By
Viewed
4,516
Please choose the correct answer for each question below:
Questions: 0/995
Correct: 0
Translate:
Autism has been in the news again for a
couple of different reasons. I think we
all know that there's been like a false
association between vaccines and autism.
There's a famous paper that, you know,
so many authors end up retracting their
names. Um, but I think this conversation
comes up a lot. There's a lot of
conversation around vaccines right now
because America's going through a lot of
internal strife and discussion around
that. Also, it was like a month ago when
R I always say RFK, but it's RFK Jr.
came forward to talk and really like
highlight a specific study that found
that one in 150 kids in the year 2000
had autism whereas now it's up to one in
31 kids. The CDC has another new report
saving saying that there's been a 15%
jump in autism cases in the last 2 years
and these trends are occurring
throughout a lot of high-income
countries like the UK, Denmark, South
Korea and Japan. And so there are people
like RFK Jr. who have truly sat and said
there is an environmental toxin causing
this and by the end of the year we're
going to know exactly why there's so
much like we're going to explain to you
the cause of this increase in autism
which has caused science researchers
across the world to panic and really
talk about what we're going to talk
about today because it's important
people understand as we go forward
because it is going to get co-opted I
think to change science and do some
messed up things.
Yeah. And I the one other thing I want
to say that we'll bring up today and
talk about is the research between
Tylenol or acetaminophen um and autism
and even ADHD and and things like this.
This has been in the news a lot. I think
RFK Jr. has talked about this and that
they believe they should like restrict
the use of Tylenol especially for um
people who are pregnant. That's kind of
what the science or the conversation has
been around. So we're going to dive into
like all this mix of stuff.
So the first thing is like what is
autism? I kind of was like doing all
this research and then forgot to kind of
be like wait cuz they just talk about
ASD autis or like autism like spectrum
disorder and I always was and then
eventually I was like what is it?
Mhm. So it it's actually so vague in
some ways because it can show up so
differently for so many different people
now and that generally it's a harder
time communicating specific intense
interests or a harder time with like
when your routines disrupted intense
reactions to bright lights, loud noises,
and stimuli that might be deemed
annoying. I was like, "Okay." Like it
was like I feel like sometimes you need
to be reminded of that because it feels
like
it's nice to have also like definitional
boundaries to especially when you're
researching something to say okay does
it fit and tick these boxes. We can't
just have a vague amorphous like of
course it's called um a spectrum. Um,
and through the past we have had words
like Asberers and now people talk about
being neurode divergent, but some people
say that they're like completely
functional in society and can hold the
job and do these things. But of course
there's other ends of the spectrum where
people need full assistance and need
help with from other people. And so
there is a spectrum and obviously we in
scientists and everyone wants to respect
that someone could have some of these
traits but I think it's it is useful to
have like these definitions that help to
especially look at research and say does
this person have this condition?
Yes. And so we're going to start talking
about the reasons that scientists and
researchers agree on could cause someone
to have autism. And the most striking,
the most obvious and the answer as to
why someone would most likely have
autism, which RFK Jr. and a lot of like
mega people are ignoring, is genetics.
So that is the most important thing to
remember. Um it's 70 to 90% inherited.
It's similar to the inheritability of
height, which I thought was really
interesting, which is 80% heritability.
So, like if you look at a family, um, if
you have a family history of someone
having ASD, you're much more likely to
have it. If one sibling has it, it's
more likely the other siblings going to
have it. When they looked at identical
twins, it's extremely likely for them
both to have it. So, it's it's it's
genetic like a that I just
like a massive piece of it is from
studies shows that like perhaps there
are environmental things that can affect
and that's why we'll talk about like
Tylenol. Can that increase the odds or
something?
