Bleach 2025

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism quackery.  There have been lots of bogus "cures" over the years: chelation, camel milk, "magic dirt," and products containing bleach. They do not work and some are dangerous. 

Jabed Ahmed at The Independent:

A social media influencer is promoting industrial bleach as a false “autism cure”, despite health warnings and reports from parents that their children have become seriously ill after following her advice.

Kerri Rivera, who has more than 17,000 followers on Instagram, encourages parents to give their autistic children chlorine dioxide (CD) — a potentially lethal chemical used to bleach textiles and disinfect industrial surfaces.

Experts have called her fake cures “sickening”, adding it is “wrong, dangerous and harmful to autistic people and their families”.

Messages seen by The Independent from Ms Rivera’s private support group reveal parents reporting vomiting, rashes, seizures and chemical-smelling urine in their children after following her advice.

One parent wrote: “I have noticed a high ammonia-smelling urine in my daughter's pull-ups... I imagine these are the parasites dying and leaving behind their toxins. Is this a good sign to be smelling this?”

Ms Rivera, who falsely claims that autism is caused by “parasites” and “worms”, routinely reassures parents that these are signs the treatment is working. She refers to symptoms like vomiting and hives as evidence that the body is “detoxifying”.

Her Instagram account states “autism is treatable” – a categorically false claim.

Ms Rivera’s Instagram account has more than 17,000 followers, while her TikTok has attracted over 3,000.

After The Independent contacted TikTok for comment, a spokesperson confirmed the account had been deactivated. Meta has been approached for comment.

...

A petition to remove Ms Rivera’s account has been signed by more than 30,000 people.

Institute for Education Sciences

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

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.5 million children 3 to 21 years old received services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in AY 2022-23.

About 980,000 of them were autistic, up from 498,000 in 2012-13.

The Trump administration is halving the staff of the Department of Education.

Sara Weissman at Inside Higher Ed:

The U.S. Department of Education has hired a new senior adviser to the secretary of education tasked with reforming the Institute of Education Sciences, according to a Friday announcement.

The department’s pick, Amber Northern, is on leave from her role as senior vice president for research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education policy think tank. The announcement said IES, which houses the National Center for Education Statistics, has “failed to provide a clear and compelling research agenda that puts students at the center.” Department officials also accused IES of prioritizing “politically charged topics and entrenched interests” in its research contracts.

The move comes after the Education Department axed $900 million in IES contracts in February then fired more than 80 percent of its 120 employees a month later as part of wider layoffs across the department. Multiple lawsuits have been filed by research groups in response to the cuts.

Peter Greene at Forbes reports on the Trump budget request:

Everything under the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research wing of the department, is an asterisk until the administration is done “reimagining a more efficient, effective, and useful IES.” However, the funding for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the test that measures how U.S. students are doing, is still there, albeit reduced from $193 million to $137 million.

 

Vaccines and Autism: Lit Review

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.

Gulati, S., Sharawat, I. K., Panda, P. K., & Kothare, S. V. (2025). The vaccine–autism connection: No link, still debate, and we are failing to learn the lessons. Autism, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613251345281

In the post-COVID-19 era, vaccine hesitancy remains a critical challenge, despite clear evidence of the life-saving benefits of childhood vaccinations, which prevent morbidity and mortality while reducing healthcare costs (Andre et al., 2008; Ozawa et al., 2016). Hesitancy is particularly prevalent among caregivers of autistic children, contributing to delayed or incomplete vaccination in this group. Studies show that autistic children are less likely to be fully vaccinated compared to their non-autistic peers, and this hesitancy extends to younger siblings (Cummings et al., 2016; Filliter et al., 2017; Gerber & Offit, 2009; Mitchell & Locke, 2015; Pluviano et al., 2019; Zerbo et al., 2018). The persistent belief in the now-debunked link between vaccines, especially the MMR vaccine, and autism continues to drive hesitancy. Despite the extensive scientific refutation of this claim, caregivers of children with autism diagnoses often hold disproportionate fears that vaccines cause or worsen autism, even when they are aware of the lack of evidence (Cummings et al., 2016; Gerber & Offit, 2009; Pluviano et al., 2019). Post-pandemic, new factors have emerged, including heightened concerns related to sensory sensitivities, phobias, and logistical barriers in medical settings, all of which complicate vaccine uptake. While some studies suggest a declining belief in the vaccine–autism link among the general population (Filliter et al., 2017; Mitchell & Locke, 2015), it remains uncertain whether these shifts apply to caregivers of autistic children.