Prevention of Drowning

The Politics of Autism discusses the dangers facing autistic people, including wandering and drowning.

From the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate:

Ahead of the 4th of July weekend, the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) and the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS) are expanding their Autism, Wandering & Water Safety awareness campaign focused on drowning prevention and emergency preparation for children with autism. The safety campaign includes a dedicated webpage mass.gov/AutismWaterSafety, with tools and strategies to help prevent these deaths.

The campaign includes videos in English and Spanish featuring a local mother whose child is autistic and has in the past wandered away, with information about tools to help caregivers keep their children safe.

 Jonaki Mehta and Janet W. Lee at NPR:

Kids with autism are 160 times more likely than other children to die from drowning, according to a seminal 2017 study from Columbia University. In fact, in Florida, most children drown in backyard pools. That's largely because about half of autistic children have a tendency to wander from safe settings. That fact, combined with an attraction to water can make for a dangerous combination. Quality swim lessons can help.

That's one of the reasons Mackenzie's parents enrolled her in Swim Buddies, the YMCA of South Florida's low-cost program aimed at children with disabilities. It's also why the state of Florida, which has one of the highest childhood drowning rates in the nation, is expanding a voucher program on July 1 that will put children ages 1-7 who have autism at the front of the line for subsidized swim lessons. "We have tragic circumstances and stories across the state of Florida of young children with autism that are wandering away, they're eloping from their homes, from their classrooms," says Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, and one of the lawmakers who sponsored the bipartisan bill that changed the state's swim vouchers.

Blue Envelopes in Florida

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between first responders and autistic people. Some jurisdictions allow autistic drivers to ask for a blue envelope to disclose the driver's diagnosis in case of an accident or traffic stop. Others have ID cards.

 Claire O'Neil at WEAR-TV:

Starting July 1, a new law will take effect in Florida. It's focused on improving communication between law enforcement and people with autism.

The bill helps officers better identify those people before situations escalate. Law enforcement officers across the state are getting new training to help them interact with people with autism.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 418 this week.

"This bill is going to be great for citizens with autism in the state of Florida, in that it's a quick disclosure for the law enforcement officer to understand that they are dealing with someone with autism, which is crucial," retired Police Lt. Jimmy Donohoe, founder of First Responder Autism Training.

That quick disclosure is a blue envelope or a blue card. The envelope will hold important information, like a person's drivers license, registration and proof of insurance.
The blue color lets officers know the individual has autism.

"This is not something that is not going to stigmatize someone," said Sherry A. White, president and CEO of Capstone Adaptive Learning and Therapy Centers. "It is just moving forward with dignity, respect, safety, better solutions, and outcomes. And being in the disability field, I for one, see this as a positivity move."

Donohoe, who fathers a son with autism, says this can help those who are nonverbal or have difficulty communicating.

"People with autism often have delayed responses," Donohoe said. "And law enforcement, we are not used to delayed responses that might indicate someone is lying to us because they have a warrant, so this bill will change the officers perspective of the person they've stopped."

"And that's so that they're not digging in and getting more upset as they go along," he said. "And the blue envelope discloses right away."

Another key component of this new law required training for officers.

"De-escalation techniques and understanding what's going on with people with autism, how they think differently than we do, and so we have to adapt to them and not them adapt to us," Donohoe said.

2025: The Year of Autism Disinformation

 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.

FactCheck.org includes the Trump administration's comments on autism among the "Whoppers of the Year."

Tylenol and autism: In a late September press conference, Trump endorsed an unproven link between autism and the use of Tylenol, or acetaminophen, during pregnancy. Trump repeatedly told pregnant women, “don’t take Tylenol,” and offered the unsound medical advice to “tough it out.” Recent research indicates there likely isn’t a link. As for Trump’s medical advice, untreated pain or fever during pregnancy can be harmful to both mother and child, and medical groups have long recommended prudent use of the drug — taking acetaminophen when needed in consultation with a doctor.

