Summary

RFK Jr. is using private medical records to create a registry of people with autism in the United States.

The National Institutes of Health is helping to collect private medical records from government and commercial databases, including “prescription records from pharmacies, lab testing, and genomics records from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, private insurance claims, and data from smartwatches and fitness trackers.”

Kennedy, a longtime critic of vaccination, has made the study of autism one of HHS’s primary goals. He has called autism “preventable” and claimed “he can find a cure for the condition by September.”

  • turnip@lemm.eeEnglish
    211·
    6 hours ago

    He did run on finding the increased cause of autism in the youth. He said it was likely environmental toxins from corporations.

    So if hes right and hes not looking to murder people then we get statistics on where its occuring, and he would track it down like we did lead and things like that.

    Which there doesnt seem to be a counter-point to what hes doing, heres MSNBC who obviously hates Trump, and as she says theres not been clear answers yet. Which maybe with the data he is gathering there will be some insights:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0OxB7DzBGQ

    • CoolThingAboutMe@aussie.zone
      3·
      46 minutes ago

      RFK must be very upset with Trump letting coal-fired power plants pump arsenic and mercury into the atmosphere unrestricted then

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
      1·
      28 minutes ago

      Yes, well, there are good statistics and studies on autism and it’s mostly genetic. A bug of some of our far ancestors being related enough to have kids, but not enough to avoid weird bugs. Like - some of the neanderthals were not eaten. And parts of their genes were kinda compatible to those of bog standard homo sapiens sapiens, but not entirely. Which mostly doesn’t show in humans, and when it does, it’s autism. Or green eyes. Or something like that. Point being - really nothing to do with environment.

      BTW, RFK Jr really with his manner of speech seems like a high-functioning autistic person, give or take. I wonder if he knows that you don’t have to hide in a room all day and smell and have problems talking at all to be that. I also wonder if he knows that his survival\camping interests too match that a lot.

      • turnip@lemm.eeEnglish
        26·
        6 hours ago

        I dont like the guy, but clearly it is an issue according to this MSN interview. So if he can figure it out I’d like that he did, so that the corporation causing it is held to account. Or what, do we just wait until a democrat is the one to do the same thing?

        RFK is also talking about the obesity epidemic, specifically tying it to our food quality that many large donors really dont want to hear. I think some of these things seem sane, and I’m glad the republicans are starting to appreciate these ideologies.

        • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works
          7·
          4 hours ago

          Except, you know, autism can’t be cured and, you know, the uptick in cases is not because a raise in the numbers but a better diagnosis.

          If they spent that money and time in improving autistic people life quality instead of “curing” them, the world would be a much better place.

            • Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world
              1·
              8 minutes ago

              Because whatever causes it, it’s a difference in synaptic connectivity that can’t be medicated or trained away. The only effective way to remove autism from society is removing autists from society and that’s exactly what rfk jr wants to do.

            • dickalan@lemmy.world
              1·
              1 hour ago

              Are you trying to be a unhelpful walrus or is this just happening organically, can you actually add something of function or substance to the conversation of just being a little detracting asshole?