Autism, Vaccines, Samoa, and Why RFK Jr is a Terrible Human Being

Continuing my trend of non-AI bullshit (don’t worry, I will likely talk about OpenAI’s ad announcement tomorrow. SkyNet shall not go ignored!), let’s talk about anti-vaxers and the terrible, no good, very bad human being that is RFK Jr.

There are two things you need to understand about the world to understand why RFK Jr. is a walking condom ad: vaccines do far, far more good than the occasional harm a bad reaction does (and no, they are not responsible for autism) and RFK Jr. helped kill 83 people in Samoa. Understand those two truths, and you understand the pure evil that RFK Jr. represents.

RFK Jr likes to lie about his contribution to the measles outbreak in Samoa that killed 83 people, most of them children. He claims that he never told anyone not to take the measles vaccine, but the record is not that simple. He called a prominent Samoan anti-vaxer a hero. His non-profit exploited the death of two children who were mistakenly given a muscle relaxant rather mixed with the measles vaccine to question the safety of vaccines and did not correct the record when the truth came out. And when RFK Jr. visited Samoa, he praised leading anti-vaxers at a time when they were pushing to and the measles vaccinations. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and advocates for people who want to end vaccines it is an anti-vaxer duck.

Vaccines have been perhaps the single most important and impactful discovery of the modern era. Statistically speaking, a significant number of people reading this are alive and fully well because of vaccines. Just since 2000, more than 25 million children have been saved by the measles vaccine. Polio practically no longer exists. And no, vaccines do not cause autism. One of my children is autistic and we spent time looking at possible causes. And while the pharma companies are terrible, there is no evidence that vaccines cause or contribute to autism. None. Not even a tiny bit.

I understand why people want there to be a connection, I think. Raising a kid on the spectrum can be hard, and the lives of those on the spectrum can be harder still. You want to ensure that no one else has to go through those difficulties. And so you point to something that is in your control. If people just don’t do what you did, then everything will be fine for them. You can keep bad things at bay entirely through your own actions. Life, unfortunately, is not that simple. Sometimes your luck is just bad. It is not fair, it is not just, it is not a comfort. But it is the truth. Wanting to protect people is admirable. Wanting to protect people by taking away something that actually protects them is not.

The solution to helping people with autism, or any other health issue, is not to throw away a tool that demonstrably saves lives and keeps people healthy based on nothing but vibes. The solution to ensuring that autistic kids and adults are well taken care of is to build a society that, well, takes care of them. If anti-vaxers spent one tenth the energy they spend on conspiracy theories on political organization, we would already have universal health care and a disability program that allows people to live lives of dignity.

It is bad enough that a spoiled rich kid like RFK Jr. spends time and money advocating for hurting children. It is worse that he directs the justifiable urge to fix something away from the systems that can actually help people and onto an insane crusade to make everyone sicker. RFK Jr. is not “controversial” as the New York Times would have it. He is downright evil.

Call your senators, especially if they are Republican, and let them know that you will remember if the Senator sided with protecting children or with protecting RFK Jr.