Big Bucks in the Antivax Racket

 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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong. 

Brandy Zadrozny at NBC:

Del Bigtree ended his closing speech at last week’s anti-vaccine mandate rally in Washington with a message, bellowed to a few thousand rallygoers and the news organizations assembled on a riser in front of him.

“We are no longer a fringe group,” he proclaimed.

The pandemic has been a boon for the anti-vaccine community, with Bigtree’s Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), one of the country’s best-funded anti-vaccine organizations, among the biggest beneficiaries, according to newly filed tax records.

ICAN reported $5.5 million in revenue in 2020, a 60 percent increase over the previous year. The funding underscores how lucrative the pandemic has been for a handful of groups that spread health misinformation and undermine public faith in vaccines. Those donations primarily come from private donors, including through Facebook fundraisers.

Other large anti-vaccine organizations have similarly thrived during the pandemic. As an Associated Press investigation reported, the Children’s Health Defense, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., more than doubled its revenue in 2020, to $6.8 million.

At The NY Post, Isabel Vincent notes that RFK is taking a big salary.  

But those figures could be dwarfed from the massive earnings of “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health,” in which Kennedy slams the infectious disease expert for allegedly committing “a historic coup d’etat against western democracy.”

The diatribe is amassing millions in revenue, selling nearly 390,000 hardback copies at $32.50 each, according to NPD BookScan, plus 185,000 e-books and 142,000 audio books since its Nov. 17 release, said Tony Lyons, who heads Skyhorse Publishing Inc., the book’s publisher. Skyhorse just ordered another 150,000 print copies. 

And that's only part of the story.  Some antivaxxers are profiting by selling dietary supplements as treatments for COVID, autism, and other things.  (They do not work.) 

Chicago Takes on the Cliff

In The Politics of Autism, I write:

When disabled people reach their 22d birthday, they no longer qualify for services under IDEA. ... People in the disability community refer to this point in life as “the cliff.” Once autistic people go over the cliff, they have a hard time getting services such as job placement, vocational training, and assistive technology. IDEA entitles students to transition planning services during high school, but afterwards, they have to apply as adults and establish eligibility for state and federal help. One study found that 39 percent of young autistic adults received no service at all, and most of the rest got severely limited services.

A release from the City Colleges of Chicago:

Recently, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, 19th Ward Alderman Matt O’Shea, City Colleges of Chicago, the Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center, and Special Olympics Chicago/Special Children’s Charities are joining forces to ensure young people with different developmental abilities can continue to pursue education, employment and enrichment after they have maxed out their eligibility for special education transition services at the age of 22.

The After 22 Project will be recognized as a Comprehensive Transition Program (CTP) that will help transition participants into meaningful postsecondary activities by providing flexible learning opportunities, leadership, and job skills training. In addition, students will be able to access and participate in special recreation opportunities, and internship and job placement opportunities. The Occupational, Life and Academic Skills (OLAS) Program at Daley College will provide a support system to students, in addition to access to the educational experiences they need to continue their life-long learning journey.

The OLAS program is an innovative inclusive pathway to engage students who otherwise will have to wait an average of seven years to access funding for these services after they reach age 22, leaving a gap in their progress to meaningful engagement, employment and further education. The project will flexibly and deliberately map out a plan for participants based on interest and skill level.

“Far too often, people with disabilities fall through the cracks in our system and are left without access to opportunities to achieve upward mobility,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “With the After 22 Project, we will be able to create the social safety net they deserve, as well as move Chicago one step closer to becoming the most accessible city in the country. I commend Alderman O’Shea, City Colleges of Chicago and the rest of our community partners for launching this new continuum of support for our residents with disabilities to ensure they are able to thrive both before and well after they turn 22.”

