Measles and RFK Jr's Lies

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.

Since  Trump took office in 2025, the U.S. has recorded more confirmed measles cases than in the previous 20 years combined.

Michelle R. Smith at The Guardian:

A senior Democratic senator is calling for a criminal investigation into the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, following reporting by the Guardian that indicated he lied during Senate confirmation hearings last year.

Ron Wyden of Oregon said: “RFK’s platform is built on lies and grifts that leave a trail of dead children in their wake. There are consequences for lying to Congress.”

The Guardian’s reporting was based on letters that were obtained – by this news outlet and the Associated Press – following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Wyden said in a statement to the Guardian that he would be pressing Republican colleagues, who currently control the Senate, to issue a criminal referral of Kennedy to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation. “And when Democrats retake the majority in the Senate, RFK will be at the top of the list of Trump officials the finance committee will hold accountable for endangering American families,” he said. Wyden currently serves as the top Democrat on the finance committee.

Also on Thursday, the government watchdog group American Oversight sent a letter to the justice department requesting that it immediately open an investigation into whether Kennedy violated the law by making false statements to Congress.

Michelle R. Smith at The Guardian:

Newly obtained documents indicate that the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, lied during two congressional hearings last year, when he told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation that a 2019 visit to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines”.

Letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press contradict that testimony. In one he wrote to the Samoan prime minister before the trip, Kennedy explicitly said he wanted to study the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in the Pacific island nation. In it, he used the words “vaccine” or “vaccination” eight times.

“I am writing this letter to you in the hope that we might be helpful to the people of your great nation,” he wrote, adding that he believed the deaths of two children there after an MMR vaccine could have resulted from manufacturing issues.

“I would propose my team conduct detailed health informatics assessment in Samoa of what happened with your MMR vaccines,” Kennedy wrote.

Kennedy’s Samoa visit – just months before a measles outbreak swept through the island, killing 83 people – has become one of the most controversial events in his career. At the time, he was leading a non-profit known for its anti-vaccine activism. The visit was seen by critics as having emboldened anti-vaccine activists in Samoa.

Beyond shedding light on the intent of Kennedy’s visit, the letter raises questions about the health secretary’s integrity and how truthful he was in testimony before Congress. During the confirmation process, Kennedy also pledged to maintain vaccine policies that, once in office, he moved to change.

Administration Cuts Research On Parents with Disabilities

Many posts have discussed Trump's bad record on disability issues. As his words and actions have shown, he despises Americans with disabilities. He told his nephew Fred that severely disabled people -- such as Fred's son -- should "just die."

Project 2025 proposed to turn IDEA into a "no strings" block grant, effectively gutting the law and destroying protections that disability families have long relied upon. During the 2024 race, Trump denied any connection to the project, but now he proclaims it, praising OMB director Russ Vought "of Project 2025 fame."

Trump and Vought are now accomplishing their goal of ravaging the law. Instead of shifting it to a block grant, they are firing most of the staff who enforce it.  A judge has temporarily paused the attack, but the administration will likely find ways to ignore or circumvent the order.

Roni Caryn Rabin at NYT:

The Trump administration has eliminated a funding stream that for the last 30 years has supported the only U.S. government-backed national research center focused on parents with disabilities.

The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities will begin to phase out its operations on Aug. 31, when the current five-year grant ends, officials from the center said.

The center, based at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management, is a multiple university collaboration aimed at improving the lives of the 4.5 million U.S. parents with disabilities and their families. The center, which funds researchers in Boston and around the country, analyzes health care access and economic hardships faced by parents with disabilities and tracks state laws, serving as a clearinghouse for information on the issue.

The government has supported the center for decades through a competitive grant that has provided $500,000 a year in recent years and was slated to increase. Monika Mitra, the center’s director, said that an initial notice announcing the grant was posted a year ago, as is usually the case. But the more detailed information required to submit an application, which normally arrives in the grant application portal by February, never appeared. In July, the original link announcing the grant vanished.

...

The withdrawal of the funding comes in the wake of a series of administration announcements that have raised concerns for people with disabilities. In June, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a memo indicating that states were not required to provide services enabling people with disabilities to remain in their homes and not be forced into institutions. The administration also announced plans to move special education programs and civil rights enforcement in education out of the Education Department, which raised concerns among advocates who said the step would weaken oversight.