Yeah. like plastics, these kind of
things that people talk about um or
vaccines, which has always been
controversial. It's not true, but uh
yeah, just to say it doesn't mean there
can't be environmental factors, but when
the research looks into twins and
siblings and these things, it's like,
okay, we can see that a chunk of it is
heritable. It's either being passed,
it's being passed on from the family
genes. And what's interesting about
these studies is that they can't
understand like the human brain is so
complicated. They can't understand
exactly what's going on genetically to
cause the autism. They just look overall
like picture like a family tree and then
they see the heritability. They're not
at the point now with science to go this
is the specific gene that causes this
that causes that. Like it's so
complicated. And I think one of the most
important things to remember about this
and as if you're an American, as your
government co-ops this to do crazy
is that this is so complicated. There's
not going to be one thing by the end of
the year that they figure out causes
autism. Like that is what the point of
this genetic research even is, is that
they're like the enemy of understanding
this is the complexity of the brain,
genetics, environment, and autism all
coming together. There's not going to be
one thing. And it disgusts me to think
that that was even said that we're gonna
figure out those saying the it's like
not to get into like the politics of it,
but it makes you realize like this is
how and I'm not saying this is like a
left or right issue, but in terms of
like an authoritarian government, being
able to say we are the ones who can
figure it out, can solve it. It comes
down to a specific issue. We're going to
find that one thing. Like life is so
much more complicated than that. It's
like saying there's one thing that can
cause cancer and we're just going to
figure out cancer. It's like no. But
when you start researching, you realize
actually cells can metastasize in like
so many different pathways and that's
why cancer is like very complicated to
like eradicate because it might be
because your cells duplicate too fast.
It might be because their apoptosis or
cell death mechanisms are not
functioning properly. There's like
literally 10 different ways it can
happen. And so I think autism is like a
like especially when it comes to like a
personality, not this is like a
personality disorder, but something
that's like psychological in a way. It's
we know these things are so much harder
to quantify and take a lot more research
and time and data, especially if we're
saying parts of it might be
environmental, parts of it might be
genetic. It's just important to remember
when someone promises they can be the
ones to figure it out and they can force
science to figure something out in a
year that has been being studied for a
long time. It's just like take its note
of that
absolute horrifying red flag. Like it's
not like a partisan thing. It's it's
extremely scary to think to to pre
before doing any science say you're
going to figure it out is crazy. We'll
get more into that I think at the end.
We can keep going now I think through
all the different examples of specific
things that could cause us autism which
might get co-opted by like the media. So
maybe you could talk about um Tylenol
because it is so interesting.
Okay. So I something I find interesting
and obviously I'm going to use the word
Tylenol and acetaminophen. Uh obviously
acetaminophen is like the generic brand
generic name for the brand Tylenol. This
is the drug that's in it, but you can go
to your drugstore and just get
acetaminophen and have that same effect
as Tylenol. What I find interesting is
that the way that it's being talked
about by this like maha movement like
RFK Jr. is they're always talking about
Tylenol, but it's like that's not the
drug and it's obviously so that people
feel afraid of it in my mind. Like sure
you might argue
a big pharma vibe.
Well, I just feel like
why aren't they talking about it as
acetaminophen? That's the drug if they
believe that. It just feels interesting
that they're like posing it as Tylenol.
We're going to take down Tylenol.
Anyway, going into the research on this,
why it has popped up and scared people
is because for a long time doctors would
say, "Okay, Advil, which is ibuprofen,
maybe isn't the best to take if you're
pregnant because it can impact the blood
flow to the fetus." And Tylenol has
always been considered or
acetaminophen's been considered sort of
like the more safe one. If you have a
fever or you're not feeling like you
have aches or something's going on, you
can take that. But there's been this
sort of like slow history of studies
popping up things showing like huh maybe
there's some evidence that Tylenol acts
as like an endocrine disruptor maybe
which is something similar to like
plastics like phalates are an endocrine
disruptor and I think it's like
structurally Tylenol or sorry
acetaminophen acts like this in your
body. So there's been some concerns
around that studies that have flagged
that but again it's always been like
some studies show it some studies don't.
there's never been overwhelming evidence
for this. Um then again from that some
studies started finding correlations
between autism and people who are
pregnant who take Tylenol and kind of in
proportion to like how much they would
take Tylenol. And it all came to a head
in 2021 when Nature Journal, extremely
respected and highly reputable journal
posted sort of this thing called a
consensus statement where they were like
we believe people should stop taking
Tylenol if they're pregnant. there is
some evidence out there for this and so
don't risk it because we're seeing these
weird correlations with autism.
