Tag: autism

STUNNING TESTIMONY: Political Economist and Brownstone Fellow Dr. Toby Rogers TORCHES CDC’s Autism Narrative Before U.S. Senate — Exposes “Genetic Myth,” Shredded Studies, and Hidden Data Proving Vaccines Drive the Autism Epidemic

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations was rocked on Tuesday by jaw-dropping testimony from political economist Dr. Toby Rogers, Ph.D., M.P.P., who dismantled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) long-standing narrative on autism.

Dr. Rogers, a Brownstone Institute Fellow and leading researcher, testified that the autism epidemic in America is being fueled by toxic exposures, most notably vaccines, and not by “bad luck genetics,” as government health officials have claimed for decades.

Rogers recounted how his then-partner’s son was diagnosed with autism in 2015, prompting him to dig into the CDC’s claims. As a PhD student trained to scrutinize primary sources, he discovered the agency’s story simply didn’t add up.

Rogers explained how the CDC has leaned on three flimsy excuses for the explosion of autism cases since the 1970s: genetics, parental age, and obscure drugs like valproic acid and thalidomide. But none of these can explain the staggering reality:

Rogers:
“On July 4, 2015, my then-partner’s son was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. I was in a Ph.D. program in Political Economy at the University of Sydney where I had access to almost all current scientific and medical journals.

I wanted to better understand what was happening, so I went to the CDC’s webpage on the causes of autism.

As a Ph.D. student I was trained to focus on primary source documents, so I read all of the references in their footnotes. To my surprise, I quickly discovered that the CDC’s narrative did not add up:

  • Claims that autism is genetic don’t make sense because autism prevalence was rising too fast — there’s no such thing as a genetic epidemic.
  • Then the CDC blamed valproic acid, a treatment for epilepsy that is contraindicated in pregnancy, and thalidomide, which was never approved for use in the U.S. — so those factors could only explain a handful of cases stemming from inadvertent use.
  • Finally, the CDC pointed to advanced parental age; however, the effect sizes were modest and the increase in the proportion of older parents is insufficient to explain the surge in autism prevalence.

Rogers changed his doctoral thesis to focus on the political economy of autism, analyzing over 1,000 studies.

Rogers detailed how 22 studies claiming “vaccines don’t cause autism” are essentially worthless because not a single one used a true unvaccinated control group.

Meanwhile, over $2.3 billion has been poured into genetic research with virtually nothing to show for it.

Keep reading

HHS Will Link Autism To Tylenol Use During Pregnancy, Wall Street Journal Reports

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that autism is linked to the use of Tylenol during pregnancy in a report expected to be released this month, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will also likely suggest that low levels of the vitamin folate also contribute to autism. The report will propose that a form of folate called folic acid, or leucovorin, can be used to treat symptoms of the disorder, according to the WSJ.

Acetaminophen, the ingredient found in hundreds of prescription and over-the-counter medicines — including Tylenol products — is routinely recommended for fever reduction and the relief of mild to moderate pain. Pregnant women commonly take it.

The drug has long been linked to liver toxicity, and several studies over the last decade — including one published last month by researchers at Harvard Medical School — have found that children exposed to the drug during pregnancy may be more likely to develop neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

Shares of Tylenol, made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Kenvue, declined nearly 11% Friday after the WSJ published its report.

“Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products,” a Kenvue spokeswoman told the WSJ. “We have continuously evaluated the science and continue to believe there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says Tylenol is safe to use in pregnancy. In 2021, as more evidence of the link was emerging, the organization published a statement opposing a consensus statement supported by a group of 91 scientists in the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology. The scientists said that a growing body of research suggests that prenatal exposure to the drug may alter fetal development and increase the risks of neurodevelopmental, reproductive and urogenital disorders.

“ACOG and obstetrician-gynecologists across the country have always identified acetaminophen as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant individuals during pregnancy,” the pharmaceutical industry-sponsored medical organization insisted.

Keep reading

REPORT: According to WSJ – RFK Jr. to Reveal Tylenol Use During Pregnancy and Having a Folate Deficiency Potentially Linked to Autism

Secretary Kennedy is going to release his findings on the vaccine link to autism later this month, possibly on or near September 25th.

This study has Democrats and Big Pharma very, very worried.

* * * * * * * * * *

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will reveal that Tylenol use during pregnancy and a folate deficiency may be linked to autism.

During a Cabinet meeting last week, HSS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that his department has pinpointed “certain interventions” that are almost certainly causing autism in children.

President Trump pressed the issue head-on during the Cabinet meeting, calling the autism crisis “a tremendous horror show” devastating American families.

Kennedy stunned the room with the numbers. In 1970, he said, a massive Wisconsin study of 900,000 children found an autism rate of less than one in 10,000. Today, official numbers put autism at 1 in 31 children nationwide.

California reports that one in 19 children are diagnosed with autism.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Tylenol and having a folate deficiency are potentially linked to autism.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that pregnant women’s use of an over-the-counter pain medication is potentially linked to autism in a report that will also suggest a medicine derived from folate can be used to treat symptoms of the developmental disorder in some people, people familiar with the matter said.

The report, expected this month from the Department of Health and Human Services, is likely to highlight low levels of folate, an important vitamin, and Tylenol taken during pregnancy as well as other potential causes of autism, people familiar with the matter said.

Kennedy’s department also plans to pinpoint a form of folate known as folinic acid, or leucovorin, the people said, as a way to decrease the symptoms of autism, which affected roughly one in 31 eight-year-olds in the U.S. in 2022.

Tylenol, whose active ingredient is acetaminophen, is a widely used pain reliever, including by pregnant women. Some previous studies have indicated risks to fetal development, but others have found no association. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it is safe to use in pregnancy, though it recommends pregnant women consult with their doctors before using it, as with all medicines.

Keep reading

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.”

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

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.”

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

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.”

Keep reading

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.”

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading