CDC : 1,136 Measles Cases So Far This Year

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   

 Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

 CDC:

As of February 26, 2026, 1,136 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 1,130 measles cases were reported by 28 jurisdictions: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. A total of 6 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.

There have been 10 new outbreaks** reported in 2026, and 90% of confirmed cases (1,023 of 1,136) are outbreak-associated (152 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 871 from outbreaks that started in 2025).

Casey Means Evades Questions on Vaccines and Autism

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   

 Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He recommended Casey Means as Trump's pick for surgeon general.  At her confirmation hearings, she sidestepped questions about vaccines and autism.

 From PBS:

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): Do you believe that vaccines, whether individually or collectively, contribute to autism?

Dr. Casey Means:  Until we have a clear understanding of why kids are developing this at higher rates, I think we should not leave any stones unturned.

Sen. Bill Cassidy: There's been a lot of evidence showing that they're not implicated. Do you not accept that evidence?

Dr. Casey Means:  I do accept that evidence. I also think that science is never settled.

At USA Today, Sara Moniuszko reports on Bernie Sanders's questions:

In response to Sanders' questions on vaccines and autism, Means said, "anti-vaccine rhetoric has never been a part of my message."

"I am not here to complicate the issue on vaccines," she said. "I think it's important to just keep it on the table."

The idea of restudying potential links between vaccines and autism aligns with long-held sentiments from Kennedy, who has ordered HHS to determine the cause of autism.

On Joe Rogan, however, she seemed to give credit to the debunked "too many too soon' theory: 

Casey Means on How the “Cult of ‘The Science’” Doesn’t Allow Certain Questions to Be Asked

“I bet that one vaccine probably isn’t causing autism but what about the 20 that they’re getting before 18 months?”@CaseyMeansMD @joerogan @calleymeans pic.twitter.com/CY5YN9SShg

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) October 8, 2024

Bogus.  See: Increasing Exposure to Antibody-Stimulating Proteins and Polysaccharides in Vaccines Is Not Associated with Risk of Autism DeStefano, Frank et al. The Journal of Pediatrics, Volume 163, Issue 2, 561 - 567

 

Del Bigtree

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Antivaxxer Del Bigtree -- a key ally of RFK Jr. -- thinks that's okay.

Tom Bartlett at The Atlantic:

Bigtree makes two core claims about vaccination, both of which are demonstrably false. The first is one that other anti-vaxxers, including Kennedy, have been making for decades: that the apparent rise in autism cases in the U.S. since the 1990s can be blamed on immunizations, rather than, as is the consensus among experts, largely on broader diagnostic criteria and better surveillance. Bigtree believes that the dozens of studies that have found no evidence of a connection between autism and vaccines are flawed, and that immunizations have never been properly tested for safety. “Why can’t we find a double-blind placebo trial in any of the childhood vaccines?” he asked me. In fact, many early versions of vaccines, like ones for polio and measles, were tested against unvaccinated groups or a placebo. (Bigtree and others in the anti-vaccine movement object to trials that didn’t use a saline-only placebo, or weren’t double-blind.) New vaccines, however, are usually compared with older vaccines because it’s considered unethical, not to mention unwise, to put children at risk of contracting a vaccine-preventable disease.

That brings us to Bigtree’s second, arguably more outrageous claim: Vaccine-preventable illnesses simply aren’t so bad. He wants children, including his own, to get infected so that they can avoid the dangers of vaccination and develop more robust immunity. They will have, as he put it, the “Ferrari of immunity,” while the rest of us will be driving around in Ford Pintos. He told me he would prefer to live in an entirely unvaccinated country, one where the diseases that sickened millions in the first half of the 20th century could spread freely. That’s a frankly ridiculous notion, as I told him later. But Bigtree is committed to it. “I genuinely am upset that your kids are vaccinated, because it’s keeping my kids from getting chickenpox. It’s keeping my kids from getting measles,” he told me. “I believe their health depends on them catching those live viruses.” I asked him if he wanted his kids to catch all of the illnesses against which American children are routinely vaccinated. “Yes,” he said.