Now, that that's like not problematic in
and of itself, but many scientists came
out and said like the evidence feels so
weak for this. Maybe there's
associations, but like there's not
enough out there
and there's not actually a consensus.
And so the word consensus statement is
very it's like an interesting sort of
like
literary issue because it's actually not
that makes you think that every
scientist out there is agreeing or the
vast majority and in fact the vast
majority were not agreeing. Of course
like more reasonable scientists and
those who would have published this are
reasonable as well. If you're going in
nature it's like they're seeing that
some studies are showing educating the
public.
They're not saying like the people who
are criticizing this aren't saying
there's no evidence for this. They're
just saying to make it a consensus
statement is maybe a little bit rushed.
So there's been subsequent research and
meta analyses from this. The interesting
thing is that some meta analysis were
finding the same thing like 20 to 30%.
This was like the number of PE that the
chance higher that your child would have
autism if you were taking Tylenol. Um
acetaminophen.
Yes. Acetaminophen. Sorry. Thank you.
And so basically these other big reviews
started playing together. They found the
same result and they were like, "Okay,
well first that's a good thing because
we're matching up with a similar number
to what other studies are finding.
But then they did it something
interesting which not a lot of studies
do because it's more complicated. They
started I mean every study should
probably do this. They started
accounting for more variables. So they
started looking at like okay well what
if we account more specifically for the
pregnant person's age? What if we
started accounting more for their health
issues? What if we started accounting
for X, Y, and Z? And the first one when
they just started accounting for their
age.
Oh my gosh, our Google just started
talking. That's
the world's ending.
You can't hear it, but sometimes our
little Google Home thing just starts
talking to us and it scares me.
Accounting for age. Okay, we can talk
about age cuz I have lots on that, too.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, um, accounting for age alone
brought the rates of autism down to 5%.
So from 30% at the high end to 5%
when you take acetaminophen.
Yes. So people taking acetaminophen
we're like okay we see 30% higher chance
of autism. But if we start to realize
and factor in age the older somebody is
the more likely they are to have a child
with autism.
Yes. So there's other studies and it's
like if you if the mother having the kid
um is over 40 there's a 3.2 to 5.6% 6%
increased chance of that kid having
autism and similar a little bit smaller
for when the father or the person with
the penis's sperm is over 40. So
okay that is a trend that they have seen
is okay like that that has been
increasing recently people are having
kids later older men are actually having
like more kids with their like older
sperm. So okay that could be a factor
and when you start bringing that factor
into these this Tylenol research it
starts to decrease what actually the
acetaminophen's doing
right and I mean in epidemiology you
call this like a confounding variable
right so or there this starts to look
like maybe the Tylenol or acetaminophen
is not the main factor but it's
associated with age same with like oh
we're noticing all these the example our
university professor used to always give
when we were first learning about
confounding variables was like For some
reason, all these people who carry
around lighters in their pockets have
lung cancer. Yeah. And so, do do the
lighters cause lung cancer? Obviously,
we can all know, okay, no, it's the
cigarettes, but the lighter is a
confounding variable because it's
associated, but it's not actually the
part that's
like someone might be like, it's the
metal and the lighter in your leg.
Exactly. Um, but it's easier to see that
clear kind of like obviously we're not
thinking it's the lighter, but there's
an association. Yeah. So these studies
then further started analyzing other
variables genes being a big one. So like
you said or Greg had mentioned 70 to 90%
of autism is believed to be genetic.
These studies started looking at family
units. So they would you know the best
kind of family unit study is on twins.
But if you can't do that sort of the
second best is like look at siblings.
Let's look at families where maybe they
had like a database I think of two and a
half million kids here over the course
of I think 26 years. This is a study
from Sweden who like tracks a lot of
their health data regardless. Um, and
they so basically it's like let's track
what drugs the mother was taking, their
health, if they were taking
acetaminophen, maybe they took it for
one kid but didn't for the other. And
then when they start looking at these
genetic variables, they realize the
acetaminophen claims flatline. it's no
longer accounting for the rates of
autism,
especially in the high rates that will
be touted from that consensus statement,
etc. Also, there's a strong or sorry
again, I shouldn't use those words, but
there is a link between infections
during pregnancy and your child having
autism. So, that's another confounding
variable. If you are a mother who has an
infection, you're going to more likely
take Tylenol, but it's actually the
infection that is increasing the amount
of autism, right, in your kid, not the
Tylenol or the acid.