The administration didn’t point to any new original research on the topic, which has been studied. Some studies have shown an association between using acetaminophen during pregnancy and an increased likelihood of having a child with autism, but no causal link has been established. Recent research indicates there likely isn’t a link. As for Trump’s medical advice, untreated pain or fever during pregnancy can be harmful to both mother and child, and medical groups have long recommended prudent use of the drug — taking acetaminophen when needed in consultation with a doctor.

HHS Secretary Kennedy later falsely claimed that two circumcision-related studies provided evidence that acetaminophen causes autism when given to children. That’s not what the studies found. In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed a webpage to say that its previous statement that “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not an evidence-based claim,” echoing Kennedy’s prior misrepresentations of science.

Samantha Putterman at PolitiFact: 

In [Dr. Mona] Amin’s state of Florida, health leaders are seeking to end the rules that require children to come to school vaccinated, at a time when childhood vaccination rates have already been dropping. About 88% of Florida’s kindergartners are up to date on vaccines today, down from about 94% in 2019 — both figures below the 95% rate typically needed to prevent infectious disease outbreaks.

Amin and other pediatricians see these falsehoods manifest in parents’ real-time decisions. About 61% of 1,000 physicians said in an August survey that their patients were influenced by misinformation, and nearly 86% said the amount of misinformation had increased in five years.

More parents are declining the vitamin K shot for their newborns. Administered hours after birth since the 1960s, the shot prevents bleeding into the brain, intestines and other internal organs. Parents’ refusal is leading to rising cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infants.

Measles cases reached a 30-year high in the U.S. in 2025, with nearly 1,800 cases reported in 42 states as of November. Cases of whooping cough are also on the rise. Pediatricians we spoke with said parents of immunocompromised children are asking whether they should send their kids to school at all.

Some parents are hostile. Amin said she’s been screamed at around a dozen times

...

Numbers show pediatric care is under strain, and people in the field say misinformation isn’t helping. With parts of the country already facing critical pediatrician shortages, families struggle to find care and can wait months for appointments in some areas, especially for subspecialty doctors.

Amin teaches residents, and fewer medical school graduates are choosing to be pediatricians. Those already in the field are also leaving traditional practices, citing increasing falsehoods and doctor distrust, among other concerns.

...

Although we found no clear data documenting the rise of doctor influencers, industry groups and researchers acknowledge the phenomenon in articles exploring its benefits, drawbacks and need for quality control. Even artificial intelligence has jumped into the mix, falsely portraying doctors on social media in order to spread falsehoods and market products.

Cracks in RFK Jr. Support

 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.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg at NYT:

People across the political spectrum are alarmed. In recent days, Mr. Kennedy’s sister Kerry and his nephew Joe Kennedy III called for him to step down. Three former surgeons general, including Dr. Jerome Adams, who served during the first Trump administration, wrote in an essay for USA Today that Mr. Kennedy was jeopardizing the integrity of the C.D.C. and public health.

President Trump, who promised to let “Bobby go wild on health” — and who, like Mr. Kennedy, has rejected scientific evidence in asserting that vaccines are linked to autism — has not criticized Mr. Kennedy.

President Trump, who promised to let “Bobby go wild on health” — and who, like Mr. Kennedy, has rejected scientific evidence in asserting that vaccines are linked to autism — has not criticized Mr. Kennedy.

But Mr. Trump did contradict him and like-minded officials, such as the Florida surgeon general, who announced last week that the state would end all vaccine mandates, including for children. A memo from the Republican pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward warned Republicans before the hearing that limiting access to childhood vaccines could hurt them politically, citing “sky-high” approval for routine vaccinations among swing voters.

“It’s a tough stance,” Mr. Trump said, when asked about Florida’s action. “You have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They’re not controversial at all, and I think those vaccines should be used.”

Dan Diamond, Theodoric Meyer and Rachel Roubein at WP:

Seven months after they voted to confirm longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s health secretary, some Republican senators are having second thoughts.

“I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told Kennedy at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. “Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”

Barrasso’s warning, which Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) echoed at Thursday’s hearing, was the latest and perhaps most significant sign of growing GOP doubts about the merits — and political wisdom — of Kennedy’s agenda.

...