“The idea of the After 22 program was presented to me when I was president of the Board of Directors of Special Olympics Chicago/Special Children’s Charities, and we immediately embraced the idea of providing for our athletes in a meaningful way that includes continuing education and job training skills,” said Matt O’Shea, past president of SOC/SCC. “Through the support of our Board of Directors, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Anixter Center, Chancellor Salgado, and President Janosky, our athletes now have the unprecedented opportunity to continue to advance their skills and education after the age of 22. Our athletes are passionate, hard-working and fully embrace any opportunity they are given. This program is a win-win for everyone involved.”

“After 22 is the missing piece that equalizes the pathway for young adults with developmental disabilities to access college and thrive,” said Rebecca Clark, President and CEO at Anixter Center. “This historic step bridges the gap, creating opportunities for students to secure meaningful work, and positively engage in, and contribute to their communities. I believe After 22 will change the lives of the people we serve and our Chicago neighbors for years to come.”

“As Chicago’s community college system, City Colleges is responsive to the needs of our community,” said City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado. “After 22 is a unique opportunity that will allow us to prepare developmentally disabled Chicagoans to contribute their abundant talents to our neighborhoods and economy.”

Chancellor Salgado added that Daley College President Janine Janosky will lead the After 22 program at City Colleges of Chicago. “One of the greatest strengths of Daley College is our students’ diversity,” said President Janosky. “We welcome all students and look forward to the vibrancy these new students will bring to our campus life.”

The first year of the program will serve up to 20 students through non-credit job skill development courses at Daley College. Daley College and Anixter Center team members will collaborate to implement customized educational plans to include competency-based, student-centered curricula to introduce and reinforce workplace soft skills, such as communication strategies, self-advocacy skills, professionalism, and navigating institutions. Additionally, students will practice occupational skills through an internship on campus, such as at the Daley food pantry and professional clothing closet, and other service areas, and will offer them the chance to participate in campus activities. Daley College and the Anixter Center will assemble an advisory council composed of business leaders, students, parents, faculty, and special education experts and advocates to provide guidance and advice on program development, additional partnership connections, and possible funding sources.

The Anixter Center will match 10 participants to jobs or internships at a community employer partner, ensuring students have integrated, competitive job opportunities. In conjunction, employers will get the support they need to ensure success and retention for these employees.

Longer-term, Daley College will develop a certificate program for students with disabilities as part of a larger City Colleges goal of creating greater access to education for community members. The Anixter Center will work with broad-scale commitment from Chicago businesses to hire and retain this untapped talent pool.

The program aims to build an integrated system of opportunities, weaving together public and private partners to support adults with disabilities as they get access to meaningful opportunities throughout Chicago.

“The After 22 program opens new doors of opportunity for our athletes by empowering them with continuing education, important life and job skills, and a readiness for the future,” said Carolyn Daley, president of the Board of Directors of Special Olympics Chicago/Special Children’s Charities. “Our organization has a mission of inclusiveness for all, and the After 22 program provides just that. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Anixter and City Colleges of Chicago on this amazing program. It is my hope that the After 22 program is an incredible success, and continues to grow through the years to come.”

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Creates Autism in the Courts Taskforce

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between the justice system and autistic people.

From the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts: 

Focused on making justice accessible for all Pennsylvanians, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has created a taskforce focused on issues affecting justice-involved individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities.

Partnering with the Pennsylvania Courts’ Office of Children and Families in the Courts and ledby Justice Kevin M. Dougherty on behalf of the Supreme Court, the taskforce is focused on providing increased training opportunities for judges, helping further identify gaps in thesystem for individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities and creating a local roadmap to resources and services.

A full list of the taskforce members is available here.

“We learned so much from our listening tour – identified challenges, discussed experiences and committed to working together to find solutions but what we really learned is how much work there is to be done,” said Supreme Court Justice Kevin M. Dougherty. “By creating a taskforce and partnering with our Office of Children and Families in the Courts who work primarily with children and families in the dependency court system, we’re positioning ourselves to better assist those who need it before they enter the court system.

