2025: The Year of Autism Disinformation

 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 has now hijacked the CDC website -- and the CDC itself.

FactCheck.org includes the Trump administration's comments on autism among the "Whoppers of the Year."

Tylenol and autism: In a late September press conference, Trump endorsed an unproven link between autism and the use of Tylenol, or acetaminophen, during pregnancy. Trump repeatedly told pregnant women, “don’t take Tylenol,” and offered the unsound medical advice to “tough it out.” Recent research indicates there likely isn’t a link. As for Trump’s medical advice, untreated pain or fever during pregnancy can be harmful to both mother and child, and medical groups have long recommended prudent use of the drug — taking acetaminophen when needed in consultation with a doctor.

The administration didn’t point to any new original research on the topic, which has been studied. Some studies have shown an association between using acetaminophen during pregnancy and an increased likelihood of having a child with autism, but no causal link has been established. Recent research indicates there likely isn’t a link. As for Trump’s medical advice, untreated pain or fever during pregnancy can be harmful to both mother and child, and medical groups have long recommended prudent use of the drug — taking acetaminophen when needed in consultation with a doctor.

HHS Secretary Kennedy later falsely claimed that two circumcision-related studies provided evidence that acetaminophen causes autism when given to children. That’s not what the studies found. In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed a webpage to say that its previous statement that “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not an evidence-based claim,” echoing Kennedy’s prior misrepresentations of science.

Samantha Putterman at PolitiFact: 

In [Dr. Mona] Amin’s state of Florida, health leaders are seeking to end the rules that require children to come to school vaccinated, at a time when childhood vaccination rates have already been dropping. About 88% of Florida’s kindergartners are up to date on vaccines today, down from about 94% in 2019 — both figures below the 95% rate typically needed to prevent infectious disease outbreaks.

Amin and other pediatricians see these falsehoods manifest in parents’ real-time decisions. About 61% of 1,000 physicians said in an August survey that their patients were influenced by misinformation, and nearly 86% said the amount of misinformation had increased in five years.

More parents are declining the vitamin K shot for their newborns. Administered hours after birth since the 1960s, the shot prevents bleeding into the brain, intestines and other internal organs. Parents’ refusal is leading to rising cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infants.

Measles cases reached a 30-year high in the U.S. in 2025, with nearly 1,800 cases reported in 42 states as of November. Cases of whooping cough are also on the rise. Pediatricians we spoke with said parents of immunocompromised children are asking whether they should send their kids to school at all.

Some parents are hostile. Amin said she’s been screamed at around a dozen times

...

Numbers show pediatric care is under strain, and people in the field say misinformation isn’t helping. With parts of the country already facing critical pediatrician shortages, families struggle to find care and can wait months for appointments in some areas, especially for subspecialty doctors.

Amin teaches residents, and fewer medical school graduates are choosing to be pediatricians. Those already in the field are also leaving traditional practices, citing increasing falsehoods and doctor distrust, among other concerns.

...

Although we found no clear data documenting the rise of doctor influencers, industry groups and researchers acknowledge the phenomenon in articles exploring its benefits, drawbacks and need for quality control. Even artificial intelligence has jumped into the mix, falsely portraying doctors on social media in order to spread falsehoods and market products.

Demand for Leucovorin

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for dubious notions about autism.

The history of autism "cures" is a history of dashed hopes and frequent danger.

Trump and RFK, Jr. recently touted leucovorin.

Tom Bartlett at The Atlantic:

The theory behind treating autism with leucovorin is that the drug gives autistic kids something they’re missing. Children with autism seem to be more likely than other children to produce an antibody that prevents folate, also known as vitamin B9, from reaching their brain. Because folate plays a role in brain development, some researchers—most notable among them Richard Frye, a doctor who has been prescribing and promoting leucovorin for nearly two decades, and who told me he spoke with leaders in the Health and Human Services Department before the press conference—think these antibodies might hamper the growth of a child’s language abilities. Leucovorin is essentially a massive dose of folate, delivered in a form that can bypass those antibodies.

...

But that theory, which has long been debated in autism subreddits and Facebook groups, hasn’t gained traction among mainstream autism scientists. They point to a 2018 study that found that autistic children and their non-autistic siblings were equally likely to have these antibodies. The clinical evidence for leucovorin’s effectiveness for autistic kids is limited to a handful of small studies that don’t measure the same outcomes. No large, randomized, placebo-controlled trial has ever been conducted. If you want to get the drug for autism, it has to be prescribed off-label, which many doctors refuse to do.

