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).

 

Doors and Barriers to Employment

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the employment of people on the autism spectrum.  It also discusses the workforce serving people with disabilities.

Koldas, M., Dounavi, K., MacCarthaigh, M. et al. Facilitators and Barriers to Employment of Neurodivergent Individuals: A Systematic Literature Review of Employee and Employer Experiences. J Autism Dev Disord (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-07139-6

Abstract 

Purpose

While employment rates amongst neurodivergent adults are notoriously low, little is known about their experiences in the workplace and their contribution to innovation and productivity in the labor market. At the same time, the views of colleagues and employers with regard to the inclusion of neurodivergent adults in the workforce are important. The purpose of the systematic literature review presented here was to explore what is known about the experiences of neurodivergent employees, their colleagues, and employers in terms of facilitators and barriers to inclusive best practice in the workplace.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of the literature. Our analysis and synthesis are based on 56 studies from 12 different countries that met inclusion criteria.

Results

Eligible studies included 4909 neurodivergent employees, 2041 non-neurodivergent participants (mostly coworkers), and nearly 300 supervisors, managers, and employers. Identified barriers included a lack of awareness and education of supervisors, especially when they attributed social challenges to personal factors, at times resulting in disciplinary actions or exclusion. Key facilitators included supportive managers, flexible and tailored work arrangements, and the availability of assistive technologies. Benefits of inclusive approaches included improved employee retention, increased commitment, and an enhanced organizational image.

Conclusions

Our review findings confirm that neurodivergent employees experience a number of impactful barriers at work. They also experience some important facilitators that can make their working life easier. We propose that future mainstream employment research should ensure that neurodivergent voices are heard and suggest that future work also includes employee, managerial, and organizational perspectives.

From the article:

The systematic review described in this paper identified 56 studies that reported on the experiences of neurodivergent employees and their employers. The studies identified definite and tangible benefits when facilitators such as supportive managers and supervisors were available, and neurodivergence aware policies and workplace adjustments were implemented. Benefits included improved employee retention, increased commitment, and enhanced organizational image. Barriers primarily stemmed from a lack of awareness and education of supervisors, especially when they attributed social challenges to personal factors, and this resulted in disciplinary actions or exclusion. Mixed outcomes acknowledged potential benefits of neurodivergence-aware policies in reducing biases, improving hiring practices, and fostering inclusion. However, some employers struggled to effectively benefit from neurodivergent employees and reported inconsistencies in implementing neurodivergence-aware policies and workplace adjustments, highlighting ongoing challenges in workplace inclusion.

Given the rise in awareness of neurodivergence since the early 2000s and wider recognition and acceptance more recently (Nicolosi & Dillenburger, 2025; Singer, 2017), it is not surprising that almost three-quarters of the studies were conducted from 2020 onwards. The majority of these studies were based on research conducted in an Anglo-Saxon context, with only 11 studies covering other regions, highlighting potential gaps in international research regarding the experiences of neurodivergent employees and their employers.

...

Our findings indicate that most of the participants in the studies included in this review were able to hold a relatively good job for extended periods of time, earning average or just below average incomes (bearing in mind that wages have risen substantially since many of these papers were published; Office for National Statistics, 2012). While this is encouraging, it confirms the fact that even well-educated neurodivergent employees with relatively low support needs tend to be somewhat “underemployed” and remain underpaid (Petty et al., 2023). It also indicates that those with higher support needs typically do not take part in employment-based research. This may be the case because they are more likely to be employed via supported employment schemes or in sheltered workshops. In any case, their voices appear to be missing from employment research (Dillenburger et al., 2019).

 

Arsonists Have Taken Over the Firehouse

 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.

Lena H. Sun, David Ovalle and Paige Winfield Cunningham at WP:

For decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has fought attempts by the anti-vaccine movement to sow doubts in the safety and efficacy of the shots that marked a triumph of public health. This week, the agency instead provided a powerful platform for the cause.

Common anti-vaccine talking points were on display in presentations and discussions during a two-day meeting of federal immunization advisers at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta. It culminated Friday with the end of a long-standing recommendation for every newborn to receive a hepatitis B vaccine and President Donald Trump directing a broader probe into whether American children receive too many shots.

...

The committee’s vote Friday to adopt a more restrictive approach to vaccinating children for hepatitis B marked the most significant change to the schedule under Kennedy. The vote followed presentations critical of vaccinating newborns for the virus that were delivered by people who were affiliated with anti-vaccine groups and now work with the CDC.

