Save HHS

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.

From Save HHS

Read current and former CDC, NIH, and HHS staff’s response to the Aug. 8th attack, and sign on to show your support:

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Subject: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Workers’ Response to the August 8th Attack

To: Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Members of the U.S. Congress

Date: August 20, 2025

We, the undersigned, write to you with grave concern for America's health and security. The violent August 8th attack on CDC's headquarters in Atlanta was not random. The attacker fired hundreds of rounds into buildings as the CDC workforce inside carried out its mission of serving the American people. The attack came amid growing mistrust in public institutions, driven by politicized rhetoric that has turned public health professionals from trusted experts into targets of villainization—and now, violence.

CDC is a public health leader in America's defense against health threats at home and abroad. When a federal health agency is under attack, America’s health is under attack. When the federal workforce is not safe, America is not safe. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information, including:

• Sowing public mistrust by questioning the integrity and morality of CDC’s workforce, including calling CDC a “cesspool of corruption.”[i]
• Terminating critical CDC workers in a destroy-first-and-ask-questions-later[ii] manner; wasting taxpayer money while creating dangerous gaps in areas like infectious diseases detection, worker safety, and chronic disease prevention and response. [iii] Many CDC workers who focused on issues such as injury [iv] and violence prevention [v] have been fired. These agency-wide staffing cuts have impacted CDC’s emergency preparedness and response efforts [vi].
• Falsely claiming mRNA vaccines "failed to protect effectively" [vii] during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently canceling $500 million in contracts for mRNA vaccine development [viii], possibly our best line of defense against another respiratory virus pandemic.
• Undermining public health outbreak response by falsely claiming the measles vaccine has not been "safety tested" and that protection "wanes very quickly" [ix] while promoting inappropriate prevention measures like vitamin A [x] even as U.S. measles case numbers [xi] are at their highest in more than 30 years.
• Disbanding the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) [xii] despite reassuring Senator Cassidy during his confirmation hearing that he would not change the process. The Secretary has reconstituted it with inadequately vetted members who lack appropriate expertise and whose recommendations have been driven by ideology rather than science. [xiii]
• Misusing data to falsely claim childhood vaccines are the cause of autism [xiv] despite decades of research [xv] demonstrating otherwise.

These dangerous and deceitful statements and actions have contributed to the harassment and violence experienced by CDC staff. To uphold his pledge to safeguard the health of the American public, by September 2, 2025, we ask Secretary Kennedy to do the following:

1. Stop spreading inaccurate health information: Cease and publicly disavow the ongoing dissemination of false and misleading claims about vaccines, infectious disease transmission, and America's public health institutions.
2. Affirm CDC's scientific integrity: Acknowledge and affirm that CDC’s work is rooted in scientific, non-partisan evidence focused on improving the health of every American.
3. Guarantee the safety of the HHS workforce: Ensure that the HHS workforce can carry out its duties in an environment free from imminent threats of harm. This should include emergency procedures and alerts that are fully functional for all workers and taking vigorous action to remove high-profile online material targeting the federal workforce such as the widely seen "DEI watchlists."

The deliberate destruction of trust in America's public health workforce puts lives at risk. We urge you to act in the best interest of the American people—your friends, your families, and yourselves.

Finally, we wish to honor Officer David Rose, who made the ultimate sacrifice in giving his life to protect others, and we extend our deepest gratitude for his service.

We sign this declaration in our own personal capacities, on our personal time, and without the use of government equipment, as protected by our First Amendment rights. In addition to the named signers, we include anonymous signers and speak for countless others across HHS who share our concerns but who chose not to sign out of fear of retaliation and personal safety.

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RFK Shuts Down Autism Research

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.

 Sharon Lerner at Pro Publica:

Erin McCanlies was listening to the radio one morning in April when she heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promising to find the cause of autism by September. The secretary of Health and Human Services said he believed an environmental toxin was responsible for the dramatic increase in the condition and vowed to gather “the most credible scientists from all over the world” to solve the mystery.