...

After getting to know Bigtree and watching his show, I’m not sure that the label fully captures his philosophy. He’s more than anti-vaccine: He’s pro-infection. And even though Kennedy hasn’t come out so strongly on the side of diseases since becoming health secretary, he has done so previously, suggesting, for example, that contracting measles could bolster the immune system later in life. Bigtree, for one, thinks his former boss shares his views. Kennedy “recognizes the same thing I do,” he told me. “We would be healthier if we were catching these illnesses.”

Police Training in California

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  When cops encounter autistic people, they may not respond in the same way as NT people, and things can get out of hand. Among other things, they may misinterpret autistic behavior as aggressive or defiant. Training could help.

Corinne Purtill at LAT:

[Kate] Movius, founder of the consultancy Autism Interaction Solutions, is one of a growing number of people around the U.S. working to teach law enforcement agencies to recognize autistic behaviors and ensure that encounters between neurodevelopmentally disabled people and law enforcement end safely.

She and City of Industry Mayor Cory Moss later passed out bags filled with tools donated by the city to aid interactions: a pair of noise-damping headphones to decrease auditory input, a whiteboard, a set of communication cards with words and images to point to, fidget toys to calm and distract.

...

As early as 2001, the FBI published a bulletin on police officers’ need to adjust their approach when interacting with autistic people.

“Officers should not interpret an autistic individual’s failure to respond to orders or questions as a lack of cooperation or as a reason for increased force,” the bulletin stated. “They also need to recognize that individuals with autism often confess to crimes that they did not commit or may respond to the last choice in a sequence presented in a question.”

But a review of multiple studies last year by Chapman University researchers found that while up to 60% of officers have been on a call involving an autistic person, only 5% to 40% had received any training on autism.

In response, universities, nonprofits and private consultants across the U.S. have developed curricula for law enforcement on how to recognize autistic behaviors and adapt accordingly.

The primary goal, Movius told deputies at November’s training session, is to slow interactions down to the greatest extent possible. Many autistic people require additional time to process auditory input and verbal responses, particularly in unfamiliar circumstances.

Preventing Autism?

  In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition.  Dozens of potential causes and correlates have been the subject of scientific and medical research.

Ariana Eunjung Cha at WP:

One peer-reviewed paper generating buzz in the autism research community published in December argues that a staggering number, more than half of autism cases, could be prevented with the right interventions. It proposes a “three-hit” theory suggesting that genetic susceptibility combined with environmental exposure and prolonged period of physiological stress contribute to autism.

Separately, two recent studies found that parents with the highest levels of an unusual sensitivity to everyday substances even at low levels, as measured by self-reported symptom patterns and validated questionnaires, were two times to 5.7 times more likely to report having a child with autism, prompting researchers to urge couples trying to conceive to minimize environmental exposures in their homes.\

...

In 2024, [Claudia] Miller and her colleagues published an analysis showing that in a group of nearly 8,000 U.S. adults, parents with chemical intolerance scores in the top 10th percentile were 5.7 times as likely to have a child with autism when compared with those in the bottom 10th percentile.

Those findings were replicated in a study published in January 2026 in the Journal of Xenobiotics, which examined children in five countries. In Italy, India and the United States, children born to parents with the highest levels of chemical intolerance had more than a twofold increased risk of autism; in Mexico, the risk was 1.9 times higher. No association was found in the Japanese data, though researchers suggested cultural differences in diagnosis and awareness may have influenced the results.

...

Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of Boston University’s Center for Autism Research Excellence and a founder of a coalition of autism scientists calling for more rigorous research, said there is little evidence that specific interventions during the preconception window could make a significant difference. She cautioned that focusing on this period is premature — and possibly harmful — given the current limits of the science. She pointed to the past, when both researchers and the public wrongly blamed so-called “refrigerator mothers” (who were cold or emotionally distant) and their parenting for autism.

