In response to RFK Jr.’s recent press conference in which he addressed the latest, truly unreal autism statistics — as many as one in twelve California boys now has the lifelong condition — the Brought to You By Pfizer™ media ran with the predictable narrative, which they’ve trotted out before, that the autism epidemic is solely the product of improved diagnostic methods and “increased awareness.”
Via HuffPost (emphasis added):
Medical experts have primarily attributed this increase to improved diagnostic capabilities, a broadened definition of autism and increased awareness. Researchers believe there is no single cause of autism but that a combination of factors, including genetics, plays a role, as the National Institutes of Health explains on its website.
This claim is obviously wrong and stupid for anyone who spends two minutes looking at the reality, but it is expected and not, arguably, beyond the pale.
But because they can’t help themselves, they ratcheted the smears up to eleven.
Related: Unhinged Liberals Accuse RFK Jr. of Using Secret Nazi Code on Twitter
MSNBC ran a barrage of hit pieces, such as this one in which the panelist accused the Secretary of “stigmatizing” autism by pointing out the disturbing statistics that he outlined in his press conference.
They also published an op-ed written by an alleged autistic man in which he claimed RFK Jr. had launched “disparaging attacks” on autistic people at the presser, which no honest person watching the press conference could conclude.
Via MSNBC (emphasis added):
When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the lectern at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building on Wednesday to fearmonger about a supposed autism epidemic, he said many dehumanizing things about autistic people including, “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job.” I had made sure to park myself right in front of Kennedy for the news conference, and when he and his team called on me, I mentioned that I am autistic.
I wanted to show America’s most vocal proponent of the lie that there’s a link between vaccines and autism that my autism is not a tragedy. Of course there are autistic people, including nonspeaking autistic people and ones with intellectual disabilities, who require significant support. Even so, they don’t deserve Kennedy’s awful rhetoric that describes them not as people but as burdens…
Kennedy assiduously dodged my question related to statistics that show people of color are now receiving diagnoses when they did not in the past, and after that I felt my hands start trembling. Part of it was the nerves I felt after confronting him for saying such grotesque things about this community I love, but part of it was my fear that the disparaging attacks on autistic people will get much, much worse.
Related: WATCH: MAHA Envoy DECIMATES ‘Reporters and Lobbyists’ at Health Care Summit
The admitted junk food addict and visible slob Peter Hotez got in on the action, accusing Kennedy of practicing “eugenics” by not wanting one in twelve California boys to suffer a lifelong debilitating health condition.
CNN recruited a literal DEI scientist — Dr. Chris T. Pernell of the NAACP Center For Health Equity — who, along with other DEI panelists, erupted in a cacophony of shrieking outrage around the 2:40 mark at the mere suggestion that we give RFK Jr. a chance to perform given that he’s been on the job all of 90 days.
She accused RFK Jr. of “assassinating the integrity of public health science.”
Related: Vaxxed Healthcare Workers 27% MORE Likely to Contract Flu: Study
The lunatic fringe Democratic Socialists over at The Majority Report are running with the line that RFK Jr.’s campaign to end autism is a “moral panic” and that he is incorrectly informing parents that they have any control over whether their child develops normally or not, as autism is purely a genetic condition in their pseudoscientific minds.
Purely a genetic condition… ergo, let’s throw our hands up in the air.