Nothing like that has ever been done before, he told an interviewer.

McCanlies was stunned. The work had been done.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been doing!” she said to her husband, Fred.

As an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which Kennedy oversees, McCanlies had spent much of the past two decades studying how parents’ exposure to workplace chemicals affects the chance that they will have a child with autism. Just three weeks earlier, she’d been finalizing her fourth major paper on the topic when Kennedy eliminated her entire division. Kennedy has also overseen tens of millions of dollars in cuts to federal funding for research on autism, including its environmental causes.

For 20 years, Kennedy has espoused the debunked theory that autism is caused by vaccines, dismissing evidence to the contrary by arguing that vaccine manufacturers, researchers and regulators all have an interest in obscuring their harms.

 He remains skeptical of the scientists who have been funded by his own agency to study the neurodevelopmental condition. “We need to stop trusting the experts,” he told right-wing host Tucker Carlson in a June interview, going on to suggest that previous studies that found no relationship between vaccines and autism were marred by “trickery” and researchers’ self-interest.

In contrast, Kennedy told Carlson that under his leadership, and with a new, federally funded $50 million autism research initiative, “We’re going to get real studies done for the first time.”

Some autism researchers fear that the effort will manipulate data to blame the condition on vaccines. “Kennedy has never expressed an open mind, an open attitude towards what are the fundamental causes of autism,” said Helen Tager-Flusberg, a Boston University psychologist who founded a coalition of scientists concerned about his approach to autism. In a June statement, the group said the initiative lacks transparency and that Kennedy “casually ignores decades of high quality research that preceded his oversight.”

As Kennedy promotes his new initiative, ProPublica has found that he has also taken aim at the traditional scientific approach to autism, shutting down McCanlies’ lab and stripping funding from more than 50 autism-related studies. Meanwhile, he has stood by as the Trump administration encourages the departure of hundreds of federal employees with experience studying the harm caused by environmental threats and rolls back protections from pollution and chemicals, including some linked to autism.

Antivax Tactics

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.

In the book, I write:

Many articles and blog posts arguing for the vaccine-autism link have the trappings of genuine academic research: tables, graphs, citations, and scientific jargon. Some of the authors have credentials such as M.D. or Ph.D. degrees. None of these things is a guarantee of scientific value, as the history of science is full of crackpot theories (e.g., AIDS denialism) that are the heavily-footnoted products of people with letters after their names. But most people will not be able to spot the scientific weaknesses of such work. Outside of academia, few understand concepts such as peer review. Jordynn Jack describes one dubious article that appeared in a non-peer-reviewed publication: “Regardless of the scientific validity of the article, though, the writers perform the writing style quite effectively. It would be difficult for the layperson to distinguish this article from any other scientific research paper, especially if one did not investigate the nature of the journal … or of the scientific response to the article.”

Dr. Jessica Steier at NYT (h/t Fred Lynch):

The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says he wants to understand what causes autism. It’s a perfectly laudable goal and one that scientists have been pursuing for decades. But after announcing a large new federal study on the topic, he made a shocking choice by bringing in the vaccine critic David Geier as a researcher.

...

There have been some 70 studies since Mr. Wakefield’s looking for any link between vaccines and autism. Of these, 26 have linked vaccines to autism in some way, and 43 found no connection between vaccines and autism.

A whopping two-thirds of studies that claimed to have found a link were written by David and Mark Geier. These studies have been heavily criticized for using deceptive research techniques and flawed data.

Among the eight other studies that found a link, four were retracted for data manipulation, flawed methods or undisclosed conflicts of interest. Most of the authors have been involved in anti-vaccination campaigns and have had other papers retracted.

One such study that Mr. Kennedy referred to in his Senate confirmation hearing was published in a WordPress blog disguised as a journal and was funded by an anti-vaccine organization, among other problems.

