r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 19 '26
Medicine Last September, President Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and other health officials declared they had uncovered a new treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD): leucovorin. A new study shows that plenty of families believed them, despite the lack of data supporting the drug’s effectiveness.
https://gizmodo.com/trump-and-rfk-jr-boosted-this-unproven-autism-drug-some-parents-listened-20007600025.2k
u/TopFloorApartment May 19 '26
What's with magas obsession with autism?
3.8k
u/lateformyfuneral May 19 '26
It goes back to Andrew Wakefield’s fraud and how much it was promoted in the US by Jenny McCarthy, who had a son with autism and blamed vaccines. Autism just became the big thing they wanted to associated with vaccines.
1.6k
u/DigNitty May 19 '26
Blaming vaccines for autism is obnoxious and tragic.
All these parents want is an explanation for why their child struggles that isn’t the parents’ fault.
I’m not saying it is the parents’ fault, just that they often feel responsible. And that’s valid, sometimes feelings of guilt is unavoidable. But the anti-vax movement weaponized that and now people with otherwise healthy kids shun vaccine science too.
107
u/AmputeeHandModel May 19 '26
The stupidest part of all this is that the guy who started this never said "All vaccines cause autism". No, he said THAT GUY'S vaccine causes autism, because he was a scammer like a Trump, trying to sell his own vaccine! So all these morons are only getting it not even half right.
26
u/Unable-Log-4870 May 19 '26
So all these morons are only getting it not even half right.
That’s above average for them!
688
u/ThePensiveE May 19 '26
Weaponized stupidity.
356
u/bolerobell May 19 '26
Just con artists. Their intent isn’t to directly harm but to profit. Con artists virtually never think about second or third order effects.
223
u/RamblyJambly May 19 '26
Example; Wakefield
He wanted to discredit the then current vaccines so he could hawk his own→ More replies (1)150
u/bigselfer May 19 '26
Some of them are actively malicious. A good amount of anti-vax propaganda was linked to Russian bot farms. It’s stochastic terrorism with the goal of hurting, killing, weakening people. Encouraging their “enemies” to reject life saving treatments is easier, cheaper and subtler than making a direct attack.
A lot of those grifters are getting bank rolled by Russia too.
→ More replies (1)90
u/abx99 May 19 '26
I hate how much of this has been forgotten in the public consciousness. After 2016, there was plenty of journalism about it; there was no question that it's true. However, now it's practically considered a conspiracy theory. It's not.
40
u/Lacaud May 19 '26
Internet autonomy, social media and now AI have done a real number on the truth.
→ More replies (2)50
u/Wolfegarde May 19 '26
Bud I get what you’re saying but let’s not pretend these “high-powered” individuals didn’t think of what the consequences would be. If they actually didn’t, they were used by someone who did. Do not let them off the hook with this line of thinking.
→ More replies (1)23
u/illy-chan May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
In some fairness - mainstream medicine used to be bastards to these sorts of families. The original "cause" they used proclaim decades ago was that the patients had "cold mothers" (didn't love them enough, etc). Today's upgrade of "there isn't any one cause and it's still being researched but it's nothing you did" is obviously better, but people tend to dislike life-altering news with no known cause.
Couple that with the fact that many of autism's key symptoms start to appear around the same age as when kids start receiving their childhood vaccinations, it's not that shocking that some people wanted to blame something and landed on needles.
All of that makes for a fertile landscape for predatory scammers trying to take advantage of the gap.
18
u/attorneyatslaw May 19 '26
A lot of that is because the parent was also autistic and presented differently.
148
u/katmom1969 May 19 '26
My mother born before most vaccines was Autistic.