“If we can provide support to a child before they are court involved and put a plan in place to help that child and their family before they continue down a challenging path – that’s a life changed, and a family saved. The momentum created by the regional tours, amplified by the work of the taskforce will allow us to replicate what we learned within the entire court system.”

With one in 46 children and one in 59 Pennsylvanians diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder*, judges hearing juvenile, orphans, and family court cases are sure to have individuals living with autism come before them. The new partnership with the Office of Children and Families in the Courts will allow the court to start with children, their families and bring together, judges, legal advocates and social service professionals all working to provide assistance.

“This taskforce brings together top thought leaders, advocates and practitioners from the courts, autism and intellectual disabilities communities, advocates and children and youthprofessionals so that we can continue working to develop a framework within the courts to assist those in need,” Dougherty said. “I couldn’t be more thrilled about this new partnership and our path for moving forward, but this is just the beginning. While we are starting with children and families in our dependency system to build a foundation, we will look to replicate this framework across the court system once the taskforce completes its work.”

In 2020, the Supreme Court signaled its commitment to Pennsylvanians with autism by forming a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Department of Human Services (DHS) to heighten the focus on helping judges better understand the necessary evaluations required for diagnosis, treatment and services for individuals with an ASD. Through the listening tour, the Court and DHS heard first-hand about challenges faced in the system from medical professionals, service providers and individuals with autism alike as they sought access to justice.

As part of this effort, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the courts have added information and resources for families supporting an individual with autism on the Pennsylvania Courts frequently asked questions page. For more information about the Autism and the Courts effort visit https://www.pacourts.us/learn/autism-and-the-courts.

Trump Goes Quiet on Booster Shots

 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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.  There is a great deal of overlap between MAGA World and the antivax movement.

Meredith McGraw at Politico:

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump decried politicians who did not share their Covid-19 vaccine booster status as “gutless”—a seeming swipe at other Republicans with presidential ambitions, mainly Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who were keeping mum on the matter.

Days later, Trump took the stage in Arizona and didn’t mention his vaccination status or encourage others to get it, as he had at past rallies. He has not talked about booster shots since.

The silence from the former president is not coincidental. Within Trump’s circles, there is a growing sense that encouraging vaccines too aggressively could carry political risks. Like much of the rest of the GOP, the current calculation has been to rail against vaccine mandates but keep quiet on the push for the vaccines themselves.

“I think there was a course correction there and it was pretty apparent,” said a former Trump adviser and campaign strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are working with candidates on different sides of the issue. “He probably has to balance the position of whether he wants to separate himself against DeSantis but also do no harm. So there was a course correction, where being against mandates is a very safe position and leaving it to personal choice and personal freedom is the best course.”

Informal Removals

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

 The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) has a report titled "Out from the Shadows: Informal Removal of Children with Disabilities from Public Schools."  The report lists several ways in which such informal removals take place:

An informal poll of P&As [protection and advocacy agenices] in August 2021 found the following issues to be the most common in their discipline work:

• Repeated or long-term use of a shortened school day, as a result of behaviors related to the child’s disability.  Sending children home frequently in the middle of the school day, as a result of behaviors related to the child’s disability. These removals tend to be at irregular times and may not occur daily, but occur often enough to cause harm to the child.
• Placing children on homebound instruction almost always with fewer than ten hours (often only 1-5 hours) of in-person tutoring per week due to behaviors related to the child’s disability. A typical public-school calendar requires about 30 hours of in school time per week.
• Placing children on virtual or remote education due to behavior related to the child’s disability (rather than contagion prevention), even after other students have returned to in-person schooling (following COVID-19 pandemic building closures or restrictions.)
• “Transfers to nowhere:” the involuntary transfer by the Local Education Agency (LEA)7 to a program that does not exist, has entrance requirements that the child cannot meet, or has no openings.
• Entering into “Agreements in Lieu of Suspension” or related contracts

Some case studies from the report:

•  Three students with diagnoses of autism, from the same small town, were repeatedly sent home because the LEA didn’t have sufficient paraprofessional (teacher’s aide) coverage and they were considered “too hard to handle.” One child was not in school for almost a year.  The other two students were repeatedly sent home for shorter lengths of time. All three children experienced significant disruption and delay in their education because they simply weren’t receiving an education. 
• AA is a 10-year-old child who has a diagnosis of autism. He was placed in over 100 restraints at school during his kindergarten and 1st grade years. In the beginning of his 2nd grade year, he was placed on homebound services due to disability related behaviors.  He was not allowed to attend school events or to participate in extracurricular activities.  He did not have a seat in a classroom or a locker for at least 3 school years (2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade.) When asked, he cannot describe a typical school day.
• CC was 15 years old and in the 9th grade at the time the P&A represented her. She was diagnosed with a seizure disorder at 6 months and then with autism in her teens. Except for a few words, CC is mostly non- verbal. The LEA contacted her mother many times per month to pick her up from school: whenever her behavior began to escalate or when the teacher or her assigned aide would be absent. This resulted in the equivalent of weeks of missed school

Communicating Science

 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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

At Trends in Molecular Medicine, Dr. Peter Hotez has an article titled "Communicating science and protecting scientists in a time of political instability."

In its modern form, the antivaccine movement began during the late 1990s and early 2000s following claims that the measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccine caused pervasive developmental disorder, now known as autism spectrum disorder [6]. Ultimately, the lead publication making this claim was retracted by The Lancet (in which the paper was published in 1998), but this did not stop a succession of alternative claims that thimerosal preservative, aluminum, or closely spaced vaccines were responsible [6]. The discovery of dozens of new autism genes involved in early fetal brain development [7] helped to provide a powerful alternative narrative to vaccines; however, claims that vaccines cause autism persist.

As a vaccine scientist with an autistic daughter, I thought my advocacy in countering false vaccine links would be very powerful and began publicly defending vaccines [6]. However, my public stance invited a wave of aggression from antivaccine groups, most notably those identified by the Center for Countering Digital Hate as the ‘disinformation dozen’iv. However, this paled in the face of what followed.

After the retraction of The Lancet article in 2010, the antivaccine movement in the USA re-energized by becoming a political movement and aligning itself with far-right groups or the Republican Tea Party, especially in Texas [8]. Doing so increased the number of people willing to become antivaccine adherents, while affording new opportunities for funding and organization. The rallying cry was ‘health freedom’ and it gained a strong following, even forming political action committees (PACs) to promote vaccine exemptions with state legislatures [8]. With the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘health freedom’ expanded to protest COVID-19 prevention measures, including masks and alternative treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, both drugs shown in most studies to offer no benefit in COVID-19 cases or that could even be harmful.

... 

Key considerations for communicating science for COVID-19 vaccines and other interventions

• Antivaccine aggression kills: 200 000 unvaccinated Americans needlessly lost their lives to COVID-19 during the second half of 2021.
• Those refusing COVID-19 vaccinations are victims to disinformation.
• While social media is widely touted as the culprit, Facebook and other platforms are not generating the disinformation content.
• Instead, the disinformation arises from three major sources: (i) The ‘disinformation dozen’ nongovernmental organizations identified by CCDH; (ii) State actors including the Russian Government; (iii) and political extremism from the far right.
• In America, the far right has the greatest influence, and originates from the US Congress and other elected officials, conservative news outlets, and think tanks.
• There are about a dozen major talking points why people refuse to get vaccinated, but these can be easily refuted. The real culprit are political groups and others generating antivaccine content.

Lit Review on Autism and Criminal Justice

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  Police officers need training to respond appropriately.  When they do not, things get out of hand. 