...

Several researchers I spoke with compared the excitement about leucovorin to the enthusiasm for secretin, another drug that was popular as an autism treatment in the 1990s after early promising results. More rigorous clinical trials later showed that it wasn’t effective. [AFH chief science officer Alycia] Halladay said she’s heard from multiple doctors, including her child’s pediatrician, that they’ve been besieged with calls from parents hoping to get a prescription. One doctor in Chicago told me he had received dozens of inquiries.

...

Offline, parents have been calling Frye, the longtime leucovorin doctor, who believes that as many as 1 million kids could benefit from the drug. He mostly treats children with significant language delays, though he says that the drug can sometimes help higher-functioning kids too. Frye was the lead author of a small 2016 study that found that children with autism who received leucovorin showed improvements in verbal communication, compared with those given a placebo; he also recently published a book called The Folate Fix. Ever since the press conference, his office has been inundated with calls and emails from parents who want the drug for their children.

For years, Frye has had a backlog of patients wanting to see him, but the White House announcement, he told me, made an “impossible situation worse.” He already has about 1,000 patients who are taking leucovorin, and he isn’t planning to accept any new ones until 2028. According to Frye, the FDA has asked him to submit an application to conduct clinical trials on leucovorin as an autism treatment, but last week, he told me that “not much is going on at this time.” He guesses those trials will take about two years. In the meantime, parents will be left to experiment with leucovorin on their own.

Identity-First or Person-First? No Consensus.

From the preface to The Politics of Autism.

A major theme of this book is that just about everything concerning autism is subject to argument. There is not even any consensus on what one should call people who have autism and other disabilities. “In the autism community, many self-advocates and their allies prefer terms such as `Autistic,’ `Autistic person,’ or `Autistic individual’ because we understand autism as an inherent part of an individual’s identity,” writes blogger Lydia Brown.[i] Other writers prefer “people-first” language (e.g., “persons with autism”) since it puts the persons ahead of the disability and describes what they have, not who they are.[ii] For the sake of stylistic variety, this book uses both kinds of language, even though this approach will satisfy neither side. I can only say that I mean no offense.

Schuck, R.K., Chetcuti, L., Dwyer, P. et al. Preferences for Identity-First and Person-First Language: A Systematic Review of Research With Autistic Adults/Adults With Autism. J Autism Dev Disord (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-07174-3

Abstract

Purpose

Recommendations concerning the language used to describe autism center primarily around preferences for person-first language (PFL; e.g., person with autism) or identity-first language (IFL; e.g.., autistic person). Empirical research on this topic has recently proliferated, yet there is no clear consensus. In this study, we systematically reviewed prior research on the autistic community’s language preferences.

Methods

Our search generated 2483 articles. Nineteen studies (N = 6350) quantitatively assessed autistic people’s perspectives of autism language terms. We extracted data regarding most preferred terms and terms deemed acceptable for use.

Results

All studies were conducted online. Fourteen assessed preferred terminology; 10 found that more participants preferred IFL than PFL, though there was also considerable PFL endorsement (4–39% of participants) in these studies. Two studies that found a preference for PFL over IFL were conducted in Dutch. When able to choose “no preference/either” (6 studies), 4–37% of participants chose this option. Seven studies assessed acceptable terms; IFL terms were endorsed as acceptable by ~ 40–97% of participants, PFL terms by 5–53%, and “on the spectrum” by 8–45%. Across studies, participants were not representative of the entire autism spectrum (e.g., likely few participants with intellectual disability).

Conclusion

Study results vary widely and suggest no consensus as to whether individuals with autism prefer IFL or PFL, neither across nor necessarily even within cultures and languages. We present several considerations for members of the autism community (e.g., researchers, clinicians, etc.) regarding use of PFL and IFL, with the ultimate goal of ensuring individual preferences are respected.

Measles: 1,958 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.

Polls show that many Americans either believe the myth or think it could be true.

Trump has spread this myth and withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization.

In all of 2024, there were 285 measles cases in the United States.  In 2025, that number is nearly seven times greater.

 From CDC

As of December 16, 2025, a total of 1,958 confirmed* measles cases were reported in the United States. Among these, 1,934 measles cases were reported by 44 jurisdictions: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A total of 24 measles cases were reported among international visitors to the United States.