Now, like, of course, and and we're not
like the scientists. This is the
scientific process. There are studies
that still find these links, right? It
doesn't mean that there's 0% impact.
We're just seeing with these bigger
studies, okay, it's probably not like
30% of her.
It's not explaining the drastic rise in
autism in recent years, which is the
thing that I think no matter what, we
can't get around. Yes. And also
trying to blame it on acetaminophen is
the part that is actually crazy to to
that drastic increase onto
acetaminophen. Some people are trying to
say it's just that and then that's where
you're like, okay, that is completely
false. I one other interesting
confounding variable it's like as we
said genetic if you have an autistic
child you're more likely to be on the
spectrum. It doesn't mean you are
necessarily but you're more likely and
moms or pregnant people on the spectrum
experience more pain during pregnancy
including more migraines and stuff. So
there's all these possibilities. Again
this doesn't mean like studies need to
keep looking into this but if someone's
more likely to experience pain maybe
they're more likely to take painkillers.
Um and so to wrap up like this acid if
in part of course the research will grow
and science is not infallible and yes
pieces come in and out and more
attention will be given to this and I'm
not saying that's a bad thing like if
this current American administration
does fund more research that's
legitimate and isn't like biased
which it's not.
Yeah, we know that they want an answer.
Doesn't mean every study that comes out
that says there is a link is bad. It
doesn't mean everyone that comes out
that says there's no link is good, but
the more studies the the more analysis
we can do. Um, and of course we're not
like medical providers or doctors, but
the general consensus now from these
more recent studies is like if you're
overly concerned and you're pregnant, of
course you can try and avoid. There's
other risks. If you do get sick and have
a fever, for example, like that can also
be really bad for a child. And so it's
like it may be better to look after that
fever instead of letting your body have
that. But it's more like okay if you're
going to take Tylenol for weeks on end
or Advil for weeks on end you might be
playing a riskier game. So of course if
you have it once in a while your doctor
probably would say hey if you just have
like are feeling a fever for a couple
days
to your doctor folks do not use Tik Tok.
Yeah. Also, it's unbelievable how hard
it is to find any val. Like, I was like,
"Okay, but like la look into autism and
vaccines." Literally nothing. It's like
it's like it's not even part of the
conversation. It's quite horrifying to
think about how much it's been co-opted
online. people even in our video there's
no correlation between vaccines and
autism. Like I'm just like it's I'm
saying I'm I'm going to start talking
now about how there is a correlation
between pollution and autis like I'm
about to talk about studies that there
are some things that are not explaining
the drastic increase but they're kind of
like oh there's something here even
there is something there. the vaccine
thing. It's like there's actually
nothing which is so frustrating because
it is probably the most popular concept
online is that vaccines cause pervasive.
Yes. And it's just like kind of scary
when I'm like there's no scientific
evidence at all. And I mean like I can
feel weird like of course I want to be
empathetic to like new parents and
people who go through traumatic
experiences and and the thing is like
vaccines that protect and save kids
lives are given when they're young and
so
a parent who might have a developing
child and feel like their behavior isn't
keeping track with others gets
vaccinated and that they're building
this own correlation in their mind. Um,
that's a big part of it is that when
people study why someone might think it
was the vaccine, it's because when
people are diagnosed with autism,
they're usually around the same ages
when they get childhood vaccines. It's
that simple. It's like just a it's just
like, oh god, just like an annoying
coincidence.
Yeah. And I mean, obviously, even with
vaccines in general, like even if you
got your flu vaccine, like you might
have aches and pains after that. Like
some people do have reactions to them.
Obviously, on the whole, vaccines have
been studied for hundreds of years and
are constantly pushed for safety
regulations because they're like a
really intense thing to put into healthy
people and healthy children. So, they're
highly regulated unlike many other
industries where you're taking pills and
doing things that are supposed to like
make you feel better.
Vitamin.