Neither of them have backgrounds in vaccine science or infectious diseases, as senior CDC career scientists who typically deliver such presentations do. Mark Blaxill is a former businessman with an MBA who has a long history promoting a debunked link between vaccines and autism. Cynthia Nevison, an autism and climate researcher, cited a study to imply that those who receive the birth dose of hepatitis B had lower levels of protection than those who receive their first dose later. The findings were “misinterpreted,” the study’s author Amy Middleman told The Washington Post.

Nevison and Blaxill are two of the three authors of a retracted paper about autism. The third author spoke during a public comment period at the meeting without mentioning his affiliation with Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded.

 

California Cuts

The Politics of Autism includes an extensive discussion of insurance and Medicaid services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Carolyn Jones at CalMatters 

The Medicaid cuts may have the most immediate effect. People with developmental disabilities typically receive therapy, home visits from aides, equipment and other services through regional centers, a network of 21 mostly government-funded nonprofits in California that coordinate services for people with disabilities. The goal of regional centers is to help people with disabilities live as independently as possible.

More than a third of regional centers’ funding comes from Medicaid, which is facing deep cuts under Trump’s budget. The money runs out at the end of January, and it’s unclear what services will be cut.

Schools also rely on Medicaid to pay for therapists, equipment, vision and hearing tests and other services that benefit all students, not just those with disabilities. In light of state budget uncertainty, it’s not likely the state could backfill the loss of Medicaid funding, and schools would have to pare down their services.

Parental Enforcement of IDEA is Inadequate

In The Politics of Autism, I write about IEPs and FAPE. The Supreme Court ruled in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public schools to provide heightened educational benefits to students with disabilities.

Parents usually lose in due process hearings.

 Allison F. Gilmour at Education Next:

Consistent with its emphasis on individualization, IDEA includes procedures for families of students with disabilities to hold school districts accountable for upholding the law. These procedural safeguards outline dispute-resolution options for when their child’s rights under IDEA are violated. Importantly, the dispute-resolution process is intended both to protect the rights of individuals and to help make special education better for everyone. The theory of change is that parents, by advocating for their child, induce changes in local, state, and potentially even federal policies and practices that improve special education for all students.

This theory of action has mostly failed in more recent years. (There are some exceptions, like 2017’s Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District.) Due process complaints, the most serious and costly dispute-resolution option because they may result in lawsuits, have risen since 2015 (Figure 3). But these cases are often settled, sometimes with requirements that families not discuss the case or how it was resolved, limiting their potential to drive broader change. The resources poured into legal cases and their expensive resolutions—such as tuition payments to private schools—could be better used proactively within districts to address shortfalls in special education delivery.

Gutting OCR

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. 

At NPR, Cory Turner reports on the gutting of the Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights (OCR).  People are suffering as a result. One example is Maggie Heilman, whose daughter has Down Syndrome:

Heilman also filed a complaint with the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), arguing that Brooklynn had been secluded unnecessarily and that, as a result, she was denied her right to a free, appropriate public education

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OCR is the fail-safe for families who believe their child's civil rights are being violated at school because of their disability. A family can submit a discrimination complaint, and one of OCR's attorneys will review it and, if justified, open an investigation — no need to hire an expensive lawyer or advocate.

OCR has investigated a Texas district for restraining students; a Maryland district for how it handled the bullying of a disabled student; and an Arizona district for forcing students with disabilities to end their school day earlier than general education students.

Department records show OCR began investigating Heilman's complaint in October 2024.

But Heilman says her assigned attorney was removed around the same time the Trump administration began a broad reduction-in-force. According to emails Heilman shared with NPR, her case was then assigned to a different attorney.

Heilman says she has heard nothing about the investigation since June, when this second OCR attorney assured her, in an email, that Brooklynn's case is "currently still in investigation."

Several OCR attorneys spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the Trump administration. Two of them said Heilman's second attorney worked in an OCR office that was gutted in October, in a second round of layoffs. Those fired workers have since been reinstated, but Heilman says she has heard nothing about her complaint.

Of the administration's decision to cut many attorneys who protect students' civil rights, Heilman says, "it's telling families with children like Brooklynn that their hurt doesn't matter."

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The Trump administration has also made deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights. In March, it moved to close seven of OCR's 12 regional offices and to fire 299 workers, leaving roughly half the staff the office had in January. This is when Maggie Heilman lost her first attorney.

In October, the administration attempted to fire another 137 staffers, including gutting the office investigating Heilman's complaint. This left 62 employees at OCR who had not received a termination notice — about 10% of the office's January headcount.

"I'm just shocked that they can destroy an entire unit of an organization that's created by statute," said R. Shep Melnick before some cuts were reversed. Melnick is a professor of American politics at Boston College who has been writing about OCR for decades.