There have been 49 outbreaks** reported in 2025, and 88% of confirmed cases (1,713 of 1,958) are outbreak-associated. For comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024 and 69% of cases (198 of 285) were outbreak-associated.

AI and Employment of Autistic People

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

Nitzan, M. W., Lamash, L., Hedley, D., Bury, S. M., & Gal, E. (2025). Letter to the editor: Employment of autistic individuals in the age of AI integration: Challenges and opportunities. Autism, 0(0). https://doi-org.ccl.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/13623613251401556

We suggest that as AI becomes increasingly embedded in workplace processes, it introduces both risks and opportunities for autistic and other marginalized groups (Walkowiak, 2021). Recruitment is one of the most immediate areas where these risks are evident. Hiring processes have long posed challenges for autistic people, given recruiters’ reliance on implicit social expectations and norms and failure to consider differences in autistic communication styles. Integrating AI into recruitment may further entrench these challenges unless designed with inclusion in mind (Cope & Remington, 2022). For example, AI-based screening tools used to evaluate resumes, conduct video interviews, or score personality traits often rely on data reflecting neurotypical norms. They may prioritize candidates who exhibit neurotypical speech patterns, facial expressions, or eye contact (Fisher et al., 2024), although such traits tend to reflect social conventions more than job-relevant competencies (Lund et al., 2025).

Moreover, as AI evolves in complexity, its “objectivity” (i.e., ability to be impartial, unbiased, and based on truth) will be harder to assess. Likely, any bias that does exist will become more difficult to detect or challenge, and discriminatory outcomes may go unexamined. Without transparency and oversight, such tools risk deepening the exclusion of marginalized populations from employment under the guise of efficiency and objectivity (Fisher et al., 2024).

Beyond recruitment, AI will likely reshape the broader work structure, having potentially significant implications for autistic workers. Although autistic people work in a wide variety of occupations, they are often overrepresented in certain roles (e.g., data analysis, quality assurance, records management) that are especially vulnerable to automation (Walkowiak, 2021). This status may lead to disproportionate displacement for individuals in roles that AI will transform to the extent that there is no longer a need for human involvement, thereby exacerbating an already-inequitable landscape.

Alongside these risks, we believe there is a potential for AI to facilitate inclusive employment and benefit autistic people. When developed with inclusion at its core, AI can serve as a powerful tool for access and empowerment. AI technologies could support task structuring, provide real-time coaching, and reduce social communication demands, which are often identified as barriers hindering autistic employees’ access to and performance within traditional workplace environments (Lund et al., 2025; Walkowiak, 2021). For example, natural language processing tools can facilitate written communication or simplify ambiguous language, generate personalized recommendations for needs-based accommodation, and assist managers in creating accessible environments. AI platforms may benefit autistic workers by enhancing asynchronous and remote work, for example, by increasing autonomy or minimizing the impacts of sensory stressors (Lund et al., 2025).

Trump and the R-Word

 In The Politics of Autism, I write about the everyday struggles facing autistic people and their families -- including casual prejudice against disabled people.  

Trump has a long history of using the r-word, and Lordy, there are tapes.

Phillip M. Bailey at USA Today:

...Trump's return has heralded a reversal of what MAGA activists and other conservatives said was a hyper-sensitive "cancel culture."

Over the last year or so that has given the R-word a resurgence, appearing unapologetically in places like Joe Rogan's podcast, Elon Musk's social media posts and Trump's statements.

"The word ‘r-----ed’ is back and it’s one of the great culture victories," Rogan, who endorsed Trump last year, said in an April episode of his popular podcast, which has more than 20 million subscribers on YouTube.

Media Matters said its researchers found there was an uptick in the use of the words "r----d" or "r-----ed" on Fox News from being used a total of eight times in 2024 to a total of 23 times so far in 2025.

The most frequent offender, the watchdog group said, was the program "Gutfeld!" hosted by Greg Gutfeld, a conservative political commentator and comedian whose program debuted in April 2021 and averages about 3.3 million viewers, according to Late Nighter.

Gutfeld's late night show, which has a more humorous tone than other Fox News shows, mentioned the words the most across the network, according to Media Matters, increasing from three times in 2024 to 17 in 2025, so far. The next closest show was "The Five" with three mentions.