Yeah. Um,
I forgot what I was going to say. It's
just that like you might have what I
take from is like the flu vaccine for
example is like a lot of my friends
won't take it cuz I'm like I took it
once and I felt sick for a day. But what
those people aren't realizing is that
then come January they got a horrible
flu and they get really sick and they're
not thinking oh I didn't if only I'd
gotten my vaccine. Like I've noticed
that a lot cuz I always get my flu
vaccine. Some people like in my life
they go in and out of it and there will
be times in January where they'll get
sick and I remind them like I'm not
sick.
That happened to me this year. I think I
said it on the pot. I'm embarrassed to
admit it but I was when I would normally
get my flu vaccine this year. I was
traveling for a few months and I think
in my mind I was like I'll have to just
get it when I get back and I didn't. And
I had like my worst sickness I've had in
a long time. and I was in the house with
you and all these things and I was like
this is an important thing to this is
what people need to think about cuz it's
so easy to think I got the vaccine and
then I felt like kind of weird for 12
hours or I got a little bit of a
headache the next day it's like okay but
that's like scientifically
and then I caught the flu and got a
little sick but maybe it's like you
might have had it ways
I was sick coughing feeling so awful it
was like and I was so mad at myself you
know you just like when you go so many
years without having to think about it
either cuz I had the vaccines or just
like got lucky by not being exposed
certain years. This year was such a
reminder for me of like I can't let that
slip my mind again and I won't make that
mistake again cuz I got so sick. Um and
of course that's just one data piece.
I'm not trying to like say my experience
is for everyone, but based on what you
see from research like that vaccines
protect sickness then they you might
still get catch it, but you're probably
then in that case going to have less
severe symptoms. Um
so okay so now there have been some
researchers like one study on 8,000
children said that their found that if a
mother had a higher exposure to ozone
levels it was associated with increased
autism. So that's like a pollutant
that's actually decreasing overall in
general in the public. So that doesn't
explain the large increase in the recent
years. But pollution does have an effect
unlike vaccines which has zero effect on
autism. Let's just like reiterate that.
Heavy metals for example can also have
an effect on the baby. Same with um uh
so for example like the heavy metal
would maybe somehow be exposed to the
mother which would make its way into the
fetus. But again heavy metals are also
decreasing in the general public like
lead like all the sort of quote unquote
environmental factors that
seemed legitimate
seem legitimately bad are all decreasing
in our populations where we're seeing
autism increase. So it's just not making
sense. Also, it's extremely rare that it
it causes, you know, um, autism because
because it's rare to just get heavy
metals in you.
Another interesting one was screen time.
And they did find some studies that did
find kids who were having symptoms or
whatever of autism, like maybe having
trouble holding eye contact or something
like that. After they decreased screen
time, they were better at holding eye
contact. But all those studies ended up
coming with interventions with parents
about how to interact with your kid. So
they weren't able to differentiate if it
was the screen time or actually parents
getting
help with how to talk and sort of
mitigate their kids.
Yeah. And that's an interesting point
too and this this is probably true of
other kinds of conditions or even well
maybe not diseases but where
multiple
issues can conflate to have similar
symptoms, right? So like maybe screen
time like and obviously this is why like
definitions are important and structures
uh from like doctors and health
professionals because like maybe screen
time does have an
effect on the way someone's brain
develops or their social capacity
which may not mean that they're like
genetically autistic. you know, like
they may not even got it from the
genetics, but maybe there's like an
environmental factor like screen time
that has affected their development in
terms of their communication. And maybe
maybe a scientist or a health
professional would say, well, okay,
definitionally that still falls into
like what we're calling autistic. But
like you said, in that case, maybe
they're able to work with certain
therapies through parent counseling and
that sort of stuff to work on that
whereas there might be genetic cases
where it's different. You know what I
mean? like that it's a harder barrier to
break through.
Okay, so now we are going to explain to
you the real reason why there is an
increase in autism because there is an
answer and then we're going to get into
why RFK is denying this and why truly
RFK sorry Junior is evil and completely
like you actually everyone needs to be
warned about what is happening as we go
into this time where there is I guess an
authoritarian government in America and
we just have to keep talking about that.
