S.E. Cupp: Autism families: Keep RFK Jr. away from our kids

“[H]ead-banging, shot helmet on, non-toilet trained, nonverbal.”

This is however President Trump’s prime to caput the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has described the millions of Americans who are connected the autism spectrum.

He was talking to chap conspiracy trafficker and mega-podcaster Joe Rogan successful 2023, erstwhile helium repeated a enactment of statement he’s made many, galore times. “I stake you’ve ne'er met anybody with full-blown autism your age,” Kennedy said to Rogan, and proceeded to picture them with the callous, cartoonish, demeaning, stigmatized, inaccurate, and unsafe mode that helium did.

He often starts this way, insisting that puerility vaccines must cause autism due to the fact that helium didn’t cognize immoderate severely autistic children erstwhile helium was increasing up, and doesn’t cognize immoderate now.

To accidental this amounts to “science,” and successful peculiar the benignant of subject a antheral successful complaint of our nation’s wellness should espouse, is evidently a joke.

There are millions of adults with autism now, and ever were — astir were misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and institutionalized during Kennedy’s childhood. Furthermore, “full-blown autism” is not an existent diagnosis oregon aesculapian term.

But arsenic Kennedy attempted to reply questions from senators Wednesday astatine his confirmation proceeding astir his questionable beliefs connected everything from vaccines to COVID to termination to nutrient science, the autism assemblage successful peculiar watched with a idiosyncratic interest.

That’s due to the fact that Kennedy has harangued and harassed this assemblage for years, pushing baseless conspiracy theories, unsafe lies, and degrading rhetoric onto anyone who volition listen.

He’s described autism — a spectrum of developmental disorders that tin manifest successful each kinds of ways — arsenic a “catastrophic tragedy…which has present destroyed the lives of implicit 20 cardinal children and shattered their families.”

As a genitor successful this community, I tin archer you we are not destroyed, nor shattered. Autism is not an affliction nor a catastrophic tragedy. It is simply a ace power. We’re not ashamed of our kids — they’re thriving successful a satellite of science-based attraction and acquisition that has them conquering challenges and learning astatine their implicit best. They are sidesplitting it.

But the thought of a idiosyncratic who spreads the benignant of dishonesty, quackery and junk subject that Kennedy habitually does — particularly astir our precious kiddos — is thing abbreviated of tummy churning.

Of course, I’m not unsocial successful my interest and disgust.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network urged the Senate not to corroborate Kennedy, informing that successful pushing fake “autism cures” and anti-vax pseudo-science, “Autistic people, the disablement community, and the nation’s nationalist wellness volition each suffer.”

In a statement, the radical was pointed:

“Kennedy has described autistic radical successful insulting ways meant to animate fear, saying that ‘their encephalon is gone’ and that the purported effects of vaccination are ‘a Holocaust.’ By moving to forestall puerility vaccination, helium efficaciously communicates the connection that surviving arsenic an autistic idiosyncratic is simply a worse destiny than dying of measles oregon pertussis.”

Likewise, the president of Autism Science Foundation, Alison Singer, said this:

“I fearfulness that parents volition deliberation we don’t person the information that we bash — from dozens of studies — and volition withhold beingness redeeming vaccines from their children. Withholding vaccines volition bash thing to trim the accidental that a kid is diagnosed with autism, but volition perfectly summation the accidental that a kid could declaration and dice from a vaccine-preventable disease. Vaccines prevention lives, period.”

Kennedy’s ain household members person begged the Senate not to enactment him successful this presumption of power and powerfulness implicit our health.

On the eve of his hearing, his doc niece Kerry Kennedy Meltzer released a cache of backstage emails betwixt the two, successful hopes it would nonstop a message.

In them, she shares with Kennedy her experiences moving successful the ICU during COVID, telling him she watched excessively galore unvaccinated radical needlessly dice — to which helium responded by challenging her infirmary and the CDC’s data.

His cousin, Caroline Kennedy, besides wrote a scathing letter to senators this week, calling RFK Jr. a “predator” who was addicted to attraction and unfit to beryllium successful complaint of the country’s health.

Three different household members wrote a letter back successful 2019, calling Kennedy an “internet doomsayer” who “helped to dispersed unsafe misinformation implicit societal media and is complicit successful sowing distrust of the subject down vaccines.”

This is each frightening capable — and arsenic the proceeding revealed, his bogus theories astir AIDS, Lyme disease, and a slew of different nationalist wellness issues marque wide Kennedy is nary person of facts oregon science, and truthful should beryllium utterly disqualified from HHS secretary.

But particularly erstwhile it comes to autism and vaccines, it’s perfectly imperative: support Kennedy distant from our kids.

secuppdailynews@gmail.com