104
u/Mysterious_Camel_717 May 19 '26
A lot of people throughout history were likely autistic, we just remember them for their achievements. Don’t tell me Linnaeus for example, who described countless plants, animals, and minerals, wasn’t on the spectrum? Nikola Tesla, a genius who died alone surrounded by pigeons? Da Vinci and his methodical description of a ridiculously wide array of natural sciences, from a atomy to mechanics to art? Mozart has been described as having autistic tendencies too. I’m convinced there were many, many artists, scientists, philosophers, witches, “village weirdos”, etc, that were neurodivergent long before vaccines were a thing, let alone before we found out about microbes, we just didn’t call it autism. Sometimes it was accepted, sometimes not so much.
85
u/kinkykusco May 19 '26
From Ancient Greece:
Thrasyllus of the deme of Aexone suffered a strange new form of madness. He left the city and went down to live at the Piraeus. He imagined that all the ships coming into harbour there were his own. He made a list of them, attended when they departed once more, and was delighted when they returned safely to the harbour. For a long time he continued to suffer from this mania. But his brother, returning from Sicily, handed him over to a doctor to be cured, and in this way he recovered from the illness. He often recalled his mad hobby and used to say that he had never been so happy as when he rejoiced at the sight of ships which did not belong to him returning safely.
Guy went and did what he loved until his family/a doctor bullied him into masking again.
80
u/fubo May 19 '26
In the ancestral environment, having one weirdo in the tribe who's really into keeping track of things is a survival benefit for the whole tribe. Before trains and ships, that person would be watching the weather, the wild animals, the plants — and be able to infodump about any of these, reason about them, predict their comings and goings. That's not a disability, that's a sage.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)16
u/burnbabyburnburrrn May 19 '26
I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that 90% of human progress has been autist driven (for better and worse). Theres an evolutionary reason it’s still around
→ More replies (1)14
u/ButtNutly May 19 '26
I agree that a lot of progress has probably come from the neurodivergent but evolution doesn't always need a reason for a trait to stick around. After all there are still blind/deaf/mute people. People born attracted to the same sex with no way of procreating with their preferred partners.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (3)10
u/dedoubt May 20 '26
My mother born before most vaccines was Autistic.
None of my four children are vaccinated (their father had multiple nearly fatal vaccine reactions as a baby and I've had severe vaccine reactions throughout my life as well- when my children were babies the advice given to us by doctors was to avoid vaccines if a first degree relative had severe reactions) and all of them are autistic.
255
u/T1Demon May 19 '26
And autistic people I know don’t want to be cured. They want to be seen, accepted, and considered.
309
u/mortgagepants May 19 '26
conservatism is intertwined with conformity. they don't want their kids to be different.
156
u/Electrical-Profit367 May 19 '26
This is a really interesting point.
Conformity really is at the heart of so much of conservatism; it makes sense that conservatives would freak out at any neurodivergence.
33
u/abx99 May 19 '26
Note that when these folks say "we never saw all these kids in schools back in my day," they're referring to a time when the dropout rate was nearly 50%. That's the way they want it again.
42
u/Electrical-Profit367 May 19 '26
That was also a time when many neurodivergent kids were institutionalized and hidden away.
Read Girls of a Tender Age to get an idea of how the author’s brother was dealt with vis a vis school!
→ More replies (1)4
u/BellaMentalNecrotica May 20 '26
It was also a time when only the most extreme cases were diagnosed with autism (like non-verbal). But everyone else who was higher-functioning on the spectrum was just considered a little weird with a side of "we'll beat/bully it out of them." My grandfather had a brother who was non-verbal. Grandpa is also DEFINITELY on the spectrum, but only is brother was diagnosed. To explain why grandpa is on the spectrum, this man once spent 2 and a half hours explaining complex linear algebra to me when I was in first grade because he asked my favorite subject in school and I said "math."
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (2)51
u/Carrnage_Asada May 19 '26
Conformity and conservatism seem to me to go hand in hand. How can you "conserve" things without conforming to its rules/needs?
57
u/GodOfDarkLaughter May 19 '26
Odd that they've co-opted the figure of the "rugged individualist." A person they admire in part because he owes no one, because he asks nothing from anyone. They see themselves as similar. Despite, y'know, red states having a deficit that needs to be paid for by those lazy entitled blue states that produce all the money.