A release from Montclair State:

A joint study from Montclair State University faculty in the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the College of Communication and Media and the Department of Justice Studies shows a dramatic increase in content containing the slur “retard” on X after Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Day Truth Social post used the word.

Highlights from the study include:

• A 225.7% increase in posts containing the r-word on X.

• About 1.12 million posts using the r-word identified in the week after Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving message used the term.

• The most viewed, liked and shared content in the period studied enthusiastically endorsed the r-word.

• Results are consistent with the period after other prominent accounts used the word, but with greater overall volume reflecting the reach of a U.S. president.

“The normalization of speech that marginalizes has become a prominent part of social media,” said Daniela Peterka-Benton, Ph.D., a professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University and editor of the book Human Trafficking and Disabilities, which focuses on the vulnerabilities of the disabled community. “The dangers of the online space for those who have been marginalized appear to be increasing rapidly,” she added.

“Influential voices online have a responsibility to do better, and many seem to be shirking that responsibility in cases like this one,” said Bond Benton, Ph.D., professor of Communication at Montclair State University.

The full study, which can be found here, was conducted by Benton from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication and Peterka-Benton from the Department of Justice Studies.

At The Guardian, Ramon Antonio Vargas and Rachel Leingang report that Trump's use of the slur helped cost him a significant political victory:

An Indiana Republican lawmaker whose child has Down syndrome has promised to oppose efforts to redraw the state’s congressional map to favor his party after Donald Trump aimed a slur for people with intellectual disabilities at a political opponent.

Michael Bohacek, a member of Indiana’s state senate, wrote on Friday on Facebook that he has been “an unapologetic advocate for people with intellectual disabilities” since one of his daughters was born with Down. Referring to how the president used an ableist slur to insult Tim Walz, the Democratic Minnesota governor, a day earlier, Bohacek’s post added: “His choices of words have consequences.”

“I will be voting NO on redistricting, perhaps he can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a congressional majority,” he added.

Leucovorin Update

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for dubious notions about autism.

The history of autism "cures" is a history of dashed hopes and frequent danger.

Ariana Eunjung Cha at WP:

Pediatrician Kristin Sohl has lost count of how many times parents of children with autism have asked her for a prescription for leucovorin — the drug thrust into the spotlight after President Donald Trump touted it at a White House event this fall.

Since September, despite the rising queries, Sohl has typically told her patients no.

Early clinical trials of the drug showed hints of promise in boosting communication and cognition for some children with autism. But the studies have been small, often just a few dozen participants. Normally, approval by the Food and Drug Administration comes only after years of large-scale testing. But Trump’s pledge to fast-track the drug in September, bypassing that process, has left many doctors on the front lines divided.

“It leaves me as a practicing physician with a lot of unanswered questions,” said Sohl, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, who has been working in the field of autism for over 20 years.

As interest in the drug surges, Facebook groups devoted to it are swelling in membership, message boards are inundated with questions and Google searches are climbing. Physicians, who typically rely on evidence-based guidelines and clear treatment algorithms, are finding that with leucovorin they must — lacking robust scientific data — improvise. Some are cautiously moving forward with prescribing the drug, but many are still holding off.

At Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., neurodevelopmental pediatrician Sinan Turnacioglu said the hospital convened a meeting of various departments — including those specializing in autism, developmental pediatrics, genetics and psychiatry, as well as primary care doctors — to come up with a systemwide policy. Their conclusion: that they would like to see more robust research before prescribing it.

USA About to Lose Measles Elimination Status

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.

Polls show that many Americans either believe the myth or think it could be true.

Trump has spread this myth and withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization.

From the South Carolina Department of Public Health:

The South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) is reporting 15 new cases of measles in the state since Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in South Carolina related to the Upstate outbreak to 126 and the total number reported to DPH this year to 129.

Thirteen of the new cases are from known household exposures, one was from a neighborhood contact and another was from an unknown source still being investigated.

Eduardo Medina and Nick Madigan at NYT:

The level of worry in Spartanburg, though, appears to be correlated with whether or not one believes in the general efficacy of vaccines, an “anti-vax” notion that has been spearheaded in part by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s health secretary.

In interviews on Friday, some residents dismissed the rise in measles as an overblown problem.

“It’s not really an outbreak,” said Tim Johnson, a native of Belarus who immigrated to the United States 10 years ago. “We have to be careful about what we do and who we’re with, but not everything is worth looking into.”