Measles Deaths

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.

Since  Trump took office in 2025, the U.S. has recorded more confirmed measles cases than in the previous 20 years combined.

Antivaxxers downplay the human and economic costs of measles.

Lena H. Sun and Rachel Roubein at WP:

Two Pennsylvania residents have died after contracting measles, the first such deaths in the state in 35 years and the first reported in the United States this year. The deaths prompted Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to sharply confront the nation’s health secretary over federal vaccine messaging that he said is confusing and harmful.

Both the people who died were residents of Lancaster County. The Pennsylvania Health Department declined to release their ages or other information, citing the privacy of the people and their families.

Pennsylvania has confirmed 393 measles cases in 28 counties this year, including 86 in the past week. Nearly half of the cases are in Lancaster County, authorities said. Seventy people, nearly 20 percent of those infected, have been hospitalized, Shapiro said, and every confirmed case has occurred in someone who was not fully vaccinated.

“We hope and we pray that those deaths will be the last,” Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday.

Shapiro, widely seen as a presidential contender, said he was late to the news conference because he had been speaking by phone with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“I was very, very blunt with him,” the governor said. “Made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that’s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania.”

Shapiro said Kennedy’s statements were confusing parents and making it harder for them to know whom to trust. “There’s real-life consequences to spreading misinformation. There’s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors, actual medical professionals, to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids,” he said.

The federal government’s public health decisions are not driven by facts and science, Shapiro said. That makes it even more confusing for parents. “All we want to do as parents is what is right for our kids,” he said.

The Cost of Measles

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.

Since  Trump took office in 2025, the U.S. has recorded more confirmed measles cases than in the previous 20 years combined.

Antivaxxers downplay the human and economic costs of measles.

Naema Ahmed,  Lena H. Sun and Aaron Steckelberg at WP:

Half a million dollars.

That’s about how much it cost several public health agencies to contain one small measles outbreak in the Denver area this year. Though it was a relatively modest cluster — a total of 10 cases involving nine children and one adult — it nevertheless consumed 6,785 hours of labor by state and local workers to track and snuff out the outbreak after exposed individuals traveled through grocery stores, schools, fast-food restaurants and more.

Measles is the most contagious vaccine-preventable disease, and time is of the essence to contain the spread. Most children recover after several miserable days of fever, cough, congestion and pink eye, but measles can also cause pneumonia, brain swelling, deafness, intellectual disability and death. In Colorado, dozens of investigators traced patient movements, checked vaccination records and quarantined people at risk while also examining how often air circulated through a medical clinic.

Trump v. Autistic People

Many posts have discussed Trump's bad record on disability issues. As his words and actions have shown, he despises Americans with disabilities. He told his nephew Fred that severely disabled people -- such as Fred's son -- should "just die."

Project 2025 proposed to turn IDEA into a "no strings" block grant, effectively gutting the law and destroying protections that disability families have long relied upon. During the 2024 race, Trump denied any connection to the project, but now he proclaims it, praising OMB director Russ Vought "of Project 2025 fame."

Trump and Vought are now accomplishing their goal of ravaging the law. Instead of shifting it to a block grant, they are firing most of the staff who enforce it.  A judge has temporarily paused the attack, but the administration will likely find ways to ignore or circumvent the order.

At CBS and KFF,  Claire Sibonney reports that the Trump administration has effectively gutted the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education.

For families who believe their child's rights were violated based on race, disability, or gender in school, the federal agency often has been one of the main places to turn. But the White House cut its offices and weakened its ability to follow up with cases, as well as slashed funding to research on disparities that people of color face in getting diagnosed and attaining resources for disabilities.

About 1 in 31 U.S. kids by age 8 had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as of 2022. Although previous research on disparities in childhood autism diagnoses has had mixed results, a recent study from the State University of New York at Albany's Institute for Social and Health Equity found that race, gender, and socioeconomic gaps persist. Among fourth graders from 2003 to 2022, students of color, girls, low-income students, and multilingual learners were less likely than peers to be identified with autism in school, even as diagnoses rose among children from historically marginalized groups, the study found. A large forthcoming study by the same researchers found the biggest gaps among overlapping identities. Black and Hispanic girls were especially unlikely to be identified.