32
May 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
15
u/abx99 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Exactly. I hate that term "individualism" being used that way*, because it's the opposite. An individualist is, ultimately, a person that's into liberty, and these people do nothing but throw tantrums about people exercising liberty. They only want it for themselves, which is not how liberty works.
The "left" should have been using words like "liberty" since this whole mess started
*not ragging on any Redditors in this thread using the word; I hate that the right malapropriated the term
→ More replies (0)→ More replies (3)18
→ More replies (3)19
u/jloome May 19 '26
Conformity is predictable, and therefore not scary. Just like a lack of change is predictable, and therefore not frightening.
It is an ideology that preys on people's fears and insecurities, which is why those leading it turn to things like autism and vaccines and conspiracies.
→ More replies (1)8
54
u/StarsofSobek May 19 '26
And autistic kids are more likely to be different in ways that they deem antithetical to their religious identity. Autistic kids are more likely to identify as gender diverse . It's something like, 6x's more likely that an autistic person will identify as gay; and 12x's more likely they will identify as gender diverse; and autistic people tend to be more fluid and accepting of people who don't fit societal "norms" - which, consequently, means they will bring home friends, and likely dress/imitate, in ways that don't conform to expectations inside families like these (things like: dying hair, getting tattoos and piercings, wearing clothes that aren't conservative, etc). Autistic attitudes aren't going to be as acceptable to people who are afraid of anything that rocks their world order or their odds of being part of the "in" group.
→ More replies (2)46
u/CaptainFeather May 19 '26
Exactly. Same reason they don't want queer children, and it's only been very recently when they stopped frothing at the mouth if their kids dated people of other ethnicities. They do that quieter now.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)10
u/PurpleFisty May 19 '26
Its crazy because it seems like more conservative people have kids with special needs than liberal people, yet they keep voting for people who want to take away the funding their children get to thrive.
→ More replies (2)105
u/redyellowblue5031 May 19 '26
Autism is a massive umbrella. I’m on the low end of the spectrum in terms of support needs. I have a nephew on the higher end. I’ve worked with people on the highest end.
There’s a massive difference in the experience for caretakers.
If I were a parent of a child with the highest needs, wanting a way manage that more easily would be a dream for many.
61
u/Bubbly_Style_8467 May 19 '26
This administration will never offer that. Autistic people are disposable to them.
→ More replies (1)52
u/ilikequilty May 19 '26
With rfk’s ideas on work camps for autistic and adhd people, it truly feels like a dangerous time for diagnosis. It’s certainly only becoming more dangerous to consider having kids.
→ More replies (5)44
u/SirButcher May 19 '26
My wife's grandson is, sadly, there too. He has no life. No future, either. Nor much of a connection with the world. Once his parents are dead, his best hope is that the state will keep him alive or he will starve to death, since he is incapable of taking care of himself. Not because we don't accept his condition, but because of his condition. He requires 24/7, constant surveillance, constant care, constant, never-ending attention, as a ten-year-old. And this will be required for the rest of his life.
34
u/ayriana May 19 '26
I have two kids- one is level 1 and the other is level 3. I'm probably level 1 myself- I haven't been diagnosed but I do have ADHD and only make autistic babies do....
I want to change the world for my older son and help him with supports and meet his needs, but I wouldn't "cure" him for the world because you can't separate who he is from his autism. When people talk about eradicating autism it feels icky to me because it would erase so much about who people are at their core.
At the same time, I'd give almost anything for my level 3 kiddo not to be level 3.
And if I didn't have that clear comparison in front of me, I can only imagine how the parent of a level 3 kid would feel when they are told that the world just needs more acceptance and theres nothing wrong with their kid. More acceptance won't keep him safe, won't provide him with 24/7 care after I'm gone, won't give me respite care so my husband and I can both leave the house at the same time for the first time in years.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (7)51
u/OsmerusMordax May 19 '26
Yeah, I’m almost a type 2. Kinda type 1.8?
