RFK Jr. vs. Autism: A Cautionary Tale
Sunday, April 20, 2025.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wandered out of a Whole Foods conspiracy subreddit and directly into the national spotlight, dragging behind him a tangled ball of half-read abstracts, mercury panic, and the kind of statistical research illiteracy that would make a 7th grade math teacher weep into her TI-83.
In his latest crusade against science, he’s resurrected the moldy myth that vaccines cause autism—a claim so thoroughly debunked it now loiters in the same intellectual graveyard as phrenology, bloodletting, trickle-down economics, and New Coke.
But RFK, ever the tragic understudy in the MAGA Camelot farce, insists he’s just asking questions—loudly, confidently, and with all the nuance of a leaf blower in a library.
So buckle up.
We’re going spelunking in the dark caverns of medical misinformation, where Bobby’s torch is powered entirely by neuro-normative bias.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared that we’re in the middle of an “autism epidemic,” which is, scientifically speaking, only slightly more accurate than saying the moon causes Lyme disease.
But unlike most dinner table conspiracy theorists, Bobby has a microphone, a surname that unlocks doors, and an intellectual rigor that seems powered by aluminum foil. He also has a well documented issue with, shall we say, impulse control.
In his usual repertoire of emotionally urgent, but intellectually addled speeches, RFK points to one single, terrifying graph: a line climbing like a frightened squirrel from “1 in 10,000” autistic children in the 1970s to today’s estimate of 1 in 36.
Geez, if you hate autism like RFK Jr., It kinda sounds like an emergency. But let’s rewind, shall we?
Autism didn’t “appear” in the late 20th century. It got diagnosed.
Before the 1980s, autism was a niche curiosity, sandwiched between "childhood schizophrenia" and “probably mom’s fault.”
The DSM-III (1980) was the first edition of the psychiatric manual to clearly define autism as its own category.
Prior to that, children who today would receive an autism diagnosis were labeled "emotionally disturbed," "developmentally delayed," "retarded," or sometimes—charmingly—“feral.”
Kennedy’s whole argument hinges on the idea that diagnostic expansion = actual increase in pathology.
This is what research call the “diagnostic substitution effect” (Shattuck, 2006), and it’s the epidemiological equivalent of mistaking your new reading glasses for an increase in the number of words in the world.
In other words, at the risk of sounding unkind, It’s an intellectually slovenly mindset.
Mercury, Memory, and Misplaced Outrage
RFK’s favorite villain is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative once used in some vaccines. It sounds scary. It ends in “-sol.” It’s vaguely metallic. Perfect.
Here’s the inconvenient factual dillema. Thimerosal was phased out of most childhood vaccines in the United States by 2001. You’d expect, if Kennedy’s theory held water, a sharp decline in autism rates a generation afterward.
But plot twist! The rates kept rising. Like RFK's blood pressure when someone mentions peer review.
The CDC tracked this. So did our National Institute of Medicine. Their conclusion?
“The evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.”
(Institute of Medicine, 2004)
And the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. So does the World Health Organization. So does every nation that removed thimerosal and saw no change in autism rates (Taylor et al., 2014).
RFK’s refusal to update his narrative in light of actual evidence is a bit like blaming the Titanic on wind direction. Loud, confident, and wrong.
Why Autism Is Not a Catastrophe, and Vaccines Are Not Sorcery
What actually causes autism? It’s complex, multigenic, and still being studied. But here’s what we do know:
Genetics play the largest role. Twin studies show that if one identical twin has autism, there’s a 60–90% chance the other does too (Ronald & Hoekstra, 2011).
For fraternal twins, that drops to ~30%, suggesting both heritability and environmental influence. I see this constantly with the families I work with in Public Health, as well as my private practice.
RFK can’t find his ass with both hands with his dipshit autism theories.
Advanced paternal age (Reichenberg et al., 2006), in utero exposure to valproate, premature birth, maternal infections during pregnancy—these are all modest risk factors.
No reputable, peer-reviewed study has ever demonstrated a causal link between any vaccine ingredient and autism.
Don’t trust American science? Large-scale international cohort studies, like the Danish nationwide study of over 650,000 children (Hviid et al., 2019), found no increased autism risk among vaccinated children.
Meanwhile, not vaccinating children?
That does lead to outbreaks of measles, mumps, rubella, and diphtheria. Ask Samoa. Or Disneyland. Or Texas.
And what about the increased prevalence?
Yes, it’s gone up. So has awareness, diagnostic accuracy, and access to services (for now).
What hasn’t gone up is any scientific support for Bobby’s bullsh*t.
In other words: We’re finally seeing kids who were always there.
And instead of celebrating their visibility and providing support, RFK wants to summon them to the Salem vaccine tribunals. Yikes.
The Problem of Autism Bias
Here’s the real tragedy: RFK isn’t just flogging dead hypotheses. He’s directing public fear toward pseudo-science —then calling it public policy.
And the worst part? It dehumanizes autistic folks.
Because underneath his crusade is an unspoken belief: Autism is a fate worse than death.
Better your kid gets measles than be wired differently.
That’s not advocacy. That’s obnoxious ableism with a scratchy Harvard accent.
Autism is not a problem to be eradicated. It’s a difference to be understood.
It is not caused by government plot, medical cabal, or childhood vaccines—it is the result being born human in a complex, diverse, and gloriously messy genome.
So here’s a modest proposal:
Let’s vaccinate against RFK-style bullsh*t.
The side effects may include improved public health, less parental guilt, and a world where neurodivergent kids aren’t treated like cautionary tales.
And if Bobby wants to argue?
Tell him we’re fresh out of mercury. Been that way for nearly 25 years. But we’ve got plenty of hard science and common sense left.
Be Well, Stay Kind (I’m really trying here), and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Hviid, A., Hansen, J. V., Frisch, M., & Melbye, M. (2019). Measles, mumps, rubella vaccination and autism: A nationwide cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 170(8), 513–520. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-2101
Institute of Medicine. (2004). Immunization safety review: Vaccines and autism. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Reichenberg, A., Gross, R., Weiser, M., et al. (2006). Advancing paternal age and autism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(9), 1026–1032. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.63.9.1026
Ronald, A., & Hoekstra, R. A. (2011). Autism spectrum disorders and autistic traits: A decade of new twin studies. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 156B(3), 255–274. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.31159
Shattuck, P. T. (2006). The contribution of diagnostic substitution to the growing administrative prevalence of autism in US special education. Pediatrics, 117(4), 1028–1037. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-1516
Taylor, L. E., Swerdfeger, A. L., & Eslick, G. D. (2014). Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Vaccine, 32(29), 3623–3629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.085