With RFK making rounds in national news, several concerns are arising due to his stance on people with disabilities.
Recently he announced that he would be moving forward with a plan to complete an autism registry list, in hopes of uncovering “the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases,” he said in a statement. This proposal implies a loss of privacy amongst people with disabilities.
In this administration we already see how people are being targeted and losing their homes and families due to discrimination in the deportation process. What is going to make this proposed list any different?
People with autism would be identified through their insurance claims, medical records, and wearable health devices. This is a huge violation of privacy and individuals have the right to know about if their information is going to be used in research.
“CMS data includes certain information about individuals — age/date of birth, sex, where they live. It is possible to identify a person based on knowledge about these characteristics,” said Helen Tager-Flusberg — Director of the Center for Autism Research at Boston University — in an interview with NPR.
With how the Trump administration has been going, this is a huge concern. The various claims that RFK has said about autistic people, is spreading eugenic propaganda.
He thinks that he can “cure” autism, and has made several claims that it is “a preventable disease.” Even though it has been proven by experts throughout decades of research that there is no single cause of autism.
This is disgusting. Why is a secretary with no medical experience who went to school for law in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services? Why should a president be able to elect all of his buddies into office, screwing over everyone else?
The Trump administration has made our government look like a joke and with RFK pushing all of this rhetoric about autistic people, it’s only worsening things.
There are plenty of other health concerns that we can be focusing on, but RFK is choosing to focus on people with disabilities because he believes that they need saving.
If he cares about helping autistic people, why not help by teaming up with the education department?
Why doesn’t he use his power for something that can actually benefit these individuals, instead of pushing outdated rhetoric about them?
He has no care for autistic people and is spreading false information and hurting a community that has already faced enough.