 31. Considering the extraordinary expansion of symptoms made by Francis and his team, one now refers to an Autism diagnosis as being on the “Spectrum.”

Yes. During an interview with the BBC, Francis explained that “it’s a kind of mea culpa – we had good intentions that led to terrible unintended consequences.” In fact, what is more interesting about Francis’s “mea culpa” is that the grand psychiatrist seems more concerned that his expansion of the Autism diagnosis has contributed to the anti-vax movement, not that millions of kids have been wrongly diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder where there is none.

Francis explained during his BBC interview that he and his team worked to loosen the definition of Autism because psychiatrists and pediatricians thought the criteria was too stringent, leaving some with lesser symptoms unable to get health services. According to Francis, he and his team “introduced something called Asperger’s disorder, and that evolved into autism spectrum disorder…”

Here’s the kicker, according to Francis “this meant that the symptoms of autism as currently used or defined by many clinicians, and certainly self-defined by patients and families, would include many people who have normal social awkwardness, eccentricities, difficulties relating to people that previously would never have been considered a mental disorder.”

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Mapping the Entire Field of Autism Causation Studies in One Article

It seems to me that the proper way to understand the autism epidemic is to read everything that has been written on autism causation, throw out any studies that are characterized by a financial conflict of interest or fatally flawed study design, and see what patterns emerge from the papers that are left. During my doctoral thesis I reviewed about 80 of the top studies in autism epidemiology and toxicology. That was groundbreaking at the time because the vast majority of mainstream scholars don’t have the courage to discuss any papers that threaten the profits of powerful industries. 

As I’ve continued to work in this space over the last six years, I now realize that there are over 800 autism causation studies in the English language focused on the US. It’s daunting to think about trying to wrap one’s head around a field that large. So, most public health officials just grab a favorite study here or there to justify their biases, and that is exactly the wrong way to approach this topic. There has to be a better way of working through the available knowledge on this issue. 

Now I believe that I’ve figured out how to map the entire field of autism causation studies (about 850 papers in all) in one article. If you sat down to read each article individually, it would likely take you several years. But as I will show below, you don’t necessarily have to do that. There is a way to move through all of the literature at a meta level that I believe leads to the right answer and a viable plan for how to stop the autism epidemic. 

Let’s start with a quick introduction and then get into the different types of studies. 

In the early 1980s, vaccines were so harmful that vaccine manufacturers routinely lost in court. They lobbied the US Congress to pass the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act to give themselves liability protection. And they pinky-swore to make vaccines safer but there was no legal mechanism in the bill to enforce that promise so they never did. 

Pharmaceutical companies proceeded to add as many vaccines as possible to the schedule. Prior to 1986, there were 3 routine vaccines totaling 7 injections. Today the CDC’s Maternal and Child and Adolescent vaccine schedules include 19 vaccines requiring 76 injections with 94 total doses of antigen (I’m actually less worried about the antigens than the other ingredients in the shots). 

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The Science on Autism and Vaccines Is Not Settled: What Studies Are Missing

Like many physicians, I was taught early in my training that any link between vaccines and autism had been completely disproven—that “the science is settled” and no longer open for debate. I repeated that message with confidence for years. But when I began researching for my book, “Between a Shot and a Hard Place,” I set aside assumptions and took an unbiased look at the data myself.

What I found wasn’t reassuring. It wasn’t the robust body of evidence putting the question to rest. Instead, I found a surprisingly limited collection of studies—filled with narrow designs and major gaps. As a board-certified pediatrician trained at top institutions, I expected certainty. What I found was an unsettled and incomplete landscape—one that calls not for dogma, but for open scientific inquiry and nuance.

Let me be clear: I am not claiming that vaccines cause autism. I am saying, with humility and urgency, that we do not know. And the truth is, no one can say with confidence that we do.

That’s the problem.

The Scope of the Problem

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition. While some children are only mildly affected, many face significant challenges with speech, motor skills, and daily functioning. The spectrum is wide—and growing.

According to the CDC’s latest numbers, 1 in 31 children in the United States is now diagnosed with autism. In California, the numbers are even higher: 1 in every 12.5 boys. While it’s true that changes in diagnostic criteria and increased awareness have contributed to the rise, they don’t explain the increase in severe cases.

Nearly two-thirds of children with autism today have borderline or profound intellectual disability—a rate that’s higher than in decades past. This is a public health crisis. One we cannot solve if we refuse to ask the hard questions about what may be contributing to it.

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