Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the know-nothing quack Republicans put in charge of America’s health, stood behind a podium bearing the seal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on April 16 and said this about children with autism:
“These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
To start with, as someone who has spent considerable time reporting on autism and having the honor to get to know brilliant and talented autistic children and adults and their families, let me say this to Secretary Kennedy: (Expletive) you.
Let me repeat that again, both for my own catharsis and because he deserves it: (Expletive) you, you soulless monster.
Kennedy dehumanizes autistic kids while denying proven science
His degrading, dehumanizing language is both preposterously inaccurate and wildly insulting. It’s the language of people who think children with disabilities have no value or are a drag on society.
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Kennedy’s first thoughts in that screed were that kids with autism “will never pay taxes” or “hold a job.” That tells you all you need to know about him.
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In an administration populated with unjustifiably self-assured losers, Kennedy stands out as one of the most farcical. A man with no medical experience who spent years spouting dangerous anti-vaccine garbage is now head of the Department of Health and Human Services and has decided that he alone can figure out something as complex as autism.
Setting aside the deeply offensive nature of the aforementioned comment, Kennedy used his news conference to declare – wholly incorrectly – that autism is “a preventable disease” and is caused by “environmental exposure” to some mystery toxin.
RFK Jr. is a babbling conspiracy theorist, not a serious person
Dr. Joshua Anbar, an assistant teaching professor at Arizona State University who helped collect data for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that Kennedy was touting during his news conference – a report that directly contradicted much of what Kennedy said – told The New York Times flatly: “Autism is not an infectious disease. So there aren’t preventive measures that we can take.”
Dr. Eric Fombonne, an autism researcher and professor emeritus at Oregon Health & Science University, told The Times that what Kennedy was saying was “ridiculous.”
Of course it’s ridiculous. If it’s coming from the mouth of the guy who drinks raw milk and brags about eating roadkill, there’s a near-100% chance it’s going to be ridiculous.
And I’ll remind everyone, this guy – the guy who is a punchline to most jokes about conspiracy theorists – is the person Republican leaders wanted to run an agency that oversees the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to name a few.
RFK Jr. says ‘autism destroys families.’ This is the guy Republicans wanted.
Don’t forget who wanted this charlatan in charge. If you heard or read Kennedy’s comments on people with autism and recoiled as I did, or if you listened to his babble about there being an “epidemic” of autism when researchers clearly attribute rising numbers largely to better diagnostic methods and a broader definition of the neurodevelopmental disorder, remember: This is the Republican Party’s guy. They signed, sealed and delivered him, handing our nation’s health to a snake-oil salesman.
Christopher Banks, president and CEO of the Autism Society of America, addressed Kennedy’s comments, telling USA TODAY: “Claiming that autism is ‘preventable’ is not science-based, and places unnecessary blame on people, parents and families. It is not an epidemic, nor should it be compared to the COVID-19 pandemic, and using language like that perpetuates falsehoods, stigma and stereotypes.”
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In his news conference, Kennedy, whose credibility on this issue was destroyed long ago when he peddled anti-vaccine conspiracies, described autism using catastrophic language.
“Autism destroys families,” he said. “More importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this.”
Kennedy got rich off lying to people with autistic children
Eric Garcia, an autistic person and a journalist with the British newspaper The Independent, wrote of Kennedy’s comments: “This is such a tired and outdated cliché that dates back to the old idea that autism is a tragedy. This narrative portrays autistic people as damaged goods.”
Garcia wrote: “But even if they never created a single piece of art or simply existed, their life would not be a tragedy. There would still be joy. There would still be grace in their existence. Not because autistic people are naturally angelic, but because they are human beings with inherent value.”
For far too long, autistic people and their families have been little more than pawns in Kennedy’s self-aggrandizing and conspiratorial obsession against vaccines.
He has made money off of them, fed them false claims and, as he made clear during his news conference, will now find a way to bend science to his own anti-science beliefs.
GOP knew that RFK Jr. was unqualified. Republicans voted for him anyway.
Kennedy said during a recent Trump Cabinet meeting: “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic.”
That’s not how science works. That’s how B.S. artists work.
Kennedy should be ashamed of the way he described autistic children.
And Republicans should be ashamed for putting a lout like him within 100 miles of Health and Human Services. Or, for that matter, within 100 miles of a microphone.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
