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 number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.
Another 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. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. This week, he lied about autism research.
Robin Respaut and Jaimi Dowdell at Reuters:
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has vowed to address rising U.S. autism rates as a top health priority for the Trump administration.
Last month, he pledged $50 million to help identify environmental causes of autism, to be issued as grants by the National Institutes of Health, and has announced plans to create a national “autism registry.”
Yet during the first four months of 2025, the NIH has reduced funding for autism-related research by an estimated $31 million to $116 million from $147 million in the same period in 2024, according to a Reuters analysis of NIH data. The spending is 26% lower than the prior four-year average for that period, the analysis found.
In some cases, the NIH has canceled projects because they involved diverse populations, studied differences in gender or took place at research universities currently under scrutiny by the Trump Administration. For others, funding for autism projects has simply halted or money for new projects has not been approved.
Among the eliminated or defunded annual grant programs identified by Reuters:
- A $509,000 grant studying the genetic factors that impact mental health and gender diversity in 10,000 autistic and non-autistic people
- A $211,000 grant to develop interventions to improve the mental health of autistic adults
- A $548,000 grant exploring the autism risk among children of women exposed to childhood abuse
Reuters analyzed nearly 300,000 projects funded by the NIH since 2021 to identify autism research for its review. The agency has funded about 4,600 autism-related projects since 2021, with an annual average of $525 million over the past four years.
Yet Trump thinks the government should spend up to $45 million on his birthday parade.