All this has happened as President Donald Trump's second administration has put autism in the spotlight. In early August, Trump signed an executive order to whittle down routine immunizations for kids while falsely tying vaccines to autism. He has presented it as a personal priority and one of "the most alarming public health developments in history." Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April 2025 called autism a "tragedy" that "destroys families," and he's lent credence to ungrounded claims of autism's causes, including unfounded links to childhood vaccines and Tylenol during pregnancy

.

RFK Jr. and Wandering

The Politics of Autism discusses the dangers facing autistic people, including wandering and drowning.

Molly Castle Work at Minnesota Public Radio:

 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has a track record of spreading disinformation around autism, visited Rochester Friday to announce the launch of his new National Autism Missing Person Initiative.

Standing inside the Olmsted County Sheriff’s training center, Kennedy announced his agency’s partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to better support residents on the autism spectrum who are prone to wandering and getting lost. He said he wants to ensure individuals are recovered quickly and safely before they get into dangerous situations.

...

Kennedy has made autism a priority in his agency, but he consistently spreads false information about the condition, including claims that Tylenol causes it.

Kennedy says he hopes to set up an alert system, sort of like an Amber Alert, so that the public and local law enforcement are notified immediately when a resident with autism goes missing. And as part of the initiative, HHS, FEMA, and the Department of Justice will collaborate to provide communities across the country with best practices and training for first responders.

While the initiative launched Friday, Kennedy did not specify a timeline for implementation, and it’s unclear when the alert system will be active.

RFK Jr. is interrupted by his "quack" ring tone while discussing autism conspiracy theories. pic.twitter.com/fOcIC0wEbw

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) August 21, 2026

Gender Differences

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss gender differences .

Gundeslioglu, H., Gray, K.M., Hewitt, O.M. et al. Are There Sex or Gender Differences in Autistic Characteristics? An Umbrella Systematic Review. J Autism Dev Disord (2026).  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-026-07484-0.'

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this umbrella systematic review was to synthesise evidence about sex/gender differences in autism across existing systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and scoping reviews.

Methods

MEDLINE, Embase, Embase Classic, CINAHL, and APA PsycINFO were searched for peer-reviewed articles focused upon sex/gender differences in autistic children, adolescent, or adults, and published in English or Turkish.
Results

Analysis of 34 studies showed no conclusive evidence of sex/gender differences in social communication, friendships, play behaviours and motor stereotypies in autistic children, adolescents, and adults. There was evidence that autistic females had fewer restricted and repetitive behaviours and were more capable in their use of camouflaging although autistic males also engaged in camouflaging. There was weak evidence to suggest that autistic male children have superior visuospatial skills, and evidence to indicate sex/gender differences in some aspects of brain development. Chronological age and general intellectual functioning appear to interact with some of these sex/gender differences.

Conclusion

There was evidence that sex/gender differences amongst autistic people are similar to those seen amongst the general population and are not autism specific. More studies involving equal numbers of both autistic and non-autistic individuals of different sexes/genders are needed to draw more conclusive evidence.

2,777 Measles Cases

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.

Since  Trump took office in 2025, the U.S. has recorded more confirmed measles cases than in the previous 20 years combined.

CDC:

As of August 20, 2026, 2,777 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026. Among these, 2,761 measles cases were reported by 47 jurisdictions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A total of 16 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.

There have been 36 new outbreaks** reported in 2026, and 94% of confirmed cases (2,614 of 2,777) are outbreak-associated (1,239 from outbreaks starting in 2026 and 1,375 from outbreaks that started in 2025).

For the full year of 2025, a total of 2,289 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States.

Assault on Integration

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss court cases involving the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities. 

Trump does not care.  He despises people with disabilities.  His head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division is a political hack who uses the r-word as a slur.

Last week, the Department of Justice quietly released a memo pertaining to the landmark 1999 disability civil rights case Olmstead v. L.C.  That precedent, the memo claimed without evidence, increases homelessness.