At Autism, Dylan S. Cooper and colleagues have an article titled "Policy gaps and opportunities: A systematic review of autism spectrum disorder and criminal justice intersections." Lay abstract: 

The number of people with autism spectrum disorder has increased, and as this population ages, research is showing high rates of contact with the criminal justice system among this group. Social and communication differences that autistic individuals experience can act as a risk factor during these interactions, as shown by public reports of negative and violent encounters between autistic individuals and the law enforcement. There is a clear need for evidence-based strategies to reduce high rates of contact and to improve outcomes when an interaction occurs. This article provides a systematic review of research on autism spectrum disorder and criminal justice system to compile this evidence base. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis structure was used to identify 89 articles after searching six databases. The Sequential Intercept Model describes the criminal justice system as different stages, or intercepts, that are connected, and the Sequential Intercept Model serves as an overall framework to organize the included articles. Articles were analyzed to identify research themes at each intercept, which offer guidance for policy and program changes that support equitable justice for autistic individuals.

From the article:

Given that this analysis found that police encounters are causing high rates of trauma among autistic individuals, policy and practice changes should focus on reducing contact with the police as much and as safely as possible. The broader social movement has created significant momentum and is informing the design and implementation of alternative responder models. One such example, which can be replicated for autistic individuals, is to have mental health professional teams respond to behavioral and mental health crises and noncriminal acts, and only if necessary coordinate with police to determine if and why a police presence is needed. More research is needed to identify optimal first responder models, and this should include an emphasis on scaling and replicating to local contexts. Emerging alternative first responder models are showing promise. One example is CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On TheStreets), a program in Oregon, USA, that has been in place for more than 30years and demonstrates efficacy, cost savings, and can be safely deployed in other cities eager to replicate it (Pollack & Watson, 2020; Westervelt, 2020). Adaptation and replication of models like CAHOOTS could dramatically reduce the risk of police violence, while improving equitable justice and public safety

Pollack, H. A., Watson, A. C. (2020). From crisis to care: Improved second response to mental health crises. https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/from-crisis-to-care-improved-second-response-to-mental-health-crises/ Google Scholar | Crossref Westervelt, E. (2020). Removing cops from behavioral crisis calls: “We need to change the model.” https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/924146486/removing-cops-from-behavioral-crisis-calls-we-need-to-change-the-model Google Scholar

Bizarre Rants on Autism and Demons

 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.  

Greg Locke is VERY ANGRY that everyone's criticizing him over his autism comments.

Last night, he assured his congregation that his critics are just possessed by demons. https://t.co/sBQXx6FKdu pic.twitter.com/RpIepmdS4i

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) January 27, 2022

Checked Bible Gateway for mentions of "cancer" in the New International Version. There aren't any. Pretty sure it exists.

This bizarre rant underscores the need for more religious outreach to autistic people and others with neurological differences.

Autism Museum

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism history.

Bryce Airgood at The Lansing State Journal:

When he was younger Xavier DeGroat wanted to work at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, but now the Delta Township man is opening his own museum in Meridian Mall.

DeGroat, founder and CEO of nonprofit Xavier DeGroat Autism Foundation, will host a ribbon-cutting event at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 4 for the foundation’s museum near Schuler Books.

...

The museum will have a timeline of the history of autism from early in the 20th century to present day and will highlight prominent figures on the spectrum like Elon Musk, he said.

The museum will have a sensory friendly educational program and DeGroat will take inspiration from "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood" as Mister Rogers was a role model growing up, he said.

...

The Xavier DeGroat Autism Foundation will also host a dinner and gala with VIP pre-reception starting at 6 p.m. at LAUNCH Trampoline Park. Tickets for the dinner/gala are $50 and VIP tickets are $100. People can contact info@xavierdegroatfoundation.org and visit Xavier DeGroat Autism Foundation’s website for more information.

Autism and the Antivax DC Rally

 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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

A leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  Yesterday, he appeared at an "anti-mandate" rally in DC.  In recent years, he has invoked the Holocaust, and he did it again this time.  (His remarks were inaccurate as well as abhorrent. The Nazis did find Anne Frank, in Amsterdam.)  