Officials from Trump’s first administration are also increasingly condemning Kennedy in public remarks. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health in the first Trump administration, told The Washington Post on Friday that Kennedy’s decision to end nearly $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine development was “going to make the country vulnerable” and that the health secretary’s broader vaccine agenda was doing “tremendous damage” to public health.

...

It is also not clear if the growing GOP concerns will have a material effect on Kennedy or his team’s agenda. But his recent moves have exposed the political fault lines over vaccine policy, which could be further exacerbated by the health department’s upcoming moves to issue an autism report and potentially further limit access to coronavirus vaccines.

 

Disaster Preparedness Resources

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.  Those challenges get far more intense during disasters and their aftermath.

Florida is suffering the effects of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.  Some resources:

• USA Today Network, "Hurricane Milton: What to do..."
• Blue Sprig, "How Do I Prepare for a Hurricane with a Child with Autism?"
• National Autism, "Hurricane Preparation Tips"
• CDC, "Emergency Preparedness Tips"
• Autism Society of Florida, "Disaster Preparedness" 

WINK-TV:

Florida Vaccination Rate

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.

Ana Goñi-Lessan at the Tallahassee Democrat:

The vaccination rate of Florida kindergarteners has fallen to 90.6%, the lowest in over a decade, and concerned pediatricians say they are exhausted trying to combat anti-vax information – including from the state government.

“It's gotten difficult to manage,” said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a Miami pediatrician and medical director for a mobile clinic that serves uninsured children.

Nearly 91% may seem high, but for highly contagious diseases like measles, for example, public health experts recommend a vaccination rate of at least 95%. Lower than that increases the risk of outbreaks of diseases that are otherwise preventable. That's especially a problem in schools, where children are in close contact with each other.

... 

Since the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy over the mRNA “jab” spread to other vaccines, pediatricians say, who add that it’s becoming difficult to practice in the state. Some refuse to take unvaccinated patients, and the ones that do accept them don’t have the capacity.

Gwynn, the past president of Florida's chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has seen an increase in unvaccinated patients in the past 20 years — first with the wave of misinformation from fraudulent research about how MMR vaccines cause autism, and now with COVID-19 vaccines.

SEARCH WATER FIRST: Autism and Drowning

The Politics of Autism discusses the dangers facing autistic people, including wandering.

 Patricia Davis at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

There’s been a dramatic spike in drownings of children with autism this summer, with three more kids drowning just this week, raising the total to 26 children.

“It’s been the worst summer on record for autism and wandering in terms of fatalities,” said Lori Mcllwain, co-founder of the National Autism Association (NAA), whose son has autism. “We’re trying to get the word out to parents to be extra vigilant. We usually see two or three deaths per month on average. Now we’re seeing two or three a week.”

Today, in conjunction with NAA, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), is releasing an urgent alert to remind the public and first responders to SEARCH WATER FIRST when a child with autism is missing. Children with autism often wander, or bolt, from safe environments and many are drawn to water.

John Bischoff, who oversees our Missing Children Division, said NCMEC knew we had to do something more when we saw this shocking increase.

“We want to urge people to be more vigilant,” Bischoff said. “It’s important that everyone understands what to do in these fast-moving situations, not just the families of these children. You could save a life.”

 Michael Cuglietta, Orlando Sentinel:

Children with autism are especially susceptible to the risk of drowning, as they tend both to wander away and to be attracted to water, experts say. That has led advocates to push for specialized swim lessons attuned to those kids’ situations, but much more needs to be done.

So far this year, 23 children with autism have died by drowning in Florida, including six in Central Florida, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families. Those deaths account for nearly 30% of the 81 such deaths reported in 2024 in Florida, which leads the nation in childhood drowning.

 

Axis of Crackpots

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.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

The anti-vax movement has a great deal of overlap with MAGA, QAnon, and old-school conspiracy theory.

Kate Briquelet at The Daily Beast:

The sister of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a band of conservative anti-vax activists are running for the board of a renowned public hospital in Florida under the banner of “medical freedom.”

If they win, they’ll hold a majority over Sarasota’s award-winning facility where one of their allies—elected in 2022 with two other “health freedom candidates” to the nine-member panel—is already trying to peddle vaccine misinformation.

