Yes, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that the HHS will undertake a “massive testing and research effort”, involving hundreds of scientists, to determine the cause of autism. By this September.
The National Institute of Health (HIH) is the medical research arm of the HHS. It already spends US$300m a year researching autism. So far they’ve found that genes play a major role, with other risk factors including prenatal exposure to pesticides or air pollution, extreme prematurity or low birth weight, certain maternal health problems or parents conceiving at an older age.
In potentially inconvenient timing, Kennedy has already announced the sacking of 10,000 staff from the HHS. Along with another 10,000 recent “early retirees”, the overall staff at the HHS will fall from around 82,000 to 62,000, thus losing about a quarter of its workforce.
In addition, the Trump administration is making deep cuts to research funding, including for studies on autism. A multi-million dollar program to help autistic students find careers in STEM has been cut, as has research on making autism diagnosis practices better. So it seems that allocating huge resources to try to prove an already discredited theory is more important than trying to improve the lives of those who currently live with autism.
Kennedy, as most would know, already believes he knows the answer to what causes autism. He’s convinced it is caused by vaccines. So I guess that’s what this new autism research effort will be told to find.
To lead his new autism research project, Kennedy has hired David Geier, a man who was once fined for practising medicine without a licence and who has repeatedly claimed that autism and vaccines are linked.
This is what the Autism Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), a NPO run by and for people with autism, has to say about Geier
In papers that one public health researcher described as “riddled with basic flaws,” David Geier and his father Mark Geier have repeatedly claimed that there is a link between vaccines and autism. The Geiers, who have profited from promoting junk science about vaccines and autism to both courts and patients, did not declare all of their financial conflicts of interest in their papers. For one of their “studies,” rather than seeking approval from an institutional review board (IRB) the Geiers simply created their own “sham” IRB made up of their family members and business associates. This and other issues led to the paper being withdrawn by the journal.
There is every reason to believe that in his role at HHS, David Geier will continue to do what he has always done: use flawed and unethical methodology to ensure the result that will benefit him the most.
Fake cures
The Geiers argued that autism was caused by mercury poisoning from vaccines, a lie that has been disproven again and again. They said that the “mercury” raised testosterone levels in autistic children. They claimed that the solution was lowering testosterone in autistic children with high doses of the prostate cancer drug Lupron, with Mark Geier claiming that “Lupron is the miracle drug” for autism. Lupron did nothing to help the many autistic children whose families were duped by the Geiers. It can, however, cause serious side effects including pain and osteoporosis. The Geiers charged families $5,000 to $6,000 a month (in 2009) for Lupron “treatments”.
Because of this fake “cure”, Mark Geier’s medical license was revoked in 9 states. David Geier, who has no medical degree, was fined for practicing medicine without a license. Anyone who would fleece families with fake cures should not be trusted to interpret a scientific study, let alone conduct one.
Meanwhile, more than half the senior leadership of the FDA has gone in a Trump/RFK purge. The FDA just happens to be where real scientists and real doctors assess the painstakingly put-together evidence which supports the safety and efficacy of proposed drugs (some potentially for autism and autism- related conditions), prior to allowing these drugs to be marketed.
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