Claire Cameron at Scientific American:

South Carolina is the epicenter of what state officials call an “accelerating” measles outbreak. Hundreds of people are in quarantine, and the outbreak has sickened at least 111 individuals, most of whom—105—were not vaccinated against the disease. The rash of cases is merely the latest in a string of measles outbreaks across the U.S. this year. Each of these outbreaks has brought the country ever closer to losing its measles-free status after more than 25 years.

As of December 10, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,912 measles cases, most of which were linked to 47 outbreaks of the disease, this year. For comparison, 2024 saw just 16 outbreaks and 285 cases. At least two children have died of measles in the current outbreaks.

A growing decline in vaccination rates in communities across the country is driving these grim trends. Measles vaccines are generally given as part of the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot, two doses of which are 97 percent effective against the disease. The U.S. effectively eliminated measles in 2000 because enough people got the vaccine to suffocate the virus’s spread through the population.

 

WHO Affirms That Vaccines Do Not Cause 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.

Polls show that many Americans either believe the myth or think it could be true.

Trump has spread this myth and withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization.

From the World Health Organization:

New analysis from a WHO global expert committee on vaccine safety has found that, based on available evidence, no causal link exists between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The conclusion reaffirms WHO’s position that childhood vaccines do not cause autism.

The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), established in 1999, brings together international experts to provide independent and authoritative scientific advice to WHO on global vaccine safety related priorities.

The latest analysis, discussed by the Committee on 27 November 2025, focused first on the relationship between thiomersal-containing vaccines and ASD, and the association between vaccines in general and ASD. Evidence based on 31 primary research studies, published between January 2010 and August 2025, including data from multiple countries, strongly supports the positive safety profile of vaccines used during childhood and pregnancy, and confirms the absence of a causal link with ASD.

The Committee also assessed the review of potential health risks associated with vaccines with aluminum adjuvants, drawing on studies conducted from 1999 through March 2023. In addition, it reviewed a recent large cohort study analyzing nationwide registry data of children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2018. In summary, the available high-quality evidence shows no association between the trace amounts of aluminum used in some vaccines and ASD, supporting the ongoing use of vaccines with aluminum adjuvants.

Following its review, GACVS reaffirms its previous conclusions from 2002, 2004 and 2012: vaccines, including those with thiomersal and/or aluminum, do not cause autism.

WHO advises all national authorities to rely on the latest science and ensure vaccine policies are grounded in the strongest available evidence. Global childhood immunization efforts represent one of the greatest achievements in improving lives, livelihoods and the prosperity of societies. During the past 50 years, childhood immunization has saved at least 154 million lives.

South Carolina 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.

Polls show that many Americans either believe the myth or think it could be true.

From CIDRAP:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today said the United States has 1,912 confirmed measles cases so far in 2025, an increase of 84 cases since last week and a bad sign as holiday gatherings, travel, and indoor activities is set to pick up in the final weeks of the year.

In January 2026, the United States is at risk of losing its measles elimination status because of ongoing transmission chains from a West Texas outbreak that began early last year and sickened roughly 800 people. The country first gained elimination status in 2000.

Eighty-eight percent of cases in the United States this year are outbreak-associated, and there have been 47 outbreaks recorded. Last year, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024 and 69% of cases (198 of 285) were outbreak-associated.

Currently Utah, Arizona, and South Carolina are seeing large outbreaks that since Thanksgiving have pushed state totals well past 100 cases. Those outbreaks have been marked by exposures at schools and churches in communities with low vaccination levels.
Utah-Arizona outbreak grows to 254 cases

In South Carolina, 281 students at eight schools in the Upstate region are in quarantine. That state has 114 cases, 111 associated with the Upstate outbreak.

The most recent case in Utah was also in a school setting outside of Salt Lake City, but the highest activity is still in a southwestern region of the state that borders Arizona. The Utah-Arizona outbreak, which began in Colorado City, Arizona, and neighboring Hildale, Utah, now has 254 cases, and is the second largest US outbreak this year after West Texas.

Late yesterday, Arizona officials confirmed 21 new measles cases in the past week, raising the state total to 176. Of those cases, all but four are from Mohave County, home to Colorado City.

The CDC said that, among all confirmed measles cases, 92% of patients are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status. Three percent have had one dose of measles-containing vaccine, and 4% have had two doses. There have been three confirmed deaths from measles this year, and 11% of patients have required hospitalization, but 21% of those younger than five years have needed hospital care.