The rogues’ gallery includes Mary Flynn O’Neill, who directs her brother’s nonprofit and routinely appears on right-wing shows with QAnon conspiracy theorists; Tanya Parus, the president of Moms For America’s Sarasota chapter and co-owner of a “freedom-based” health clinic, and Tamzin Rosenwasser, a dermatologist who once railed against the Federation of State Medical Boards’s warning to doctors who spread COVID vaccine misinformation, comparing the organization to Stalin’s secret police.

Michael Flynn posted this picture today. I was finally able to locate a full view of the board behind him. (Telegram) (1/2) pic.twitter.com/y7vTg9TFXa

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 6, 2021

The list includes familiar figures from the antivax movement:

• Del Bigtree (now RFK Jr.'s comms director)
• Rashad [sic, Rashid] Buttar
• Charleen [sic, Charlene] Bollinger
• Robert Kennedy, Jr.
• Judy Mikovits
• Sherry [sic, Sherri] Tenpenny
• Dr. [Andrew] Wakefield

There may be others whose names are too hard to read in the photograph.

"Demonic"

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition. Many posts have discussed the potential correlates, risk factors, and possible causes that have been the subject of serious studies.  Genetics tops the list.  One thing that is NOT on the list is demonic possession.  

Book-burning pastor Greg Locke has aired this nonsense.  Alas, he is not alone.

Katherine Kokal at The Palm Beach Post:

Disturbed families at a Lake Worth Beach-area private school are weighing leaving the school after its Autism Awareness Week was called off by its pastor who called the activities "idolatry and demonic" in a school-wide email.

Trinity Christian Academy pastor Matt Baker wrote in the email to families March 30 that he would be canceling the week's dress up days because, he argued, the events encouraged students to prioritize other identities above their faith in Jesus Christ.

Students were encouraged to wear blue, dress up as something they love, style a funky hairdo or sport a fun hat, and wear tie dye, according to a flyer shared with parents.

"If Jesus Christ led Trinity, would HE have an Autism Awareness Week? Of course not! Why? Because anything that exalts itself above the name of Christ should be brought down," Baker wrote.

"The world, in its rejection and hatred of Christ, often devises programs such as 'Autism Awareness' (and cultural figures like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, etc.) to get the benefits of His teachings (compassion, kindness, feeling love, and self-worth) without acknowledging Jesus as the ultimate authority and the source of all life."

...

The World Assemblies of God Fellowship website doesn't give schools or churches direct guidance on events and awareness activities, but the site does include a position on ministry to people who are disabled.

"People with disabilities are essential to the wholeness of the Christian community," the website says. "In a culture that worships physical perfection, devalues human life, and takes pride in disposability, the church must protect the helpless, vulnerable, disenfranchised, including people with disabilities. They are people created in God’s image, possessing dignity, value, and purpose."

Measles and Polio: Back to the Future

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.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Michael Hiltzik at LAT:

We’ve already seen that the embrace of pernicious anti-vaccination claptrap by unscrupulous politicians and government officials has had detectable impacts on public health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now reporting 41 cases of measles, for which a vaccine has been available since 1963, in 16 states.
...
At a campaign rally in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 2, [Trump] said this, referring to the policy he would implement as president: “I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.”

...

Now let’s turn to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose campaign for president has allowed his dangerous anti-vaccine hogwash to be mainstreamed into the body politic like an IV drip of strychnine. His pitch so bristles with disinformation and pseudoscience that it’s been disavowed by virtually his entire family, whose name has been synonymous with progressive politics and policy for generations.

Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization Kennedy founded and chairs, last week platformed a fatuously inaccurate 2013 book claiming that polio isn’t caused by a virus and that the polio vaccine “doesn’t work.”

The book was conclusively debunked long ago. But last Tuesday, the organization published an interview with its co-author Suzanne Humphries, in which she repeated her claim that polio is caused by toxins, not the virus.

“According to Humphries, there are no worthwhile vaccines, not even smallpox or tetanus, and certainly not the polio vaccine,” the interview read.