Fortunately, independent scientists have conducted more than 40 high-quality studies since 1998 involving over 5.6 million people across seven countries. All found no connection between vaccines and autism. These studies were rigorously designed, were reviewed by independent peers and do not contain telltale signs of data manipulation, as the Geier studies do.

Threats to Part D Funding

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

Mark Lieberman at Education Week:

Despite the Trump administration’s broad promises to preserve special education funding, advocates are spreading the word nationwide that up to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of in-progress federal grants for strengthening services for children with disabilities could be cut in the coming weeks.

The Council for Exceptional Children and the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities warned members last week that they’ve heard the U.S. Department of Education is preparing to soon terminate “hundreds” of special education grant awards under Part D of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

These competitive grants are separate from the IDEA formula funding that directly helps pay for special education services. Instead, they fund academic research, parent supports, technology development, data collection, and training for special educators.

Anxiety and Depression in Autistic College Students

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the growing number of college students on the spectrum.  

Aragon-Guevara, D.A., Mattson, J.M.G. & Kim, H. Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression in Autistic and Non-autistic College Students: A Brief Report. J Autism Dev Disord (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-06876-y  Abstract:

Purpose

As more autistic individuals transition into young adulthood, it is crucial to explore factors relevant to success in this period of life, including success in post-secondary education. Mental health challenges have been identified as a significant concern in post-secondary education; however, the majority of research only includes non-autistic students.

Methods

The current study utilized data from the 2021 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to compare rates of anxiety and depression, as well as gender differences, in autistic and non-autistic students. The sample included 1399 autistic and 146,220 non-autistic students from 342 universities in the US and Canada.

Results

Autistic students reported significantly higher rates of anxiety (64.5%), and depression (48.2%) compared to their non-autistic peers (9.4% and 7.6%, respectively). Female students reported elevated rates of depression and anxiety compared to male students in both the autistic and non-autistic samples.

Conclusion

These findings highlight the elevated mental health challenges faced by autistic students and underscore the need for increased research and support in post-secondary settings. Future research on risk factors for mental health challenges of autistic post-secondary students might elucidate opportunities and timing for support and screening.

Girls, Boys, and Age of Diagnosis

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss gender differences in autism identification.

 Bartelt K, Barkley E, Trinkl J, Deckert J. Diagnosis of Autism Occurring Earlier in Children, Though Still Late for Many; Initial Diagnosis in Adulthood Increasing in Women. Epic Research. https://epicresearch.org/articles/diagnosis-of-autism-occurring-earlier-in-children-though-still-late-for-many-initial-diagnosis-in-adulthood-increasing-in-women. Accessed on August 15, 2025.

Key Findings

• The median age at autism diagnosis declined slightly from 7 years of age in 2015 to 6 years in 2024. Male patients are increasingly diagnosed earlier with the median age at diagnosis dropping from 7 years in 2015 to 5 in 2024. However, the median age for females remained near 8 years over the same period.
• Of male patients diagnosed with autism in 2024, 44% were under age 5. In that same year, 34% of diagnosed females were under age 5, indicating more than half of patients were diagnosed later than age 5 and might have benefitted from earlier diagnosis.
• The proportion of female patients diagnosed as adults (ages 19+) was 25% in 2024, while 12% of males were diagnosed with autism as adults in the same year.

IEP Settlements and Inequality

In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  Inequality is a big part of the story. 

Maddie Hanna at The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Pennsylvania schools districts have spent millions to settle special education disputes.

To get a settlement with a school district over special education, first a child has to be identified by the district as requiring services — with an individualized education plan spelling out how the school will meet the student’s needs.

If parents disagree with what a district offers, they can take legal action by filing a due process complaint.

That can trigger formal hearings, which result in public decisions issued by hearing officers. But the vast majority of complaints are resolved through privately negotiated settlements.

As a result, most disputes around special education are happening out of the public eye, with little known about parents’ allegations or what districts are paying out.