“For decades now we’ve done too much as a society to make women feel the burden is on them,” she said.

She said the best advice for women considering pregnancy hasn’t changed for decades: take prenatal vitamins with folic acid, eat a healthy diet, stay fit, and avoid drugs, alcohol and smoking.

Trump Administration Tries to Downplay RFK's Antivax Policy

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

Amanda Chu at Politico:

A Trump administration official told POLITICO the White House wants Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist before joining forces with Trump, to lay off the shots. Surveys from Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, have found Kennedy’s moves to downsize the childhood vaccine schedule are unpopular.

...

The administration’s pivot arrives as Republicans worry the health secretary’s earlier moves to weaken the country’s vaccine policies will hurt them in the midterms. An October poll conducted by health policy think tank KFF and the Washington Post found the majority of MAHA parents still expressed confidence in childhood vaccine safety, while the vast majority of MAHA and non-MAHA parents agreed ultraprocessed foods were harmful.

...

White House officials granted anonymity to discuss strategy attributed the changed focus to the importance health care will play in the midterms and the desire to focus on issues that have broad appeal.

“I think we’re largely done with vaccines. I think the food stuff, we’re just beginning to kind of get into more,” the official said. “When you look at what’s keeping America unhealthy, it largely has to do with obesity and diabetes and heart disease and other very diet-driven and lifestyle-driven issues.”

The Trump administration may be done with vaccines, but measles isn't done with the Trump administration.  As of February 19, CDC reported 982 confirmed measles cases in the United States in 2026..  By next week, the total will top 1,000.  Soon, the US will lose measles elimination status.  And it is very possible that 2026 will be the worst year for measles in decades.

Voters will notice.

Purple Alerts Under Consideration in Washington State

The Politics of Autism discusses the problems of wandering and day-to-day safety.

From the Urbatsch Law Firm:

• Purple Alerts are a public notification system designed to help locate adults with cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities who have gone missing. These individuals are not currently covered by existing alert systems, such as Amber Alerts or Silver Alerts.
• Addressing a critical gap in existing state alert systems, Purple Alerts ensure that intellectually disabled adults who are reported missing receive appropriate attention and that the public is aware of the specific circumstances.
• Currently, only five states (Florida, Maryland, Kansas, Mississippi, and Connecticut) have enacted Purple Alert systems.
• Purple Alerts can also inform law enforcement about the nature of a missing person’s disability. This can help enable a more appropriate and calm interaction when the person is located.

A week ago, KIRO-TV reported:

The Washington State Senate passed a bill that could make it easier to find missing people who are vulnerable adults or have disabilities.

The “Purple Alert,” also known as Senate Bill 6070, was passed unanimously on Thursday.

The alert could help to find missing people after a group of High School Seniors at Lake Washington High School advocated for the bill.

The bill will establish an alert system for people with disabilities and vulnerable adults.

Lawmakers hope the alert will help quickly find missing people.

It will be similar to alerts for older people who go missing.

The bill is headed to the state legislature’s House of Representatives.

From the Washington Autism Alliance: on Why SB 6070 Matters

• Clear standards for danger Families and law enforcement currently lack consistent guidance on when a missing person is truly endangered. SB 6070 clearly defines high-risk situations, including when someone has a developmental disability, dementia, serious mental health crisis, suicidal ideation, or other conditions that prevent safe self-care.
• Faster action when it counts The bill clarifies when courts may authorize rapid action to locate a missing endangered person, ensuring help is not delayed by uncertainty during life-threatening situations.
• Focus on the most vulnerable SB 6070 centers those at the greatest risk when missing, including minors, vulnerable adults, people with developmental disabilities, individuals experiencing acute mental health crises, and people with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias.
• Strong guardrails and accountability This bill includes strict limits on how tools may be used, requires court approval or rapid post-use judicial review in emergencies, limits data collection to what is necessary, and requires deletion of non-relevant information. The focus remains on recovery and safety, not surveillance.

