RFK Jr. has filled the Autism Commission with nerds and conspiracy theorists

US Secretary of Health He filled in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Autism Committee includes friends, colleagues, and former colleagues who believe autism is caused by vaccines. Autism advocates now worry that the group could pave the way for dangerous pseudoscientific treatments to spread into the mainstream.

Last week, Kennedy announced an entirely new makeup of the Interagency Coordinating Committee for Autism (IACC), a group that recommends what types of autism research the government should fund and provides guidance on what services the autism community needs. The group usually consists of experts in the field of autism research, along with policy experts and people with autism who advocate for their community.

In a statement announcing the new committee, which does not include any previous members, Kennedy claimed to have appointed “the most qualified experts — leaders with decades of experience in the study, research, and treatment of autism.” But health experts and autism advocates strongly disagree, and a review of the group’s new members indicates that Kennedy appointed members of the anti-vaccine community who claim that vaccines cause autism — despite no evidence to prove such a claim.

Among those appointed last week was Daniel Rossignol, a doctor who was sued for fraud after prescribing an obscene and dangerous medication to a 7-year-old autistic child. Tracy Slipsiewicz, an appointee whom Kennedy calls a “dear friend,” presents a wide range of bogus autism treatments at her annual Autism Health Summit, including one that involves injecting animal stem cells into children. Another appointee, Toby Rogers, claimed that “no thinking person vaccinates” and that vaccine makers are “poisoning children.” Rogers, a fellow at the Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research, has also called vaccines “one of the greatest crimes in human history.” He has written articles for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy that linked autism to vaccines.

Other appointees are no different: John Gilmore founded the Autism Action Network and said his autistic son was “vaccinated.” Gilmore is also the founder of the New York chapter of the Kennedy Children’s Health Advocacy Group. Ginger Taylor, former director of the Maine Alliance for Vaccine Choice, has publicly claimed that many cases of autism involve “vaccine causality.” Elizabeth Mamber writes for Children’s Health Defense and is a senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance, a group formerly known as the Critical Care COVID-19 Front Line Alliance that has promoted ivermectin as a treatment for COVID.

Mumber told WIRED that her decades of work as a pediatrician and in the autism field qualified her to be a member of the IACC. She also denied her opposition to vaccines, noting that she “has provided thousands of vaccinations during my career.”

None of the other new IACC members contacted by WIRED responded to requests for comment.

Just a few years ago, this might have looked like the all-star lineup at a conspiracy convention. Today, these appointments seem routine, and they are just the latest example of how Kennedy is seeking to reshape America’s public health administration.

Kennedy’s decision, according to public health experts and autism advocates, will reduce resources for people with autism and their families, and will embolden those who promote pseudoscientific treatments that can threaten the lives of people with autism.

“once again, [Kennedy] “He proves to be one of the most extreme and dangerous conspiracy theorists in the world, who likes to stack his committees with anti-science and public health lunatics,” Gavin Yamey, a professor of global health and public policy at Duke University, tells WIRED. “The research evidence is clear that vaccines do not cause autism.” For Yami, “RFK Jr.’s new committee seems to have been tasked with muddying the waters and casting doubt on that evidence. RFK Jr. has spent the last year doing everything he can to dismantle public health and de-vaccinate, and this new committee is more of the same.”