Okay, so the real reason is due to
diagnostics and the mega movement, maha
movement is going to be lying to you
about this and Nature magazine has come
out with a whole
essentially article constantly trying to
explain like okay we're under attack by
these politicians who are just going to
lie to you at this point because there's
there's no
this is the reason.
Okay.
So in the 1960s in order to be
considered autistic you had to be
non-verbal. So then obviously that would
be way less people being considered
autistic.
Yeah.
In the 1980s the diagnos diagnostics
started to include people who were
hyperfixated on specific things and who
couldn't really rein that in when they
were around other people. But also it's
important to know that in the 1980s in
order to have autism you had to be
diagnosed as a kid. You were not
allowed. There was no adult diagnosis.
And then also something kind of funny
was like in the article mentioned this
is when the Rainman came out like in
1988 I think was the movie
the Rainman is
oh
like I know it's a movie sorry it's like
someone who's like the way that he acted
was the way that people would have at
the time been like that's someone with
described an autistic person. Okay.
Um
in the 1990s uh there was the minimum
number of criteria uh got higher. So
essentially like it was easier to become
considered diagnos diagnosed with
autism. In like 1994 it changed
in 2013. Asberers was no longer
separated from autism. It was looped
into ASD. So all of a sudden now even
more people are becoming diagnosed with
ASD.
One study found that uh from 1980 to
2011 to 2011 60% of the increases were
all considered due to diagnostic
testing. Okay. And I think just simply
because more people are being diagnosed
with it for all the reasons you've just
stated doesn't mean like suddenly more
people like
no it's like if someone has aspberers
they're now considered they have there's
no such thing as they have ASD. So now
the ASD community has grown.
So then to consider what could have been
happening since 2011, the general
consensus is that it all has to do with
an increased awareness of autism, a
declining stigma among teachers and the
broad public broader public, increased
diagnostic testing and support services.
So now as a teacher, you're going to be
more vigilant about who might have an as
like ASD because there's more resources
for them. There's a way you can talk to
the parent and say, "And this is what we
can do for them to help them." In the
past, it would be like, "Your kid is
having problems in school. They're a
problematic child." Now, it's like, "Oh,
they actually might h have ASD. Here are
all the positive ways that we can help
you."
Um, and then on top of that, parents are
seeking diagnosis for their kids more
often than ever before, cuz when their
kid is being told when they're being
told by a teacher that their kid is
having problems, they immediately will
go to like the concept of ASD cuz we're
all talking about it. Another thing that
over the general trend overall is that
in the past it was considered that women
and little girls could not have autism
completely overlooked. So now only
recently is it become normalized to even
consider it for women and little girls
which is just another reason why you're
like science is so sometimes.
And then one of the biggest things that
they see now is just the ability for
adults to then get tested and decide if
they have ASD or not. In the past again,
it was only children and all of that is
encompassing what scientists and
researchers are calling an epidemic of
diagnosis, not an epidemic of autism.
Yes. So, one of the most important um
researchers has decided to try and say
it like that cuz he knows it's being
co-opted as an epidemic, but an epidemic
of diagnosis
and okay, so
RFK Jr. literally said that the increase
in the autism spectrum disorders that
they are seeing are severe, which is an
absolute lie. The increase in ASD
disorders that are causing all the
drastic changes in statistics are due to
minor versions of it where people still
have jobs, they're still working. And
then so RFK Jr. also said, "What's the
reason we need to figure out why this is
happening is cuz these people, they
can't hold a job, they can't pay taxes."
that really pissed off the ASD community
who was like that is complete
brainwashing of what this actually is
and is completely evil. And then on top
of that, they're now doing this $50
million
prize grant, this is what they're trying
to say, funding research to figure out
the cause of autism. while
simultaneously since the beginning of
2025 when Trump was elected, they've
decreased the actual research on autism
and potential treatments and ways to
help with it by $62 billion.
So again, they're lying. They're just
they're just sorry, not 62 million.