“It’s something almost no one knows anything systematic, objective, and complete about,” said Perry Zirkel, a professor emeritus of education and law at Lehigh University.

In the Philadelphia collar counties, where special education-focused law firms have proliferated, lawyers say affluent parents, who know their rights and have the means to hire attorneys, are more likely to sue than poor ones.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — the 1975 federal law entitling students to special education services — has never been fully funded by Congress, leaving schools vulnerable to litigation when they’re strapped to deliver the “free appropriate public education” the law requires, [Attorney Andrew] Faust said.

The IDEA is a “very much a rich-get-richer, poor-get-poorer statute,” Faust said, because unlike other civil rights laws, it relies on parents, not the government, to enforce it. [As my book notes, IDEA is not a civil rights law at all, but a "conditions of aid"law.]

Reaping the Whirlwind

 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.

Last week, Patrick White fired hundreds of bullets at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control.  He believed that coronavirus vaccines had harmed him

Lauren Weber and Lena H. Sun at WP

For many in public health, the shooting seemed to vindicate their long-running fears that the backlash to their work during the coronavirus pandemic could turn deadly. Some left the field after a vitriolic response to mandates for masking and vaccination. Armed protesters gathered outside the homes of health officials. Some health officials faced death threats, including Anthony S. Fauci, one of the leaders of the federal coronavirus response.

Days after the shooting, the initial shock has morphed into anger for many CDC employees, according to interviews with more than a dozen of them, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

They fault President Donald Trump for not publicly condemning the shooting as of Tuesday, even as he invoked the assault of a former U.S. DOGE Service staffer to deploy troops in D.C. and take over its police department. They said they are fed up with how they and their work are being derided and impugned by conservatives and anti-vaccine activists, including the one who rose to lead the nation’s public health apparatus: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Before joining the government, Kennedy falsely called the coronavirus vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made” and said it contained a “poison.” During his unsuccessful presidential campaign last year, Kennedy posted on X: “As President, I will clean up the cesspool of corruption at CDC and force the public health agencies to come clean about Covid vaccines. I’ll hold responsible those who lied or concealed critical health information …”

...

“There is a direct line from the vilification of CDC during Covid and the deliberate lies and mis/disinformation that continues today,” a veteran CDC official who was not on campus during the shooting said in a text message. “Many of the sources of these lies now have a pulpit and the veneer of respectability through their positions in the administration.”

Temple Grandin Documentary

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism history.

 Coleman Cornelius at Colorado State University:

Temple Grandin – a tireless speaker, prolific author, and distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University – is often circled by students on the Fort Collins campus. She is flagged down by fans at the airport. And she is surrounded by admirers at agriculture conferences and gatherings for families of children with autism.

She is a pioneer in food-animal welfare who has achieved global distinction with insights attained from her own autism. Chief among them is her ability – gained through visual thinking – to understand livestock behavior and to design effective and humane handling systems used by suppliers of some of the world’s largest food purveyors.

“Who would have ever predicted that an autistic woman would come along and transform how we handle our animals? I think that’s why she is such a great hope for families in the autism community,” says Janet Riley, one of Grandin’s friends and colleagues. “She’s a rock star.”

Now, audiences worldwide can learn about Grandin’s extraordinary life and influence through the documentary film “An Open Door.” It will be available on the streaming platforms Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Kanopy beginning Aug. 12. The film is presented by CSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, was written and directed by award-winning filmmaker John Barnhardt and is distributed by Good Deed Entertainment. It has been accepted into 72 festivals, has earned 27 individual awards, and has been featured in 26 states and nine countries.

RFK Jr. is a Disaster for Science

 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.

Brandy Zadrozny at MSNBC:

A shooting outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters on Friday left a police officer dead and officials and scientists at the nation’s premier public health agency shaken. Many are now demanding answers from their health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long vilified the CDC and contributed to a culture of misinformation that they say makes them targets.

... 