Temporarily Bringing Back Some OCR Staffers

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

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 have tried firing most of the staff who enforce it, as well as those who enforce civil rights law.

The Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the Education Dept's Office for Civil Rights. Cory Turner at NPR:

That left 299 OCR employees, roughly half of its staff, in legal and professional limbo – because the department elected to place them on paid administrative leave while the legal battle plays out rather than allow them to work. Court records show 52 have since chosen to leave.

On Friday, an unknown number of the remaining 247 staffers received an email from the department. That email, which was shared with NPR by two people who received it, says that, while the Trump administration will continue its legal battle to downsize the department, "utilizing all OCR employees, including those currently on administrative leave, will bolster and refocus efforts on enforcement activities in a way that serves and benefits parents, students, and families."
...

"By blocking OCR staff from doing their jobs, Department leadership allowed a massive backlog of civil rights complaints to grow, and now expects these same employees to clean up a crisis entirely of the Department's own making," said Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, a union that represents many Education Department employees. "Students, families, and schools have paid the price for this chaos."

The department did not respond to a request to share the current size of OCR's complaint backlog, but one department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the Trump administration, told NPR that OCR now has about 25,000 pending complaints, including roughly 7,000 open investigations.

Young Adults View 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.

Polls show that many Americans either believe the myth or think it could be true.

Harvard Youth Poll of  2,040 18-to-29-year-olds, November 2025:

• Only 34% are very confident vaccines are safe, while another 33% are fairly confident — meaning two-thirds express some confidence, but “strong” confidence is limited.
• Partisan differences are stark: 84% of Democrats are confident in vaccine safety (60% very confident), compared with 54% of Republicans (only 15% very confident) and 65% of independents (30% very confident, 36% fairly confident).
• Racial gaps in vaccine confidence are substantial. While 74% of white young Americans are confident in vaccine safety (41% very confident), confidence drops sharply among Black youth (46% confident; only 17% very confident) and Hispanic youth (58% confident; 27% very confident). Nearly half of Black respondents (47%) say they are not confident vaccines are safe.
• Concerns about a supposed vaccine–autism link persist among some young Americans. Twelve percent (12%) of young Americans believe there is a link between vaccines and autism, 58% say no, while 27% are unsure. Republicans (25% say yes, 41% no, 34% not sure) are about five times more likely than Democrats (4% yes, 81% no, 13% not sure) to believe there is a link. Among independents only 9% believe there's a link (57% no, 31% not sure).

Disparities in Autism Screening

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the evaluation and diagnosis of young children.  Screening is an important part of the process.

Harrison, A.J., Bowman, K.L., Bub, K.L. et al. Examining Sociodemographic Factors Related to Autism Screening Rates of Children in Early Intervention. J Autism Dev Disord (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-07154-7

Abstract:

Purpose

Routine developmental screening is essential for early identification of autism. Reliable autism screening is even more valuable for individuals from minoritized groups who are often under-detected and receive later diagnoses. Despite this importance, disparities in access to screening and accurate identification persist. Given these disparities, we were interested in examining group differences in autism screening rates at 18 and 24 months of age among children referred to Georgia’s Part C Babies Can’t Wait (BCW) program between 2018 and 2022.
Method

Among a sample of 52,282 infants and toddlers enrolled in BCW, as hypothesized males and children with private insurance had higher screening likelihoods compared to females and children with public insurance.

Results

Unexpectedly, Black and Hispanic children were more likely to be screened than their counterparts. To examine this further, an examination of screening timing revealed that White and male children were more likely to be screened before their referral to BCW compared to peers.

Conclusion

This reveals continued inequities in screening timing but suggests that BCW providers serve an important role in identifying children who may have been missed in other settings.

From the article:

Using a large sample of families participating in state-funded EI, the current study documented continued sociodemographic variability in terms of autism screening rates and the timing of autism screening among young children. The first research question focused on who received screening and the second research question focused on timing differences within children who were screened. In alignment with previous research (Eldeeb et al., 2023; Evans et al., 2018; Kuhn et al., 2021), we found that males and children from families with private insurance were more likely to be screened at either 18- or 24-months compared to females and families that did not report having private insurance. In this dataset, we observed a higher prevalence of autism screening rates among Black children compared to White peers, and Hispanic children compared to non-Hispanic children. More specifically, within this dataset, Black and Hispanic males living in metropolitan settings were more likely to be screened compared to White and non-Hispanic peers. This finding contradicts past research showing inequities in screening rates among racially and ethnically diverse children (Aylward et al., 2021; Carbone et al., 2020; Hirai et al., 2018; Mandell et al., 2009; Wiggins et al., 2020). To further explore the current dataset, among those with screening data we examined if this date was before or after their enrollment into BCW. It was revealed that the unique racial finding indicated an underlying screening disparity in regard to timing. Among the subset of children screened, we observed that White children were significantly more likely to be screened before enrollment in EI (BCW), whereas Asian, Native American and Alaskan, and Black children were more likely to be screened after entry into BCW. These data highlight that delays in screening are still prominent for some minoritized groups but also demonstrate how community agencies can help ensure universal screening across groups.

Early screening of autism primarily falls under the jurisdiction of primary care physicians engaging in early well visits (Coury et al., 2017). Previous research has documented that autism screening is not equitable across practices. For example, pediatricians with high rates of patients with Medicaid have very low rates of autism screening (Arunyanart et al., 2012). The sociodemographic differences observed in this study reveal the continued prominence of screening disparities among minoritized racial and ethnic groups in these traditional screening settings. This also aligns with research from minoritized communities documenting a lack of support from primary care physicians (Horiuchi et al., 2023; Mendoza et al., 2024), which leads to the need to advocate with greater fervor to receive care equitable to peers. Given these persistent sociodemographic screening discrepancies in primary care settings (Wallis, 2021), other community providers are being called upon to help fill the early autism screening gap (Fein et al., 2017; Nowell et al., 2015). In this study, the higher screening rates within BCW for Black and Hispanic children not previously screened highlight the crucial role EI providers can play in improving screening disparities. These study findings align with the documented gap that Spanish-speaking Latine parents often encounter between when they first voice their concerns and the actual age of diagnosis (Wallis et al., 2022).

The finding in this study that autism screening more readily occurred in males compared to females aligns with much of the existing literature (Eldeeb et al., 2023; Evans et al., 2018). These persistent findings reflect the bias to more readily notice autism in children representing the White male autism phenotype (Cruz et al., 2024; D’Mello et al., 2022). Thus, more research must focus on better understanding the female autism phenotype and how it may be overlooked using current screening and diagnostic assessment practices (Napolitano et al., 2022). For example, autistic females may have strengths in their social-communication skills and have a higher tendency to mimic and imitate social skills when compared to autistic males, which might result in hesitancy to deem screening necessary (Head et al., 2014).

Of note, geography or urbanicity also played a meaningful role in our findings. Children from rural areas were more likely than those from metropolitan areas to be screened before BCW and children from micropolitan areas were less likely to be screened before entry into BCW (e.g., screened later than children in metropolitans). The difference between metropolitan and micropolitan areas aligns with previous research showing a higher prevalence of autism rates in urban areas of the United States that likely have a high density of university-medical centers, such as Atlanta, Georgia (Bradshaw et al., 2024). This is likely due to differences in proximity to qualified providers, available resources at the county level, and other sociodemographic factors that are often associated with rural settings (e.g., education level and race; Bradshaw et al., 2024; Vanegas et al., 2023). The finding that children from rural areas were being screened earlier than metropolitan areas was less expected. Research documenting close relationships between rural doctors and patients might serve as one potential explanation for this finding (Desjarlais-deKlerk & Wallace, 2013) but this does not align with the majority of the published data (Antezana et al., 2017).

Families with lower incomes have documented disparities in accessing a myriad of treatments (Smith et al., 2020) and assessment services (Zuckerman et al., 2014). Similar to past research documenting diagnostic disparities tied to public insurance (Kuhn et al., 2021), in this study, children from families reporting having private insurance were more likely than those that did not report it to be screened. General factors preventing equitable care reported by families most commonly include financial stress, a limited number of available providers and resources, a lack of parent and/or provider education, and societal stigma (Aylward et al., 2021; Elder et al., 2016; Zuckerman et al., 2017), many of which have a financial component. Barriers specific to the low-income community documented in the literature include the pronounced shortage of adequate providers among households that rely on Medicaid (Aylward et al., 2021). Parents often serve a crucial role in the identification process (Raspa et al., 2015); however, documented knowledge deficits among low-income populations related specifically to the early childhood delays most related to autism also can contribute to screening delays (Campbell et al., 2019).