Kennedy apologized for the Anne Frank reference -- but not for his long history of spreading the lie that vaccines cause autism.  That lie pervades the antivax movement.

Tim Marchman at VICE News:

The first person I met at Defeat the Mandates—a rally held in Washington, D.C. this past weekend in opposition, organizers and attendees unconvincingly claimed, not to vaccines but to vaccine mandates—was a well-composed woman named Maya, who had travelled from Michigan. A speech-language pathologist who works with autistic children, Maya was sitting with a small group of friends in front of a barricade at the Lincoln Memorial, wearing a yellow band bearing black text on her right arm.

Maya, who falsely believes that vaccines are the leading cause of autism, would not say whether or not she thought it was appropriate to compare herself to Jews living in Nazi Germany or Black people living under segregation and Jim Crow, though she did acknowledge that the unvaccinated are not being rounded up and murdered. “But we need to acknowledge the steps that get to that,” she said.

...

This was, nonetheless, deeply an anti-vaccine rally, complete with ubiquitous use of euphemisms like “medical freedom” (for an anti-vaccine stance) and “repurposed drugs” (for snake oil) to go alongside the preference for “anti-mandate” to take the place of “anti-vaccine,” which has taken on some of the stigma of a racial slur among people who are vigorously opposed to vaccines. Robert Malone, after invoking King, claimed that one in 3,000 vaccinated children will be hospitalized due to vaccine damage; Christina Parks, whose recently viral claims about vaccines have been thoroughly debunked, made the particularly repulsive claim that the CDC had covered up evidence that vaccines caused Black boys to be hundreds of times more likely to become autistic. (This particular false claim was a cornerstone of the anti-vaccine film Vaxxed, made by anti-vax luminary and disgraced ex-physician Andrew Wakefield, which gave extensive airtime to the claims of a “CDC whistleblower” named William Thompson, though Thompson himself never appeared in the film. While the history of Thompson’s statements is too tangled to unwind here, the claim that MMR vaccines led to an increase in autism for Black boys or anyone else has, at this point, been extensively debunked, yet it continues to live on, unchanged, at anti-vaccine rallies and conferences.)

RFK Jr. and Anne Frank

 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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

A leading anti-vaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  Yesterday, he appeared at an "anti-mandate" rally in DC.  In recent years, he has invoked the Holocaust, and he did it again this time.  (His remarks were inaccurate as well as abhorrent. The Nazis did find Anne Frank, in Amsterdam.)  UPDATE:

I apologize for my reference to Anne Frank, especially to families that suffered the Holocaust horrors. My intention was to use examples of past barbarism to show the perils from new technologies of control. To the extent my remarks caused hurt, I am truly and deeply sorry.

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) January 25, 2022

Andrew Jeong at WP:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drew quick public criticism, including from his wife, on Monday after he compared the U.S. government’s vaccine mandates to the Holocaust actions of the Nazis, invoking Anne Frank to imply Jews then had more freedoms than unvaccinated Americans today.

... [H]is latest remarks drew especially strong condemnation for invoking Frank, a child who died in a Nazi concentration camp. “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did,” Kennedy said at a anti-vaccine rally in the District of Columbia on Sunday, speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

...

In a statement a Kennedy spokeswoman sent to the Associated Press on Monday, he said he “compared no one to the Nazis or Adolf Hitler.” 

“I referred to Anne Frank’s terrible two year ordeal only by way of showing that modern surveillance capacity would make her courageous feat virtually impossible today,” Kennedy said.

It was not the first time Kennedy invoked the Holocaust in reference to vaccines. In 2015, he said of vaccinations: “They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months ater their brain is gone. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”

For years, Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and author, has publicly supported the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism. They do not.

In 2005, Kennedy incorrectly wrote in an article published in Rolling Stone and Salon that an ingredient in some new vaccines, thimerosal, was dangerous and that the government was hiding its links to autism. Rolling Stone issued several corrections. Salon retracted the story from its website. Kennedy expanded the article into a book published in 2014.