CDC Director Susan Monarez convened an online all-hands meeting of the agency division that focuses on vaccines — the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

...

One employee described the shooting as “the culmination of ongoing animosity toward CDC and the work that we do — not a one-off incident.” Another named Kennedy in a comment that drew dozens of supportive emoji reactions, writing: “We need them to stop fanning the flames of hatred against us, stop spreading misinformation. We will not be safe until they stop their attacks against us.”    

For years, Kennedy attacked the CDC. In videos from anti-vaccine conferences between 2013 and 2019, he likened the agency’s vaccine work to “fascism” and “child abuse,” called it a “cesspool of corruption” and said it was filled with profiteers. At a 2013 conference, when asked about why the CDC had failed to acknowledge the autism epidemic (which he falsely linked to vaccines), Kennedy said it was like the Holocaust. On at least two occasions, Kennedy has apologized for comparing agencies, officials and public health measures to the Holocaust. During the pandemic, Kennedy repeatedly framed the CDC and other HHS agencies as “corrupt,” falsely suggested Covid-19 was a “bioweapon,” and lied about the dangers of Covid vaccines, calling them “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Maya Goldman at AXios:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to cut federal funding for mRNA vaccine research is the latest in a series of moves that have the potential to crush future medical breakthroughs and accelerate a brain drain.

...

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to cut federal funding for mRNA vaccine research is the latest in a series of moves that have the potential to crush future medical breakthroughs and accelerate a brain drain. 

• Kennedy is working to implement massive staff cuts at HHS, reduce funding for research labs' overhead costs and end National Institutes of Health grants for a wide swath of projects.
• The cuts, along with the broader Trump administration's immigration restrictions, has already started to steer promising international scientific talent away from the country.
• Kennedy also is reportedly considering overhauling the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, whose independent experts establish care and coverage guidelines to account for advances in medical treatments and new disease trends. Its past work included recommending beginning mammograms at 40, which has been credited with saving thousands of lives.

Workplace Chemical Exposure

  In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition.  The literature has identified dozens of potential causes and correlates.

Erin C. McCanlies, Ja Kook Gu, Claudia C. Ma, Wayne T. Sanderson, Yunin J. Ludeña-Rodriguez, Irva Hertz-Picciotto, The effects of parental occupational exposures on autism spectrum disorder severity and skills in cognitive and adaptive domains in children with autism spectrum disorder, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, Volume 268, 2025, 114613, ISSN 1438-4639, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2025.114613.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1438463925000951)

The statistical analysis showed that ASD severity was most consistently associated with increasing estimates of exposures during the index period (three months prior to pregnancy until birth of the study child) to phenols, ethylene oxide, and pharmaceuticals. These findings suggest that each of these types of occupational exposures may play a role in severe ASD phenotypes. Furthermore, occupational exposures to plastics/polymers were consistently and significantly associated with poorer cognitive scores, deficits in adaptive skills, lower composite measures of both cognitive and adaptive functioning, and increases in several aberrant behaviors. With such robust findings, the evidence presented here indicates broad neurodevelopmental impact from workplace plastics/polymers. Additionally, five different occupational exposures were associated with significantly increased scores for hyperactivity: automobile/mechanic fluids, anesthetic gas, ethylene oxide, pharmaceuticals/medicine, and plastics/polymer chemicals, suggesting that this behavior is sensitive to early life neurotoxic exposures. Ethylene oxide was particularly associated with deficits in adaptive skills.