Helen Branswell at STAT:

On Sunday, public health officials in two Michigan counties warned their residents that they may have been exposed to measles. In Wayne County, an adult who had contracted the virus abroad had been in health-related settings in Dearborn on two days last week — two urgent care clinics, a CVS pharmacy, and a hospital emergency department. Health officials in neighboring Washtenaw County issued a similar alert about a different case — also an adult, also infected abroad — who was in the emergency department of a hospital in Ypsilanti on March 1.

Both counties urged unvaccinated people who had been in the listed locations at the listed times to contact public health or their health care provider, warning them to phone ahead if they needed to seek in-person care.

These kinds of notices are standard public health practice during measles outbreaks. Alerts of this sort may also warn that someone with measles had been in a crowded public location — an airport, a shopping mall, a theme park.

But in Florida, where 10 residents and at least four non-residents have been diagnosed with measles in the past month or so, the Department of Health has released scant information about those cases. The seeming reticence to speak openly about measles leaves in the dark anyone in the public who might be concerned about whether they may have had an exposure. Likewise, people considering spring break vacations to Florida who want to avoid measles exposures have almost no information on which to plan their trips.

Measles Redux in Florida

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.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Ron DeSantis's surgeon general is notorious in this respect.

 Los Angeles Times editorial notes that measles is extremely contagious and potentially deadly.

So it’s especially disheartening to observe the new measles cases in Florida — eight and growing at last count. It’s not the biggest measles outbreak in recent years, but the ho-hum attitude of the state’s top public health official, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, is deeply troubling.

Most of the cases so far have been among students at an elementary school in Broward County. But one is a preschooler — an extremely dangerous age for complications — whose connection to the school is unclear. Something like this was bound to happen. Measles is infectious from four days before the telltale rash appears to four days after. That means parents often don’t know when their child might be infected and capable of transmitting the virus to others in and out of school.

Florida has a reasonable law requiring vaccination for children to attend private or public school. Unlike California, which allows exemptions only for children with legitimate health reasons, Florida lets parents opt out for religious beliefs, a common loophole throughout the country. And the vaccination rates at the elementary school in question was higher than the national average, at 97%.

The problem in quelling this outbreak, though, is the lackadaisical attitude of Ladapo, who has earned notoriety by promoting COVID-19 vaccine skepticism. Last month, he called for a halt to using mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19. Still it was shocking that in the midst of the outbreak, he ignored the public health standard set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls for isolating unvaccinated people for 21 days after possible exposure, and is allowing parents to decide whether to send their unvaccinated kids to school. He didn’t even encourage parents of unvaccinated children to get a quick, preventive dose.

Michael Hiltzik at LAT:

Ladapo was installed as surgeon general by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, largely because he mouthed the same propaganda opposing anti-COVID measures, including the vaccines, as the governor. DeSantis hasn’t spoken in public about the measles outbreak, but make no mistake: He deserves equal blame for the consequences.

To say that Ladapo’s advisory left physicians and epidemiologists aghast would be a massive understatement. Allowing unimmunized children to go to school where they could be exposed to measles contradicts every responsible recommendation from medical science.

Ladapo tried to justify the decision to let unimmunized children exposed to measles go to school by asserting that the vaccination rate is high enough.

But as epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina observed on her blog, Your Local Epidemiologist, while the vaccination rate in Florida is just over 90%, that’s “not high enough — because measles is so contagious, the threshold for herd immunity against measles is 95%. This means there are pockets in the school, other schools, and a community that measles could burn through.”

Florida's Pro-Measles Surgeon General

  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.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

Ron DeSantis's surgeon general is notorious in this respect.

Jacob Knutson at Axios:

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo contradicted federal health guidelines on measles this week by not urging parents to vaccinate their children against one of the world's most contagious viruses.

Why it matters: Ladapo's apathy toward measles vaccinations comes as a Florida elementary school is attempting to contain an outbreak and as measles cases have remerged across the U.S.

• It's also an extension of effort by Ladapo and other conservative officials to undermine federal public health norms and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations — particularly those about vaccinations.