Maddie White at KING-TV:

The proposal was inspired by the disappearance of 21-year-old Jonathan Hoang, who has the mental capacity of a 9-year-old and vanished last March. His family believes foul play may be involved. “It’s very likely he was abducted,” said his sister, Irene Pfister.

For nearly a year, the Hoang family has lived without answers. “They told me and my parents, ‘It’s not a crime to go missing,’” said Pfister. She described the emotional toll of his disappearance, saying, “Just to wake up one morning and someone you love, they’re gone with no, no sign, no trace, and like, it’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

Although adults with autism who go missing in Washington are eligible for an Endangered Missing Persons Advisory, Hoang’s case highlights what his family sees as confusion around how and when those alerts are used. “I think there is this misunderstanding,” Pfister said, noting that autism “is a spectrum, and it’s called a spectrum for a reason.”

In Hoang’s case, an Endangered Missing Persons Advisory (EMPA) was issued on the fifth day after his disappearance. Pfister believes hesitation stemmed from uncertainty over her brother’s cognitive abilities. “Despite our family sharing that he wouldn’t be able to get home,” she said.

The sheriff's office said the EMPA "does not trigger a mass notification system" such as a cellphone push alert, as an Amber Alert does, and that highway signs are only used when a vehicle is involved, which wasn't applicable in Jonathan's case. Considering the limitations, the sheriff's office said they decided to first lean into other communication tools to alert the public.

CDC: 982 Measles Cases in 2026

  In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

From CDC:

As of February 19, 2026, 982 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 976 measles cases were reported by 26 jurisdictions: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. A total of 6 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.

There have been 7 new outbreaks** reported in 2026, and 89% of confirmed cases (870 of 982) are outbreak-associated (73 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 797 from outbreaks that started in 2025).

There have been reports of measles exposure in the worst possible places:  international airports.  St. Louis, Philadelphia, and  LAX 

Congressional Republicans on Autism and Vaccines

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the congressional role in the issue.

 Ariel Cohen at Roll Call:

“If you stir the pot on theories that have been disproven … it creates anxiety and a lot of self-recrimination,” Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., said when asked about Kennedy’s interest in the link between vaccines and autism. “But it’s not true, and it delays finding out what is the reason [for autism].”

Cassidy, who cast a deciding vote on the Senate Finance Committee to confirm Kennedy, was asked if Kennedy has been receptive to his point of view on vaccines and autism in their conversations. To that, Cassidy shrugged and responded, “look at his actions.”

The issue is personal for Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, who co-led the reauthorization of a major autism research and programs funding bill in 2024. Her husband has a severely autistic son.

“I think it’s helpful to look further into research on the causes of autism. I did not think that it was helpful in any way to link it to vaccines, because the scientific evidence does not support such a link,” Collins said when asked about the administration’s focus.

...

Other Republicans are much more welcoming of the administration’s actions.

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., praised Kennedy’s approach to autism research, arguing Republicans and Democrats alike should be thanking the Trump administration because because it is focused on stemming the growing autism diagnosis rate.
...

Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., has been involved in autism policy almost his entire career. Smith became interested in autism, especially profound autism, after hearing about the experiences of a family in his district. He recalled a time when the CDC spent less than $250,000 a year on autism research. With the passage of the 2024 autism legislation, spending has risen to $2 billion over a five-year span within multiple health agencies.

Smith, who says he supports vaccinations, praised removing thimerosal from vaccines and spreading out the childhood vaccination schedule, calling the administration’s focus “a breath of fresh air.”

“I mean, anyone who thinks there has not been a manifold spike in autism and say we’re just diagnosing it better, you know, I’ll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge,” he said. “If it turns out it’s not linked to getting vaccinations, OK. But the question should be asked.”

