By Jessica Grose Opinion Writer in the NYT (thanks to Ed M)
Last week Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held his first news briefing as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to address a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about rates of autism among children in the United States.
He used the opportunity to spread falsehoods. Kennedy claimed that “studying genetic causes” of autism is a “dead end.” That’s because “we know it’s environmental exposure. Genes do not cause epidemics,” he continued. While there may be environmental factors that contribute to autism, my newsroom colleagues point out, “scientists have known since the 1970s that genetics contribute to the development of the neurodevelopmental disorder.”
But that’s not all Kennedy said about people with autism. Shortly after mentioning that a study calculated the “cost of treating autism in this country by 2035 will be a trillion dollars a year,” he said, “Autism destroys families, but more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children.” He added:
These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.
These comments are plainly untrue. Many people with autism have pushed back, saying they can write poems and play baseball. The popular reality TV show “Love on the Spectrum” proves that Kennedy was wrong about dating. After the backlash, he went on the Fox News program “Hannity” to clarify that his original remarks were meant to refer to children with “low-functioning autism,” who are about a quarter of those diagnosed with the disorder.
I don’t think that clarification makes Kennedy’s initial remarks generous or correct. To my ears, the grimmest part of what he said is not about the ability to play baseball; it’s that he started this litany with paying taxes and having jobs. That implies that those who are not able to be gainfully employed are somehow lesser citizens — that they’re destroyed. This way of speaking is further evidence that he is not fit to be in charge of the health of the country. (continued)