Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Launch National Autism Registry Using Americans’ Private Health Records: ‘Data will be collected from pharmacy chains, lab tests, smartwatches and more’
https://people.com/rfk-jr-to-launch-autism-registry-using-private-health-records-11720156
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As per [original article](https://people.com/rfk-jr-to-launch-autism-registry-using-private-health-records-11720156) 📰:
– The HHS secretary is also launching a registry that will track Americans with autism.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is set to amass the private medical records of Americans for a new autism study.
On April 21, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya — director of the National Institutes of Health — announced that the NIH will provide Kennedy with data pulled from a number of federal and commercial databases, CBS News reports.
Kennedy — who has previously promoted a scientifically debunked claim that autism is caused by vaccines — is also launching a new registry to track Americans with autism.
Bhattacharya explained that between 10 and 20 outside groups of researchers will have access to these records, and they will be provided with grant funding to carry out Kennedy’s autism studies. He added that this data will allow researchers to study “comprehensive” patient data with “broad coverage” of the U.S. population for the first time.
Bhattacharya said during a presentation that the data will include medical records from pharmacy chains, lab tests, genomics data from patients treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, claims from private insurers, data from smartwatches and fitness trackers and more.
The NIH director noted that combining the data could lead to “real-time health monitoring” on Americans.
“What we’re proposing is a transformative real-world data initiative, which aims to provide a robust and secure computational data platform for chronic disease and autism research,” he said, per the outlet.
This news comes on the heels of statements Kennedy made at a press conference on April 16, when he claimed that “autism destroys families.”
“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,” he added.
The comments sparked outrage among autism advocates, with many arguing that Kennedy’s words promoted outdated and harmful rhetoric about people with the neurodevelopmental condition.
Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, told CNN that Kennedy’s comments “made it sound like these were people whose lives were worthless, when that couldn’t be further from the case.”
A CDC study published on April 15 reported that one in 31 children in America will be diagnosed with autism by the age of 8 — an increase from the past two decades. However, experts widely agree that the increase in autism rates over time is not actually because more people are developing the disorder — instead, doctors are merely getting better at correctly identifying autism as diagnostic tools become more sophisticated, per NBC News.
“Parents shouldn’t panic,” Dr. Alex Kolevzon, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and clinical director of the Seaver Autism Center at Mount Sinai in New York City, told the outlet. “We’re not seeing an epidemic with autism.”
No, thanks.
I dont trust his judgement.
*Bhattacharya said during a presentation that the data will include medical records from pharmacy chains, lab tests, genomics data from patients treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, claims from private insurers, data from smartwatches and fitness trackers and more.*
*The NIH director noted that combining the data could lead to “real-time health monitoring” on Americans.*
Corporate data? Private under penalty of law. Your personal health data? Open to everyone! Red states will love “real-time health monitoring” of pregnant women.
How is this not a wheelbarrow full of HIPAA violations?
He’s also suggested trying to “cure” people’s autism by sending them to work camps. I’m sure this registry has nothing to do with that.
German SA folks.
So this will be the beginning of America’s Aktion T4.
I was wondering what it’d look like.
Don’t even need conspiracy theorists anymore….
Disgusting invasion of privacy.
This is incredibly illegal. He will be sued and lose.
Government staying out of our lives.
Fortunately nothing bad has ever happened when you create these kind of lists.
Every goddamn fucking day it’s another hair pulling out adventure with this administration. I’d like to go ONE WEEK without some madness.
Literally what data can you gather from lab tests or smartwatches that offer any insight into autism?
Excusing the massive legal issues that are sure to follow, to what fucking end?
To all the skeptics:
– This debunked claim originated from a small study back in 1998 authored by the infamous Andrew Wakefield. The study was later found to be inherently flawed and fraudulent, and was not only retracted, but repudiated by the scientific community.
– The author of the study had his medical license revoked for serious professional misconduct and he has since been ostracized by medical experts.
– Since then, many large scale, rigorous studies have established no link between vaccines and autism.
– Wakefield’s study included only 12 children, and while it shouldn’t have to be stated, this kind of sample size is unprecedentedly small—meaningless in fact—and far too small to draw any reliable conclusions from.
– Wakefield was also criticized for a lack of a control group in his study, which is an essential part of any meaningful experimental study.
– He also altered patients medical histories to support his claims, he had conflicts of interest and his study involved the unethical treatment of children.
– Dozens of large scale studies involving literally millions of children have since been conducted, all of them consistently pointing to the same conclusions—that vaccines do not cause autism.
– Thimerosal—a mercury based preservative previously used more commonly in some vaccines—was also the target of anti-vax claims which have since been debunked.
– Extensive research has shown that there is no link between Thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism, while research has also shown that even low doses of the preservative in vaccines do not cause any harm other than minor reactions like redness/swelling at the site of injection.
– And despite this research, Thimerosal was still removed from most childhood vaccines anyways as a precautionary measure. It is only really used in some flu vaccines today, and even then, you can request vaccines without it.
I feel compelled to add to this a short list of some of the dangerous and unfounded claims Kennedy has made over the years.
But first, I’ve heard a few people (outside of his fringe followers) argue that some of the criticisms levied against RFK Jr. are unwarranted or unfair because of his record as an environmental lawyer. In other cases, some people try to downplay his insanity, arguing that his words are taken out of context.