FDA Pulls Warning About Quack Autism "Cures"

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

The conventional wisdom is that any kind of treatment is likely to be less effective as the child gets older, so parents of autistic children usually believe that they are working against the clock. They will not be satisfied with the ambiguities surrounding ABA, nor will they want to wait for some future research finding that might slightly increase its effectiveness. They want results now. Because there are no scientifically-validated drugs for the core symptoms of autism, they look outside the boundaries of mainstream medicine and FDA approval. Studies have found that anywhere from 28 to 54 percent of autistic children receive “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), and these numbers probably understate CAM usage.

A lot of people in RFK Jr's MAHA orbit are making a lot of money from supplements. 

Megan O’Matz at Pro Publica:

The warning on the government website was stark. Some products and remedies claiming to treat or cure autism are being marketed deceptively and can be harmful. Among them: chelating agents, hyperbaric oxygen therapies, chlorine dioxide and raw camel milk.

Now that advisory is gone.

The Food and Drug Administration pulled the page down late last year. The federal Department of Health and Human Services told ProPublica in a statement that it retired the webpage “during a routine clean up of dated content at the end of 2025,” noting the page had not been updated since 2019. (An archived version of the page is still available online.)

Some advocates for people with autism don’t understand that decision. “It may be an older page, but those warnings are still necessary,” said Zoe Gross, a director at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit policy organization run by and for autistic people. “People are still being preyed on by these alternative treatments like chelation and chlorine dioxide. Those can both kill people.”

Chlorine dioxide is a chemical compound that has been used as an industrial disinfectant, a bleaching agent and an ingredient in mouthwash, though with the warning it shouldn’t be swallowed. A ProPublica story examined Sen. Ron Johnson’s endorsement of a new book by Dr. Pierre Kory, which describes the chemical as a “remarkable molecule” that, when diluted and ingested, “works to treat everything from cancer and malaria to autism and COVID.”

...

At his confirmation hearing, Kennedy praised Trump for his wide search for a COVID-19 remedy in his first term, which Kennedy said included vaccines, various drugs and “even chlorine dioxide.”

The FDA, dating back to at least 2010, has urged consumers not to purchase or drink chlorine dioxide, frequently marketed as a Miracle Mineral Solution, because “the solution, when mixed, develops into a dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.”

The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) has previously reported on the removal of the FDA warnings page. The lack of a warning has also received attention in the Telegram channel Chlorine Dioxide Testimonies.

Kennedy and Vaccines

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

The  US has had at least 910 cases this year.  In 2016, there were only 86 cases all year long. Measles is not just a rash.  In some cases,i t can kill quickly -- or it can linger for years and then kill.

During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy made promises about vaccines. He has broken them.

Rebecca Robbins at NYT:

In Massachusetts, Moderna is pulling back on vaccine studies. In Texas, a small company canceled plans to build a factory that would have created new jobs manufacturing a technology used in vaccines. In San Diego, another manufacturing company laid off workers.

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked in November 2024 to become the next health secretary, public health experts worried that the longtime vaccine skeptic would wreak havoc on the fragile business of vaccine development.

Those fears are beginning to come true, according to executives and investors involved with companies that develop and sell vaccines and the technology that is best known for the Covid vaccines.

At conferences and in interviews, they described the emerging consequences of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the longstanding federal support for vaccines.

“There will be less invention, investment and innovation in vaccines generally, across all the companies,” Dr. Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna, said in an interview.

The Trump administration said it was not discouraging innovation.

But investors have grown hesitant to bet on a field that has fallen out of favor in Washington. Major manufacturers are reporting declining sales of their shots. Smaller companies are taking the brunt of the impact, with some stocks whipsawing in response to the changes.

Autistic Job Candidates in Academia

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the employment of people on the autism spectrum.

