Last week provided the latest evidence that we’ve lost our humanity in America. Before you read the rest of this op-ed about a policy and jump to any conclusions, please keep a few facts in mind regarding my personal background: I’m a Christian Conservative who has never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. I opposed, and will continue to oppose, any COVID vaccine mandates, and federal mandates for any vaccines. Also, I spend each day with people who have been diagnosed with Autism. For privacy reasons, I can’t elaborate on that particular fact.
Now, let’s get to the policy facts:
FACT: BlackRock and Big Pharma Benefit from the Executive Order
“Big corporations”, “Big Pharma” and “Big Medicine” were all supposed to be part of the swamp that Trump and RFK Jr drained. Ironically, they’re the biggest beneficiaries of Trump’s recent executive order on vaccines. Assuming the order ultimately survives inevitable legal hurdles, it will force up more pediatric visits, more health insurance co-pays, more shots, and more tests to be analyzed by BlackRock-backed Quest Diagnostics, but that’s not what saddens me the most about the order.
The logistical fallout doesn’t disappoint me. It’s the bigger picture that somehow gets lost in the OVERALL discussion: HHS head, Mister Robert F Kennedy Jr, considers individuals with Autism to be inept, inferior, second-class citizens.
FACT: RFK JR’s head of Autism research illegally gave puberty blockers to autistic children and championed it as a cure
The natural follow-up question is: Where is RFK Jr. looking for answers?
I believe it’s fair to assume that conservatives who oppose puberty blockers as a means of “gender affirming care” for youth seeking gender transition would be unpleasantly surprised to learn the fact that David Geier, the man who RFK Jr appointed to lead his Autism research, promoted Lupron, a puberty-blocking and testosterone-lowering drug, to autistic children as an unproven treatment. Grier, who has no medical education, was either ignorant of or apathetic to the fact that puberty blockers can do permanent, major damage to bone density, impacts on bone density, future fertility, and uncertainties regarding long-term developmental and psychological outcomes. In 2011, the Maryland Board of Physicians charged David Geier—who is not a licensed medical doctor and holds only a bachelor’s degree—with illegally practicing medicine without a license and improperly prescribing puberty blockers to autistic children. “Anyone who would fleece families with fake cures should not be trusted to interpret a scientific study, let alone conduct one,” the Autistic Self Advocacy Network said in a statement decrying David Geier’s hiring.
FACT: Autism spectrum disorder encompasses a wide range of neurological and developmental characteristics and is not synonymous with intellectual disability.
Under current diagnostic standards, Autism is classified by the level of support an individual requires — Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 — rather than simply by how many symptoms that person has. Autistic people may or may not also have intellectual, language, physical or other developmental disabilities.
The definition of Autism has also changed considerably over time. Asperger’s syndrome, for example, became a separate diagnosis under DSM-IV in 1994 before being incorporated, along with autistic disorder and PDD-NOS, into the broader diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorder under DSM-5 in 2013. Elon Musk has publicly identified himself as having Asperger’s syndrome. These changes in diagnostic definitions and identification practices are among the reasons today’s Autism prevalence numbers cannot be directly compared with figures from decades ago as though the diagnostic definition had remained unchanged.
RFK Jr. ignores that context.
FACT: RFK JR HAS CONTRADICTED HIS OWN STATEMENTS ON VACCINE SUPPORT MULTIPLE TIMES
FACT: The MMR Vaccine is Not Federally Mandatory or Similar to the mRNA COVID Vaccine in Form or Function
Two things can be true at once, even if they cut across today’s left-versus-right political battle lines. The mRNA COVID vaccines were developed and deployed at unprecedented speed and carried risks and limitations that deserve scrutiny. At the same time, measles vaccines have been used for decades and are fundamentally different from mRNA COVID vaccines in their technology, effectiveness, ingredients, safety profile, and overall risk-benefit calculation. Treating all vaccines as though they are medically interchangeable ignores those important distinctions. (And measles are not the same thing as chickenpox.)
I’ve heard some skeptics, including longtime friends, ask: “How can you even know what’s in a vaccine?” Labs can determine the components. RFK Jr’s contacts learned that mercury hasn’t been used in vaccines for over 35 years, and had to change his entire book title and culprit. (Routine childhood vaccines in the U.S. phased out the mercury-based preservative thimerosal (ethylmercury) by 2001 as a precautionary measure, not because harm was proven.)
Had those elements been the cause of Autism as RFK Jr asserted, then Austim rates should have fallen, not increased since 2001! Unfortunately, in today’s rage-bait society, people overlook such nuance and context.
I give Kennedy credit for his work to get pollution out of rivers in the Northeast. He’s right to be concerned about juvenile childhood obesity, but that doesn’t mean he gets a pass for completely mistating the figures. As HHS head, his words carry far more weight than a random blogger or alternative medicine influencer.
Beyond the medical science, the debate over public trust in health care, or how the president, attorneys, or anyone else chooses to define Autism, one truth should remain beyond dispute: The lives of people diagnosed with Autism are every bit as valuable as anyone else’s.
To my fellow Christians, let’s not forget when Christ said: “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.”
PS – A few side notes for your consideration:
Side note 1: The Amish community is often an example that anti-vaxers cite to defend their stance, but just as COVID’s actual death rate was almost impossible to determine due to an unknown number of untested infected Americans, Autism rates among the Amish are extremely difficult to determine, because they don’t consult neurologists to determine if their child fits the criteria for an Autism diagnosis.
Side note 2: There is literally not a single peer-reviewed medical study that shows a link to Autism from childhood vaccines.
Side note 3: RFK Jr based his stance on the proven fraudulent and retracted Wakefield study from 1998, which was concocted for a class action lawsuit and didn’t even sample more than 9 individuals diagnosed with Autism.
Side note 4: Conversely, dozens of studies that have involved millions of patients over multiple decades have found no higher rate of Autism among vaccinated. In one of the earliest and most frequently cited studies, Madsen et al. (2002) utilized Denmark’s registries to track every child born between 1991 and 1998. (RFK Jr has floated the idea of such a registry in the US.) Their analysis found no link between the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine and the development of Autism.
Ultimately, ask your personal physician or your child’s pediatrician for important medical decisions, unless you prefer RFK Jr and Mr. Grier to treat you during your next medical problem.
About the op-ed author: Matt O’Hern is a journalist and digital media consultant who has worked with political campaigns in roles ranging from major projects involving nationwide digital advertising for U.S. Presidential candidates and Senators, to state and county-level elections. O’Hern’s journalism background includes political news reporting and editing for various organizations and news publications across the Southeast since 2002. O’Hern graduated from Samford University in Birmingham, AL, with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science.