Here is a long. growing, and probably incomplete list of other correlates, risk factors, and possible causes that have been the subject of serious studies: 

1. Inflammatory bowel disease;
2. Pesticides;
3. Air pollution and proximity to freeways;
4. Maternal thyroid issues;
5. Autoimmune disorders;
6. Induced labor;
7. Preterm birth;
8. Fever;  
9. Birth by cesarean section;
10. Anesthesia during cesarean sections;
11. Maternal and paternal obesity;
12. Maternal diabetes;
13. Maternal and paternal age;
14. Grandparental age;
15. Maternal post-traumatic stress disorder;
16. Maternal anorexia;
17. Smoking during pregnancy;
18. Cannabis use during pregnancy;
19. Antidepressant use during pregnancy;
20. Polycystic ovary syndrome;
21. Infant opioid withdrawal;
22. Zinc deficiency;
23. Sulfate deficiency;
24. Processed foods;
25. Maternal occupational exposure to solvents;
26. Congenital heart disease;
27. Insufficient placental allopregnanolone.
28. Estrogen in the womb;
29. Morning sickness;
30. Paternal family history;
31. Parental preterm birth;
32. Antiseizure meds
33. Location of forebears
34. Lithium
35. Aspartame
36. BPA
37. Brain inflammation
38. Maternal asthma
39. Infertility
40. Ultraprocessed foods
41. Household chemicals
42. Parental psychiatric disorders
43. Fluoride
44. Fatty acids in umbilical cord blood
45. Maternal inflammation during pregnancy

Special Ed and School Choice

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

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

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

The Trump administration is halving the staff of the Department of Education, which is proposing to close.

Kara Arundel at K-12 Dive:

The U.S. Department of Education is working with school districts and states to expand school choice models for students with disabilities that will spur innovative and effective learning opportunities, a top federal special education official said during opening remarks Tuesday at the Office of Special Education Programs’ annual conference.

“Our goal is to expand choices for students with special needs so that every family has options to find the best-fit school for their child and not have it be the other way around, where they have to force their child to be a fit in a school that may not be for them,” Diana Diaz-Harrison, deputy assistant secretary of the department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, told the 1,200 conference attendees.

...

Public school advocates have pushed back on federal and state efforts to increase private school choice options, saying public schools would lose money and resources if taxpayer-supported funding is shared with private schools. They also worry about equitable access to high-quality education programs and accountability for private schools.

Additionally, school choice opponents point out that private schools can choose which students to enroll while public schools must educate all students, including those with disabilities. Private schools do not have to comply with IDEA.

...

Diaz-Harrison said her own struggles to find a right-fit school for her son with autism inspired her to found the Arizona Autism Charter Schools. Opened in 2014, the network now has five schools with more planned, she said.

Early Employment Disparities

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the employment of people on the autism spectrum.

Yon-Hernández, J.A., Gonzales, C., Bothra, S. et al. Early Employment Outcomes in Autistic and Non-autistic Youth: Challenges and Opportunities. J Autism Dev Disord (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-025-07001-9.  The abstract:

Autistic youth often encounter significant barriers in securing employment, including difficulties with job acquisition, limited workplace support, and reduced access to structured employment services. This study examined early employment experiences in cognitively able autistic and non-autistic youth, with a focus on job characteristics and the associated factors of employment status. Participants included 99 individuals (51 autistic, 48 non-autistic) aged 18–23. Open-ended responses were coded to characterize first job experiences, including job setting, duration, hours worked, support received, sector, and job acquisition method. Group differences were assessed using chi-square tests. Logistic regression was used to examine the predictors of employment outcomes, including IQ, executive functioning, adaptive functioning, and education level. Results revealed notable differences between groups, with 67% of autistic participants having had a first work experience compared to 86% of non-autistic participants. When unpaid experiences (such as WorkAbility/internships) were excluded, this gap widened to 50% versus 78%. Autistic participants were significantly less likely to obtain jobs through competitive hiring and were more likely to work in sales/retail-related roles, whereas non-autistic participants exhibited greater job diversity and career-oriented positions. Personal connections were critical to job acquisition for autistic individuals, although structured employment programs were also a key pathway. Executive functioning difficulties were significantly associated with lower employment likelihood. Early employment disparities persist among autistic youth, particularly in access to competitive and career-track jobs. Interventions that support executive functioning, expand structured employment options, and leverage family and social networks may enhance employment success during the transition to adulthood.