Gabriel Proulx at Inside Higher Ed:

In general, autistic candidates are disadvantaged by standard interview formats, which, as Christopher E. Whelpley and Cynthia P. May write, tend to “focus on interview skills, appearance, and social interactions rather than on the skills needed for a given position.” Since autistic people’s social abilities and conversational patterns do not align with neurotypical criteria, they can seem rude or uninterested during conversations even when they are focused and engaged. Socialization can be extremely difficult for autistic people, from finding the right way to express their ideas to understanding when it is their turn to speak.

...

Sandra C. Jones notes that autistic academics often struggle with the hidden social demands of professional life: “Understanding and following social rules, interpreting others’ actions and reactions, masking autistic behaviors, and combining ‘professional’ and ‘personal’ interactions are effortful activities for many autistic people.” In hiring contexts, where competition is fierce, these challenges become magnified.

...

Academic interviews almost always include open-ended questions with little to no structure, such as “Tell us about yourself,” “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?” or “What can you bring to our department?” Neurotypical candidates usually know how to use these questions as a chance to sell themselves; as Katie Maras, et al. write, “Autistic candidates, however, find it difficult to interpret these sorts of questions, hindering their ability to formulate and recall a relevant and appropriately detailed response that conveys their best attributes and most relevant experience.”

Profound Autism 2026

 In The Politics of Autism, I write:

The most basic questions trigger angry arguments. For instance, into what category do we put autism in the first place? In 2013, President Obama said that “we’re still unable to cure diseases like Alzheimer's or autism or fully reverse the effects of a stroke.” The language of “disease” and “cure” offends some in the autism community. “We don’t view autism as a disease to be cured and we don’t think we need fixing,” says Ari Ne’eman of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. “We do feel comfortable with the word disability because we understand what it means.” From this perspective, autism is difference that requires accommodation, not an illness that requires eradication. Adherents of this position liken autism to homosexuality, which psychiatrists once deemed to be a  disorder. Conversely, some parents take offense at opposition to a cure. “Anyone with the mental and verbal ability to challenge autism research is not autistic on a scale that I care to recognize,” writes autism parent James Terminello. “Opposition to finding a cure is particularly hurtful to parents who still mourn the loss of the child that could have been. A line has been crossed.”

Laura Ungar at AP:

There’s now a growing push to separate profound autism — in which people need constant care for life, have a certain level of intellectual disability and are nonspeaking or minimally verbal — into its own diagnosis. The hope is that it would help ensure that people like Connor and Ronan get the support and services they need and that research includes them.

In the United States, an estimated 1 in 31 children have autism spectrum disorder. Researchers estimate around a quarter have “profound autism,” a term introduced in 2021 by a group of experts, the Lancet Commission, to describe people most disabled by the developmental condition.

But some in the autism community worry that creating a separate diagnosis would reduce attention on the broader spectrum and the individual needs of everyone on it.

Andy Shih, chief science officer for Autism Speaks, said no matter where people fall on the debate, “there’s absolutely no doubt that we need to elevate awareness about the needs of this group.”

...

Judith Ursitti, president of the Profound Autism Alliance, is among those who now want profound autism separated out. People in this category lack appropriate treatments, supports and enough providers trained to handle their level of care, she said. And the vast majority of clinical research doesn’t include them.

“If you don’t have research, you won’t have treatments. You won’t have achievable services and supports,” said Ursitti, whose adult son has profound autism. “There are people across the spectrum who have high support needs that are intermittent. The difference with our population is they’re constant.”

But Dena Gassner of Drexel University’s autism institute -- an autistic senior research scientist and mother of an autistic adult with moderate support needs -- said she struggles with the idea of assigning someone the label of profound autism. She said it could be stigmatizing.

She said there’s nothing wrong with being autistic; the problem lies in “the massive lack of supports and services” in our society. “We need to come together in a unified voice to talk about services for the entirety of the spectrum.”