RFK Jr's autism comments place blame and shift research responsibility to parents, critics say

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Mon 12 May 2025 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Mon 12 May 2025 07.01 EDT


Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, has intimated that parents are to blame for their children’s autism, and that they are responsible for researching every aspect of their children’s lives that could affect their development. “We have to recognize we are doing this to our children, and we need to put an end to it,” Kennedy said at his first press conference as health secretary.

In a recent interview with Dr Phil McGraw, Kennedy told parents to “do their own research” when it comes to vaccinating their kids, stating that scientists are still trying to understand whether the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes severe side effects like brain swelling (they know; it doesn’t). “You research the baby stroller, you research the foods that they’re getting, and you need to research the medicines that they’re taking as well,” he said.

These statements appear to blame parents for vaccinating their kids and causing autism, a developmental and neurological condition that is overwhelmingly genetic, said Jessica Calarco, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net. “That’s very much what he’s implying and how it’s going to be read,” Calarco said.

It’s a message that reminded Shannon Des Roches Rosa of the early days after her son’s diagnosis. In 2003, she subscribed to the then novel theory that vaccines could be linked to autism – to the point that she stopped vaccinating her children. She saw a doctor who specialized in treating autistic children, and he “had us doing all this pseudoscience and supplements and not vaccinating our kids”, Rosa said. “People were thinking we were having an autism epidemic when we weren’t. It was diagnosis and recognition,” she said. As study after study came out showing no link between vaccines and autism, Rosa began getting her kids regular shots once again. “There is no association between vaccines and autism.


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/12/rfk-jr-autism-comments-blame-parents

[Archae]

1. Decades ago, autism was blamed on a child's Mother.

The Mother would be labeled as "cold" and "unfeeling" towards a child, and that would "cause autism."

Actual research put that stupid theory to rest, but the anti-vax nutcases like RFK Jr still are blaming the parents.

[mopinko]

6. refrigerator mothers.

was what supposed expert bruno betteheim called them.

[Randomthought]

2. Hubby is on the spectrum

He's 78

[BOSSHOG]

3. Don't expect me to do anything says RFKjr

While Daddy rolls over in his grave. If you expect me to do something you’ll have to pay me more. I am a patriotic, smart Republican after all. A grifter by trade. Master of nothing.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. If there are environmental factors

I'm going with heavy metals and food impurities used in the manufacture and cooking of food. We've done well to eliminate cadmium, lead (except in water), mercury, though there still could be micro amounts, but metals such as nickel are in a lot of prep infrastructure. Fryers, pots, vats, grinding mechanisms for example.

There. That should cause a tirade.

[unblock]

5. the simplest answer is that it's genetic

it runs in families; having a parent (particularly a father) with autism is a strong predictor of having autism.

that doesn't mean environmental factors may not also play a role. a genetic inheritance may need an environmental factor before it has an affect on a person.

but most of the "cause" of autism is simple genetics.

my daughter is autistic, i am autistic, my father very likely is autistic, his father probably was as well.... we all have a few very similar traits that generally associated with autism. my daughter was formally diagnosed. i was not, but my responses to the test questions would have been virtually identical, and i know i get those traits from my father, who behaves very similarly to me and has had some of the same successes and struggles.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. I agree and thanks for that clarity on genetics

My family has had heavy metal issues, tested and diagnosed by competent physicians. Some of the symptoms seemed lightly autistic. So I do understand.

[thucythucy]

10. And yet the Trump administration is gutting the FDA's ability

to test foods for obvious impurities.

Has RFK Jr. said anything about that?

Rhetorical question--of course he hasn't. I mean, what's testing our foods got to do with health, am I right?

[kimbutgar]

8. My son was so spoiled and constantly loved and hugged by his father and I

And his grandparents took care of him a few days a week. He was their only grandchild and the only boy my Dad had. I have an older sister who never had children so he was a little king to his grandparents. I don’t think i
Vaccines caused his autism either.

[Initech]

9. RFK Jr is one truly sick, demented, evil fuck.

Worst HHS director ever!