Jonaki Mehta at NPR:

[In 1999] the Supreme Court handed down the Olmstead decision. It reinforced the ADA's integration mandate, which says people with disabilities should get to learn, live and work in their communities rather than in institutions. The government made that promise after people with disabilities fought against segregation in institutions, which have a long history of abuse and neglect.

...

In practice, the integration mandate requires that states provide people with disabilities the services they need to thrive in their homes or communities — in other words, in the most integrated setting possible. For someone with intellectual or developmental disabilities, that could mean a personal care worker helping them to get dressed or eat, or a case manager helping them find a job or housing, among other services.

Now, a lawsuit brought by several Republican-led states, Texas v. Kennedy, is working its way through the courts. The plaintiffs argue that the federal government cannot require states to provide disability services in the community rather than in institutions. Then, in June, the Department of Justice (DOJ), which enforces the integration mandate, issued a legal opinion taking a similar position — essentially aligning itself with the plaintiffs in the case. "Congress has not imposed an integration mandate on states," the memo reads. It goes on to say the Olmstead decision "held only that a state cannot institutionalize such patients without justification. … What counts as adequate justification remains an open question." In July, the DOJ also clarified that it would no longer enforce Olmstead in the same way it had in the past.

Kinda Like OJ's Search for "the Real Killers"

 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.  I have counted at least 48.

Amanda Seitz and Stephanie Armour at CBS:

President Trump has ordered a reduction in childhood vaccines — publicly faulting the shots for an increase in autism cases — even as the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has failed to produce evidence linking vaccinations to the disorder.

While the executive order released Aug. 10 does not directly mention autism, Mr. Trump's demand to limit vaccine recommendations has puzzled leading medical groups, doctors, and political analysts alike. The directive landed less than 90 days before midterm elections, which Mr. Trump's own pollsters have warned could be jeopardized by anti-vaccine rhetoric.

"The political timing, particularly for members on the Republican side in swing districts, is not good," said Larry Bucshon, a former Republican congressman and retired doctor.

Mr. Trump's willingness to gamble on the issue underscores the president's impatience for his health secretary to deliver on a promise that he'd pinpoint a culprit for the sharp rise in autism diagnoses.

After more than a year, Kennedy and his close, anti-vaccine allies have blown past a deadline to turn up definitive answers in a multimillion-dollar research mission shrouded in secrecy, leaving the president to recycle debunked notions as he publicly assaults vaccines.

"This is about the most closed project that I've ever heard of," Helen Tager-Flusberg, a renowned psychologist who runs the Coalition of Autism Scientists, said of Kennedy's autism research efforts. "They're treating it like the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. This is as opaque as it could possibly be."

Vaccine Exemptions

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.

Since  Trump took office in 2025, the U.S. has recorded more confirmed measles cases than in the previous 20 years combined.

Lena H. Sun at WP:

The share of U.S. kindergartners with exemptions from school vaccine requirements for the 2025-2026 school year rose to another record high, according to federal data posted Monday. The sharp increase from 3.6 to 4.2 percent seeking exemptions — about 155,000 students — extends a years-long erosion of childhood immunization rates as the country battles its worst measles resurgence in 35 years.

As exemptions increased, U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates fell slightly for all reported vaccines from the year before. Coverage for the major vaccines required for kindergarten — MMR (measles, mumps and rubella); DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis); poliovirus vaccine (polio); and varicella (chicken pox) — decreased in more than half of states for the second year in a row, the CDC said.

Via Claude:

For the 2025–26 school year, using the "Any Exemption" rate among kindergartners, these states had exemption rates of 5% or higher: [data missing for Montana]

Rank	State	Exemption Rate
1	Idaho	17.5%
2	Utah	12.7%
3	Oregon	11.0%
4	Arizona	10.6%
5	Nevada	8.7%
6	Alaska	8.6%
7	Wisconsin	8.2%
8	North Dakota	8.1%
9	Michigan	7.7%
10	Oklahoma	7.4%
11	Wyoming	7.2%
12 (tie)	South Dakota	6.9%
12 (tie)	Minnesota	6.9%
14	Missouri	6.3%
15 (tie)	Pennsylvania	6.0%
15 (tie)	Hawaii	6.0%
17	Florida	5.9%
18 (tie)	New Jersey	5.7%
18 (tie)	South Carolina	5.7%
18 (tie)	Ohio	5.7%
21	New Hampshire	5.4%
22	Washington	5.3%
23	Texas	5.2%
24	Georgia	5.1%

Special Ed Complaints in the States

 In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

Kara Adundel at K-12 Dive:

State education agencies saw a 46% jump in the number of written state complaints in special education during the 2025-26 school year compared to the year before, according to new survey responses from 31 states.

