US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brought together friends, colleagues and former colleagues on the autism committee who believe that autism is caused by vaccines. Autism advocates now fear the group could pave the way for perilous pseudoscientific treatments to become mainstream.
Last week, Kennedy announced a brand up-to-date addition to the Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a group that recommends what types of autism research the government should fund and provides guidance on the services the autism community needs. The group typically consists of experts in the field of autism research, as well as policy experts and autistic people working on behalf of their own community.
In a statement announcing the up-to-date panel, which does not include previous members, Kennedy said he had appointed “the most qualified experts – leaders with decades of experience in the study, study and treatment of autism.” However, health experts and autism advocates strongly disagree, and a review of the group’s up-to-date members suggests that Kennedy has appointed members of the anti-vaccination community who claim that vaccines cause autism – even though there is no evidence to support such a claim.
Doctor Daniel Rossignol was among those appointed last week sued for alleged fraud after prescribing a debunked and perilous therapy to a 7-year-old autistic child. Tracy Slepcevic, a Kennedy appointee calls “dear friend”, at the annual Autism Health Summit presents a wide range of fraudulent autism cures, including one that involves injecting children with animal stem cells. Another appointee, Toby Rogers, has he claimed that “no thinking person vaccinates” and that vaccine developers “poisoning children” Rogers, a fellow at the Brownstone Institute for Economic and Social Research, also called vaccines “one of the greatest crimes in human history.” He has written articles for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an anti-vaccination group founded by Kennedy that links autism to vaccines.
The other nominees are no different: John Gilmore founded the Autism Action Network and said his autistic son is “vaccine injured.” Gilmore is also the founder of the Up-to-date York chapter of Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense group. Ginger Taylor, former director of the Maine Vaccine Choice Coalition, has publicly stated that many autism cases are “vaccine-related.” Elizabeth Mumper writes for Children’s Health Defense and is a senior member of the Independent Medical Alliance, a group formerly known as the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, which promotes ivermectin as a treatment for Covid.
Mumper tells WIRED that decades of work as a pediatrician and autism specialist allowed her to become a member of the IACC. She also denied that she was against vaccines, pointing out that she had “administered thousands of vaccines in her career.”
None of the other up-to-date IACC members contacted by WIRED responded to requests for comment.
Just a few years ago, this might have sounded like an all-star lineup for a conspiracy conference. Today, these meetings seem routine, the latest example of Kennedy’s efforts to transform America’s public health administration.
Public health experts and autism advocates say Kennedy’s decision will lead to fewer resources for people with autism and their families, and will embolden those who promote pseudoscientific treatments that could endanger the lives of people with autism.
“Once again [Kennedy] proves he is one of the most extreme and dangerous conspiracy theorists in the world who loves to gather anti-science and anti-public health maniacs on his committees,” Gavin Yamey, a professor of global health and public policy at Duke University, tells WIRED. “The research evidence is clear that vaccines do not cause autism.” According to Yamey, “RFK Jr.’s new committee appears to have been tasked with muddying the waters and casting doubt on the evidence. RFK Jr. has spent the last year doing everything in his power to dismantle public health and roll back vaccinations, and this new committee is more or less the same.”