 

My husband’s opinions are not a reflection of my own. While we love each other, we differ on many current issues.

— Cheryl Hines (@CherylHines) January 25, 2022

ADL and US Holocaust Memorial Museum condemn Robert F. Kennedy Jr's comparisons of vaccines and the Holocaust.https://t.co/bDxajvWVlf

— Mark Pitcavage (@egavactip) January 24, 2022

The Antivax Rally in DC

 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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

A leading antivaxxer is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  Yesterday, he appeared at an "anti-mandate" rally in DC.  In recent years, he has invoked the Holocaust, and he did it again this time.  (His remarks were inaccurate as well as abhorrent. The Nazis did find Anne Frank, in Amsterdam.)

Exploiting of the tragedy of people who suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany - including children like Anne Frank - in a debate about vaccines & limitations during global pandemic is a sad symptom of moral & intellectual decay.

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) January 23, 2022

Del Bigtree, I survived a murderous mass shooting in my newsroom. My head nearly taken off by a shotgun blast, missing by an inch. Five Capital Gazette family members were killed around me.

Your thoughts/words are disgusting/inhuman.

No one should have such hate in their heart https://t.co/7cKDNM3RyI

— Paul W. Gillespie (@pwgphoto) January 23, 2022

At today's Defeat the Mandates rally in DC, a man wearing an ARMY VETERAN hat says:

"When the war starts, I will put a bullet in your ass. Just for the press...I will kill anybody that has PRESS on them, because they started this shit."

He wants to be famous. Let's oblige. pic.twitter.com/Kx57jJ3QtB

— 🇺🇸 Anthony Walker, Lord of Sarcasm (Hot Medic) (@anthonycwalker) January 23, 2022

Antivax Rally

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.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

Peter Jamison and Ellie Silverman at WP:

As anti-vaccine activists from across the country prepare to gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, they are hoping their rally will mark a once-fringe movement’s arrival as a lasting force in American society.

That hope, some public health experts fear, is justified. 

Almost two years into the coronavirus pandemic, the movement to challenge vaccines’ safety — and reject vaccine mandates — has never been stronger. An ideology whose most notable adherents were once religious fundamentalists and minor celebrities is now firmly entrenched among tens of millions of Americans.

Baseless fears of vaccines have been a driving force among the approximately 20 percent of U.S. adults who have refused some of the most effective medicines in human history: the mRNA vaccines developed against the coronavirus by Pfizer, with German partner BioNTech, and Moderna. The nation that produced Jonas Salk has exported anti-vaccine propaganda around the globe, wreaking havoc on public health campaigns from Germany to Kenya.

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The scientific case for the full range of vaccines recommended by public health authorities in the United States remains as solid as ever. Research has shown that those vaccines — which have all but eliminated diseases that once sickened, debilitated or killed millions every year — to be safe for the vast majority of those who receive them. The 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield that claimed a link between a common childhood vaccine and autism, launching the modern anti-vaccination movement, was exposed as fraudulent.

Jamieson and Silverman also report:

Organizers estimate that 20,000 people will attend the rally, marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, according to a permit issued by the National Park Service. D.C. police were fully activated from Friday Jan. 21, during the annual March for Life, through today for the anti-vaccine mandate rally, spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said.

The march is billed as a protest of mandates, rather than the medicines themselves. But similar rhetoric — emphasizing individual autonomy rather than untenable scientific ideas — has long characterized the broader anti-vaccine movement, and the march’s speakers include movement veterans such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree, founder of the anti-vaccine group Informed Consent Action Network.

Other speakers include physician Robert Malone, a prominent critic of the coronavirus mRNA vaccines, and former CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, who in a November appearance on Fox News compared White House chief medical adviser Anthony S. Fauci to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Public employee associations that have formed to protest their employers’ vaccine mandates, such as Feds for Medical Freedom and D.C. Firefighters Bodily Autonomy Affirmation Group, are also participating.