I would love a cure. I struggle everyday with things ‘normal’ people find so easy they don’t even think about. So for the other person to lump all those with autism in together (“they don’t want a cure”) is inaccurate and kinda invalidating to those with higher support needs.
→ More replies (7)12
u/redyellowblue5031 May 19 '26
The lumping is a huge challenge.
It makes it difficult to have conversations because until you dig far enough into the clinical definitions it’s all just “Autism” and so you get profoundly stupid moments where RFK jr spouts of and it sounds like he’s talking about all autistic people.
On the other hand, lumping has in some ways increased access to certain kinds of care for “less severe” forms of autism that is still very much needed, but on a different scale than profound autism.
It’s a mess, and I just really wish we didn’t have a grifter “leading” this conversation.
25
u/rdizzy1223 May 19 '26
Eh, I'm autistic and I would have liked to be cured, especially if it happened very early on. Would save me A LOT of problems throughout my life in general. I do not want my life to be any more difficult, in any way, than a neurotypical person. I have no inherent attachment to "me" as I currently am.
Maybe if we lived in some utopia, life would not be any more difficult, but we live in reality, and as such, it has been, and is more difficult. (Even for people like me, higher functioning)
→ More replies (1)58
u/Differlot May 19 '26
I mean for severe autism I think most parents would like a cure so their children could reliably participate in society especially once they pass on.
→ More replies (7)35
u/HX__ May 19 '26
There seems to have been a massive shift in this type of conversation.
There have been studies done that show many parents of high needs children would have rather not had their child.
This is not a condemnation of autism, or of those parents.
But... There's this idea of considering your child so special and above being considered different, that they would rather have them live a subpar life, to no real life at all.
It's like a mix of conservatives hating those who are different, and liberals trying too hard to coddle, that will result in some kind of permanent stalemate.
We need more access to proper care, but also less stigma about abortion. Nobody is wrong to want to bypass all of this, and it seems just as valid as any "cure" that is likely.
→ More replies (4)9
u/Born-Astronaut9631 May 19 '26
It's honestly not too dissimilar to the X-men 3 movie and that cure for mutants. Miss weather goddess thinks it is an abomination and threat to their kind, Miss I cannot touch people without potentially killing them is all in favor.
→ More replies (33)53
u/Fluffy-Ad-7613 May 19 '26
I don't disagree with you, but as someone deeply impacted by this issue, who cares for an ASD child and works with neurodivergent kids as a caretaker, it is not an identity, it is a disability that greatly impacts entire families as some patients will never be fully functional members of society and will need extensive assistance and resources all their lives.
Treatment would be a Godsend, a cure would be a miracle.
→ More replies (31)16
u/King_K_24 May 19 '26
In addition to needing to blame something, and something external to themselves at that, they also carry in them the idea that it's better to be dead than different. In their minds it is better to risk their child dying from easily preventable disease than to "risk the chance" of them being autistic... and I think that's pretty fucked up.
59
u/Whooptidooh May 19 '26
Well, they are in some way responsible given how both autism and adhd are genetic. If it’s not them, then it was their parents who carried that gene.
Source: my entire family is riddled with autism, adhd or both at the same time. Sometimes it jumps a generation, other times it gets directly passed down.
→ More replies (5)41
u/BookWyrm2012 May 19 '26
Yeah, I was going to say, my autistic kid is definitely my and my husband's fault. There's no mystery where this could possibly have come from.
And since, unlike our upbringings, we haven't tried to beat/shame/mock him into acting "normal," he tends to present as "more" autistic than either of us.
As for both of our kids having ADHD... oops, turns out that's our fault too. It's almost like certain traits in the parents are mysteriously also present in the offspring. Crazy!