Sorry. They're giving a $50 million
grant while completely defunding the
research that talks about improving
these people's lives and actually
dealing with what happens. So they're
trying to pave a way. Okay, this is what
researchers and scientists are scared of
to bring in vaccine hesitancy to blame
it on vaccines
cuz they just want an answer
cuz they want an answer and they and RFK
Jr. is a liar. He's untrustworthy and
he's antiax and he wants to create an
antivax campaign and they want to use
autism as the reason. So they're trying
to create doubt by including decreasing
the grants. So, so many scientists who
are studying ASD and how to deal with it
in America have now lost their jobs and
lost all of their funding while they've
brought in this other source of funding
to only look at one aspect of it, which
is the cause. And a lot of autistic
people are really upset because they
some autistic people are like, "We don't
really care what caused this. We want to
figure out how we can live our lives
better." Like, what why are you focusing
on this? It's cuz they don't actually
care about people, which we you like
hopefully people are starting to
realize. They care about an agenda and
an authoritarian look at science. And
then there's so much more happening like
the person at the CDC resigning recently
after pressure from RFK Jr. to release
results about vaccines that were in that
were not true. So the science coming
from RFK Jr. and the American government
is extremely scary. It's completely made
up and it's about an authoritarian
regime taking over power in subtle ways.
And autism is being used as a scapegoat.
And the last thing I'll say is that
there's a specific committee called the
inter agency autism coordinating
committee which is supposed to allow
people who suffer from ASD to be in
these conversations. They have not been
consulted at all this year by the Trump
administration have been completely
ostracized from any of this discussion.
So the reason that we're going to have
to keep talking about and have episodes
like this is that we are living through
a really men like menacing time where
like autism is being used
and co-opted to push an antivax campaign
campaign which is actually just about
building individualistic looks at the
world to have an authoritarian regime
take over America. It's it's
yeah I mean it's happening it's
happening with much more than just
autism too. I think like there's many
issues like this that this
administration in America and movements
around the world
Canada and right movements
but specifically obviously like the US
government is such a big force in this
world and the people that are in it
using these kind of also like wedge
controversial issues to pass kinds of
legislation that matter to them for
forms of control who can have access to
funding and all these kinds of things.
Um, and it is like super nefarious and
scary. I the one thing I want to say is
like there is a much more interesting
conversation around like the age of
diagnosis. There's a book I started
reading about this that's fascinating
and it's like the question of whether is
this overdiagnosis a bad thing? Is it a
good thing? Like sometimes when
somebody's diagnosed can like the book's
kind of touching on like there's
somebody who didn't know they had this
specific issue. I can't remember. It's
like a very um niche disorder. They only
found it when they were older versus
somebody who found it when they were
younger and how that can change their
lives, right? And like of course these
are disorders that are on the cusp of
how much do they actually affect your
life? Like of course if you have extreme
ASD and people are going to notice and
you're going to need attention much
earlier. Um but just this idea of like
if I for example was and many people
make jokes on this podcast about me like
being on the spectrum somewhere. It's
like if I actually found out I was or if
you actually found out you have ADHD,
how does that change your life and is it
for the better always? Right.
Um and I think there's like interesting
conversations around like the world we
live in and how people self diagnose on
the internet and that of course makes
them go to their doctor and look for
these kinds of things and their doctors
might like
give them that test and maybe they have
it. So I I just think like there are
interesting conversations around there
and it's not to say shut that down.
No, no, of course not. But like it's
just so sad that we can't have new it's
going to be harder and harder to have
nuance conversations about anything in
regards to science when it's being
completely attacked which is the
frustrating part about this situation.
Okay. I feel like that was
honestly like all the information that
like is probably necessary for right now
and we will be continuing to have to
probably like talk about this. And it's
like I think it's worth saying it's
Friday September 19th when we recorded
this cuz like
lots of news changes.
Oh my god. just reading it. They're like
literally looking into like not giving
hepatitis B vaccines and And
anyways,
go watch our video on vaccines. By the
way, just came out because it will
address their effectiveness.
Yes. And maybe like send it to friends
and family. Oh my god. I don't know. We
like it's like it's so exhausting to be
back in a place like Oh my god. I just
want to talk about fun
I know. Well, our next episode will make
like more light-hearted and fun.
Yeah. You know, it's nice to go back and
forth.
Okay. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for listening. Send this to
people who need to hear it. That's a B.
Bye.
Related Songs