When it comes to the former, RFK Jr. has since lost all credibility due to the erratic, harmful and baseless claims he’s made related to vaccines and public health
Not to mention his adherence to Trump and a MAGA agenda that is eroding the independence of public health related agencies, that’s stripping knowledgeable civil servants of their protections, that’s maligning medical professionals and propping up discredited “health experts” (quacks), all while his department is taking steps to dismantle agencies and organizations that are largely responsible for the day-to-day operations and broader objectives related to protecting the environment and maintaining public health and safety.
Is also be remiss if I didn’t mention his founding of The Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vax non profit that played a significant role in the measles outbreak in Samoa that claimed the lives of dozens of children.
I should also mention his recent trip to the Southwest, which is currently at the center of a historic measles outbreak, where he praised a “healer” who was administering alternative treatments to unvaccinated children and adults while infected with the measles no less.
Now when it comes to the argument that Kennedy really isn’t as batshit as the media makes him out to be, here are just some recent examples of his ignorant and dangerous remarks:
> Kennedy said, ‘I probably did say, Lyme disease is “highly likely a militarily engineered bioweapon”‘
> Kennedy has repeatedly suggested environmental toxins, including those in drinking water, are linked to gender identity in children. These claims are unfounded.
> He has reiterated a thoroughly debunked theory that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism
> Kennedy has also referred to the Covid vaccine as “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” despite data showing it’s overwhelmingly safe.
> At an event last year, Kennedy promoted a racist and antisemitic theory that Covid “ethnically targeted” white and Black people but not Ashkenazi Jews or Chinese people.
> Kennedy has amplified baseless claims suggesting a link between antidepressants like Prozac and school shootings. “Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events,” he told billionaire Elon Musk last year. But research shows that most school shooters were not previously treated with psychotropic medications — and even when they were, there was no association between those drugs and the shootings.
> He has long peddled AIDS denialism conspiracy theories, alleging that HIV does not cause AIDS and questioning the “theology that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS.”
> He lamented that “any questioning of the orthodoxy that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS remains an unforgivable — even dangerous — heresy among our reigning medical cartel and its media allies”
> Kennedy’s book frequently cites discredited work of Peter Duesberg, a prominent AIDS denialist. “I haven’t found any evidence that HIV ever actually kills a T-cell.”
> He argued vaccines make people “lose IQ” and said the vaccine “dominant narrative” has “little proof.”
> Kennedy claimed vaccinologists add toxins to vaccines to amplify immune response. “They literally went on a search throughout the world looking for the most toxic things that they could find in order to add them to the vaccine,”
> Kennedy claimed that nobody knows the risk for any currently scheduled vaccines and that “nobody can say with any scientific certainty that [the polio] vaccine is averting more injuries than death than it’s causing.”
> [He] claimed flu and polio vaccines increase susceptibility to future flu strains and polio cases.
> Kennedy has also claimed that “there is zero evidence that the flu shot prevents any hospitalization or any deaths… The flu shot transmits the flu. In fact, if you get the flu shot, you’re six times more likely to give somebody else the flu, than if you didn’t get the flu shot.”
> “Since we started mandating the flu shot for elderly people… Their life expectancy has dramatically gone down.”
> …Speaking on “Health Freedom for Humanity,” a podcast run by a nonprofit advocating for medical freedom, Kennedy encouraged people to join him in telling strangers not to vaccinate their babies
> In July 2023, the same month he testified at the House hearing, Kennedy said in a podcast interview that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”
> He also accused Fauci of destroying repurposed medications like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin that also “would’ve obliterated Covid.”
Kennedy is an obvious kook who should have been disqualified from any position in government, let alone a position that oversees all public health related agencies.
Party of small government lmao
Stealing your health records and smart phone data
Smartwatches? For autism studies?
I respectfully suggest switching off fertility trackers. I am certain that RFK Jr. is a eugenicist.
[Literal Nazi shit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4)
Ditch any smart/fitness watches now, no reason to voluntarily hand over such personal biometric data
> secure computational data platform for chronic disease and autism research,
Those are **not the same thing**!
This guy is literally picking a fight with a subset of people who will focus on destroying him. I can’t wait to see how this ends.
Ok so he’s not gonna stop at Autism if we don’t stop this.
This is literally a plot from X Men.
I’m not autistic, but I have a number of friends that are. I’ll put it bluntly: leave them alone. Want to go after them? Fine, but you better take me with them and I will go down fighting. Sorry, this just really pisses me off.
This is the same person that was casually telling interviewers last Fall that he wants to “rehome” people taking meds for things like depression, ADHD, autism, etc. and send them all to “wellness camps”.
[https://www.salon.com/2025/02/19/rfk-s-plan-to-make-america-healthy-again-round-up-people-with-mental-health-conditions-in-camps/](https://www.salon.com/2025/02/19/rfk-s-plan-to-make-america-healthy-again-round-up-people-with-mental-health-conditions-in-camps/)
[https://www.teenvogue.com/story/rfk-wellness-farms-us-disabilities](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/rfk-wellness-farms-us-disabilities)
There are days when I wake up and wonder how the world wound up in the hands of these people.
I always knew immigrants and non-whites were hated and conservatives would round them up into camps. I guess I did not see the hate for autistic people. I never thought they would be one of the first groups to fall. I knew eventually these fascists would get to the disabled, but so fast? A lot of people with all kinds of disabilities are about to suddenly be labeled as “autistic”. The ovens will be working overtime.
America we need to stop this. And it is not going to be stopped by a protest with pretty colored signs. We need to organize and start by going after those that carry the sticks. And take the fight to neighborhoods and towns that voted this in. Sadly, I do not know how to start. Help!
Hitler’s Nazis started with disabled people too.
August 18, 1939
Nazi’s started the Registration of Children with Disabilities.
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