It has been a little over a year since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Services, and he has already done tremendous harm to the autistic community.
The latest blow: Recent reporting shows that the Food and Drug Administration, under Kennedy’s control, has removed warnings on dangerous alleged “autism treatments.”
These so-called “treatments” can be dangerous. One, called “chelation therapy,” is a legitimate therapy, but it can be fatal when used to “treat” autism. A five-year-old autistic boy died in 2005 after a chelation session, for example. Another “treatment” that had its warning removed was hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is used as a treatment for scuba divers suffering form decompression sickness.
Why remove these warnings? Parents who may be confused as to what to do after receiving an autism diagnosis for their child can fall prey to promises of “cures.” As Zoe Gross, a director at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, stated, “people are still being preyed on by these alternative treatments.”
I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that Kennedy is essentially legitimizing this dangerous intervention. After all, he believes in the erroneous view that autism is an “epidemic” and a “disease,” even though this view is widely rejected by many medical and neurodiversity organizations. The pathology view of autism has been in rapid decline for years now, but it is seeing a comeback thanks to people like Kennedy and President Trump.
In November, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s page on autism argued the claim that vaccines do not cause autism is unfounded. We later found out that Kennedy himself had personally asked for the change, despite ample evidence against the claim that autism and vaccines are linked.
Then you had Kennedy stacking the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee with individuals who promote falsehoods about autism. One appointee, Tracy Slepcevic, had asserted that her son was “cured” of autism. Another, Toby Rogers, has argued that vaccines are the primary cause of autism. Do these sound like individuals who will create sound policy recommendations for autism?
Thanks to this, people who hold the pathology view of autism now have tremendous sway over autism policy.
Who can forget when Kennedy, along with Trump, promoted the falsehood that Tylenol usage during pregnancy can cause autism? That lie, which has been repudiated by a vast body of research, spread rapidly to the point that about one-third of Americans believe it possible that Tylenol causes autism, according to one survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. There is no doubt in my mind that this had to do with Kennedy and Trump.
None of Kennedy’s inquiries into autism are good-faith in reality. Not once has Kennedy asked me or any other autistic person for input on autism policy. Inviting us to have a voice at the table is not difficult. Plenty of autistic Americans are eager to share their views on how to make public policy more neurodiversity-affirming.
Kennedy’s false characterization of autism as a “disease” or an “injury” caused by vaccines hurts public perception of autistic people. Since Kennedy is the nation’s top health official, it is inevitable that many people will take his statements seriously and spread them to others.
The autistic community has made tremendous progress in the last decade, but so much progress has unfortunately been reversed thanks to people like Kennedy. I just hope we can make up our progress as quickly as Kennedy is reversing it.
David Rivera is president and founder of Mentoring Autistic Minds.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
