Robert Kennedy is one of the Kennedy’s. He also is known within the autism communities for his irresponsible and flawed “Deadly Immunity” article which appeared in Rolling Stone and Salon.com and which fueled much of the conspiracy theory mindset in a generation of autism parents. That was almost 10 years ago. A year or so back, Mr. Kennedy appeared at the AutismOne parent convention talking about thimerosal again. It’s hard to find a more receptive audience for his message. AutismOne is a staunch supporter of failed ideas like thimerosal and MMR cause autism. AutismOne is also a place that promotes the ideas that one can cure autism by chemically castrating disabled children, or making disabled children drink bleach or take bleach enemas until they pass their intestinal mucosa (which are relabeled as worms) and more.
If readers will indulge me, let me shift to addressing Mr. Kennedy:
While multiple outlets are taking turns pointing out that you have taken a very irresponsible stance on vaccines, I’ll just ask: Mr. Kennedy, did you spend any time looking around AutismOne? If so–why the hell have you not come forward to distance yourself from the junk science that goes on there? Why the hell did you lend your family’s name to that operation? Your family basically built the special education system in our country. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is named for a relative of yours. And you are loaning that name to a convention where the keynote speaker abuses autism parents? Have you sunk so low that you are lending your family’s credibility to Andrew Wakefield?
If you were unaware of what AutismOne is, shame on you for lending your name. If you are aware of these goings on, and don’t distance yourself, your stance on thimerosal is the least of your problems.
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By Matt Carey
Where indeed did Kennedy go wrong?
His father visited some of New York State’s institutions for the developmentally disabled during 1965 and described the conditions he observed at Willowbrook State School as a snake pit.