In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. And among those diseases could be COVID-19.
Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong. A leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.
RFK Jr. picked wealthy Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. They are both antivaxxers. Paul Bond at Newsweek:
Shanahan is critical of the way the press has framed Kennedy "as an anti-vaxxer whose own family doesn't support him," recalling that she initially bought into the description, dismissing his candidacy until a friend she described as "a Silicon Valley mom" urged her to do her own research.
"She told me to listen to one interview of Bobby. Any interview would suffice. After I did, I discovered there was definitely a misalignment between what I thought and who he really is," she said. "I didn't even know he was an environmental lawyer. And he's not an anti-vaxxer; he's just someone who takes vaccine injuries seriously."
Shanahan told Newsweek that her daughter with Brin, born in 2018, has autism and other special needs and that she "wholeheartedly attributes that to environmental toxins," a topic near and dear to her heart and a cornerstone of Kennedy's campaign.
CNN's Kasie Hunt caught Kennedy lying about his blanket opposition to vaccines.
KASIE HUNT: Over the summer you said, “There’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective”. Do you still believe that?
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) March 19, 2024
RFK JR: I never said that.
KASIE HUNT: Play the clip.
RFK JR (clip): There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective. @cwebbonline.
pic.twitter.com/uYTgslWE91