Details: In response to at least six confirmed measles cases at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, Florida, Ladapo told parents in a letter that the state's health department was deferring to them for "decisions about school attendance.

• "He said the state would not make a recommendation "due to the high immunity rate in the community, as well as the burden on families and educational cost of healthy children missing school."
• Ladapo acknowledged in the letter it's "normally" advised that unvaccinated children without a prior measles infection stay home for up to 21 days after a case is detected in a school — the CDC's guidance.
• The state surgeon general also did not recommend vaccines to prevent measles despite recognizing their effectiveness at preventing illness

Autism Decals in Miami-Dade

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  When cops encounter autistic people, they may not respond in the same way as NT people, and things can get out of hand. Among other things, they may misinterpret autistic behavior as aggressive or defiant, and respond with tasers, batons, chokeholds, or worse. 

Chris Hush at WTJV-TV:

A new program in Miami-Dade County aims to save lives through a simple decal. The initiative will alert first responders to potential interactions with residents living with autism.

Approved last week by the Miami Dade County Commission, the decal is meant to be placed at the front door of a home or a car window to notify police officers and firefighters of a potential interaction with a resident living with autism.

The decal reads, “Occupant with autism, may not respond to verbal commands.”

Dr. Diane Adreon with the University of Miami’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) says the decals can aid in the training of law enforcement officers.

“There’s so many nuances that people could really not know how to react, and they could take their behaviors the wrong way,” said Dr. Adreon. “It gives people with autism or family members an opportunity to safely disclose the disability in a circumstance where they may be interacting with law enforcement.”

When it launches in April, Miami-Dade residents will be able to pick up the free decal from their local Miami-Dade Police station.

District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado says there are plans for the county to partner with agencies in other municipalities, to expand the program. She also believes this program will free up county resources.

North Miami launched a similar decal and autism outreach program in 2022 following the 2016 incident when a man with autism was shot at by a police officer after the toy truck he was holding was mistaken for a gun.  [Ed. note:  the police shot the black man who was caring for the autistic person.]

Excess Republican Deaths

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 measles and COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

Jacob Wallace,; Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham; Jason L. Schwartz, "Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic" JAMA Internal Medicine

Key Points

Question Was political party affiliation a risk factor associated with excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida and Ohio?

Findings In this cohort study evaluating 538 159 deaths in individuals aged 25 years and older in Florida and Ohio between March 2020 and December 2021, excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before. These differences were concentrated in counties with lower vaccination rates, and primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio.

Meaning The differences in excess mortality by political party affiliation after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been a factor in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US.

Abstract

Importance There is evidence that Republican-leaning counties have had higher COVID-19 death rates than Democratic-leaning counties and similar evidence of an association between political party affiliation and attitudes regarding COVID-19 vaccination; further data on these rates may be useful.

Objective To assess political party affiliation and mortality rates for individuals during the initial 22 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design, Setting, and Participants A cross-sectional comparison of excess mortality between registered Republican and Democratic voters between March 2020 and December 2021 adjusted for age and state of voter registration was conducted. Voter and mortality data from Florida and Ohio in 2017 linked to mortality records for January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021, were used in data analysis.

Exposures Political party affiliation.

Main Outcomes and Measures Excess weekly deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic adjusted for age, county, party affiliation, and seasonality.

Results Between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2021, there were 538 159 individuals in Ohio and Florida who died at age 25 years or older in the study sample. The median age at death was 78 years (IQR, 71-89 years). Overall, the excess death rate for Republican voters was 2.8 percentage points, or 15%, higher than the excess death rate for Democratic voters (95% prediction interval [PI], 1.6-3.7 percentage points). After May 1, 2021, when vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate gap between Republican and Democratic voters widened from −0.9 percentage point (95% PI, −2.5 to 0.3 percentage points) to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis; the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters. The gap in excess death rates between Republican and Democratic voters was larger in counties with lower vaccination rates and was primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio.

Conclusions and Relevance In this cross-sectional study, an association was observed between political party affiliation and excess deaths in Ohio and Florida after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults. These findings suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been factors in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US.