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.
Abstract: Amidst the nation's largest measles outbreak in 30 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s social media accounts have gone quiet, creating a “void” in online health communication. In this vacuum, measles messaging has been dominated by news media rather than expert health authorities, resulting in polarized and potentially inaccurate information. In this exploratory study, we analyzed social media content around measles and MMR vaccines on Facebook, Instagram, and X. We observed an emerging “health communication void” around measles: the CDC posted only 10 times total, across the 3 platforms, in the first 8 months of 2025, down from an average of 45.8 posts over the same period from 2021 to 2024, despite fewer measles cases. Major news media outlets averaged 40.4 social media posts in the same period of 2025, with post frequency closely mirroring trends in measles cases. This shift in messaging may impact the public's situational awareness and further erode vaccine confidence.
The CDC’s silence also created room for anti-science organizations to fill the void. Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an organization that had been deplatformed from Facebook and Instagram for spreading mis- and disinformation, posted 101 times on X during the outbreak. Its posts focused largely on the alleged dangers of the MMR vaccine while simultaneously downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak. CHD’s social media presence isn’t insignificant; it has approximately three times as many followers on X as the AAP does.
The study’s authors argue that silence from trusted public health institutions carries real risks. In polarized environments like social media, information gaps are rarely left empty, and political and science-skeptical voices have room to attain agenda-setting power. If mainstream media are allowed to set the agenda, measles becomes just another headline rather than a preventable disease that demands public attention and action.
