The Trump administration has released yet another Executive Order targeting the autistic community and spreading misinformation around childhood vaccines. In an hour-long press conference and signing ceremony, President Trump and several other administration officials insisted that autism and vaccines are linked. They did not offer any scientific evidence to support this claim, because there is none. Instead, they said that this dangerous lie is “common sense.” With today’s Executive Order, the Trump administration continues to reject science, demonize autism, and threaten public health.
Vaccines are safe and effective. Researchers around the world have spent decades studying the safety of modern vaccines and vaccine schedules. The claim that vaccines cause autism originated with a fraudulent study that was retracted nearly three decades ago. Since then, study after study has shown that vaccines are safe and autism is related to genetics. Vaccines let autistic children live long enough to become autistic adults.
Yet, the federal government continues to spend its time and money revisiting the same debunked claim. This is not just a waste of public resources. It is a waste of an opportunity to actually help autistic people.
Autistic people need access to health care. We need Medicaid and home and community-based services. We need accessible housing, education, and employment. We need robust communication supports. We need research that helps us live healthy and fulfilling lives across the lifespan and in our communities. We need the government to protect our civil rights and make sure all of us, including autistic people with the highest support needs, can live in our communities with the services and supports we need to thrive. While the government spends time trying to prove something that has already been disproven, autistic people are still waiting for the support we actually need.
Autistic people are not a threat to public health. We are members of every community, and we deserve the same chance as anyone else to live safe, healthy, self-directed lives. Our families deserve support, not lies and misinformation. Our community deserves to live.
The Trump administration should stop wasting public resources on misinformation and myths, and start investing those resources into helping autistic people live good lives. Autistic people know what we need. We need policymakers to listen to us. Nothing about us, without us.