The self-reported survey data, collected by the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, shows that during the 2024-25 school year there were 7,907 written state complaints. That number rose to 11,523 in the 2025-26 school year.

Written state complaints trigger a state-led investigation into a special education-related concern brought forward by anyone, which can include parents and community members. There is no cost to filing a written state complaint, unlike special education due process complaints, which typically involve assistance from an attorney.

CEC and NASDSE said that while there is no single reason for the increased rate of written state complaints, many families have reported a lack of faith in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to resolve their concerns, the organizations said.

During the second Trump administration, OCR has significantly reduced its workforce and closed seven of 12 regional offices that assist with reviewing and investigating K-12 and higher education discrimination complaints filed to the Education Department.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report in February found that between March and September 2025, OCR received more than 9,000 complaints and resolved 7,072 of those complaints, mainly by dismissing 90% of them.

The Literature on Autism and Employment

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

 Binsfeld, C.R., Grubba, L.S., Schmidt, C. et al. Employment of Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Integrative Review of Barriers and Facilitators. J Autism Dev Disord (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-026-07467-1

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to synthesize the international literature on the employment of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), identifying the main barriers and facilitators influencing access, inclusion, and retention in the labor market.

Methods

An integrative review was conducted following established integrative review guidelines, with a systematic search across seven national and international databases. Empirical studies published between 2013 and 2026 were included. Two independent reviewers performed study selection and data extraction. A qualitative thematic analysis was applied to synthesize the findings.

Results

Twenty-two empirical studies met the inclusion criteria. The thematic synthesis identified key barriers, including limited autism awareness within organizations, communication challenges, stigma, inflexible workplace practices, and inadequate managerial support. Key facilitators included supportive leadership, reasonable accommodations, structured communication, organizational flexibility, and recognition of autistic strengths. Overall, the findings highlight the central role of organizational, interpersonal, and contextual factors in shaping employment outcomes for autistic adults.

Conclusions

Employment outcomes for adults with ASD are strongly influenced by workplace structures, managerial practices, and organizational culture rather than individual characteristics alone. The findings underscore the need for evidence-based organizational strategies and public policies aimed at fostering inclusive and sustainable employment. Future research should prioritize intervention studies and longitudinal designs examining how organizational practices and leadership shape long-term employment retention.

From the article:

Diagnostic disclosure emerged as a particularly complex issue. While diagnosis may facilitate access to legal protections, accommodations, and organizational support, it may also expose individuals to stigma and discrimination (Romualdez et al. 2021a, b). Recent studies reinforce this ambivalence by demonstrating that disclosure outcomes depend largely on organizational climate, managerial attitudes, and the availability of concrete supports rather than on diagnosis itself (Chen & Yakubova, 2025). This finding reinforces the importance of understanding disclosure not as an isolated decision, but as a context-dependent process shaped by workplace conditions.

..

Beyond recruitment, leadership emerged as a central determinant of inclusive organizational culture. Leaders are responsible for disseminating accurate autism-related information, fostering respect for neurodiversity, assigning tasks aligned with employees’ strengths, and ensuring that accommodations are implemented effectively (Leopoldino, 2015). Recent evidence highlights that leadership effectiveness lies in everyday practices—such as openness to dialogue, responsiveness to individual needs, and facilitation of psychologically safe environments—rather than solely in formal authority (Chen & Yakubova, 2025; Bualar et al., 2026). Such practices reduce the likelihood that responsibility for adaptation is placed disproportionately on autistic employees. This reinforces the role of leadership as a mediating mechanism between organizational policies and lived workplace experiences.