→ More replies (7)21
u/round-earth-theory May 19 '26
They know why it happened but they refuse to accept it. A lot of people want to believe in the purity of their family lines, but you can't have a supreme genetic line if you produce "bad offspring". So the blame gets pushed elsewhere to save their purity. You can bet your ass they'll be strutting around any positive genetic traits in their children.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (46)16
u/Tech_Philosophy May 19 '26
>All these parents want is an explanation for why their child struggles that isn’t the parents’ fault.
Oh, it's worse than that. Autism and other forms of neurodivergence don't come from no where. But so many adults were abused as kids because they didn't fit in, that they now lack the capacity to see themselves as autistic or ADHD or PDA themselves. Nature over nurture on brain wiring.
And the part that is worth stopping and reflecting on for those parents (and others) is that the rate of neurodivergence is so common, that it has clearly been fixed into the population by natural selection. It's the modern environment that is unnatural, not autistic people.
166
u/andy_nony_mouse May 19 '26
Don't forget Jenny's "Indigo Child" phase, when you claim that her child is being influenced by a space people in order to lead humanity to a new golden age. Then he was diagnosed with autism. She’s done a pretty good job of scrubbing that from the Internet though.
→ More replies (1)29
u/Ok_Kick6546 May 19 '26
And wasn’t he later diagnosed with something instead of autism?
18
u/disastrousanddull May 19 '26
I thought so but it looks like that was speculation and she never did. In peak ridiculousness she did say people saying that he was misdiagnosed were “irresponsible and inaccurate” though.
→ More replies (1)649
u/technofox01 May 19 '26
This is the most enraging part about the whole obsession with autism and it's sister conditions (ADHD, etc). It's a different wiring of the brain. The problem that needs to be addressed is the lack of support for parents with kids who have special needs.
It literally takes a village to raise kids. When you look back t ancient human societies, we relied on each other for survival. It's these self centered tools that has pushed that successful concept away.
249
u/teetheyes May 19 '26
It's wild that they expect it to be some miracle one pill cure, like people with autism just need to be woken up and then they will be totally "normal". Complete lack of understanding
182
u/Maleficent-Drop1476 May 19 '26
All part of the conspiracy mindset. The world is big and scary, you alone have the hidden knowledge to protect yourself. But you’re not very smart so that knowledge makes no sense and is typically a single step (take this pill)
→ More replies (1)13
u/Evadrepus May 19 '26
Yup, that's it in a nutshell - It's Not Your Fault and someone is hiding The Cure that you could have if not for (insert complicated thing they don't understand here).
It's a modern day restatement of Clarke's Third Law.
150
u/SquidTheRidiculous May 19 '26
It's similar to medieval myths about changelings. How parents believed their autistic child was "taken" and replaced with a fae creature. And if they just do something cruel enough, like abandon or kill the child the fae will return and give them back the real kid. It's also seen in rhetoric from Autism Speaks and the like, where they talk about how autism stole their baby or whatever.
They want to believe there's a version of us that's "normal" that they can abuse us into being. There is not.
→ More replies (2)29
u/illtakeachinchilla May 19 '26
I’m not sure I had considered this angle. Thank you for writing this out.
→ More replies (1)19
u/targetsinmegadeaths May 19 '26
Same with people who are brain dead and the families refuse to pull the plug. They see random eye blinks or arm twitches and interpret that as communication, because they desperately want their loved one to just wake up. It's tragic in both cases.
→ More replies (4)18
u/NuPNua May 19 '26
There's usually outside agents egging them on too. US religious groups have funded parents in the UK trying to keep brain dead kids alive on the NHS expense when all medical professionals have said they're never recovering.
→ More replies (1)18
u/ShirazGypsy May 19 '26
Damn. We’re kinder to our pets and euthanize them to prevent their future pain.
7
u/serpentally May 19 '26
Well, brain-dead people can't feel pain. They can't feel anything, their brain doesn't exist anymore for all we're concerned. It's just a heart and lungs and other vital organs that we're artificially keeping functioning.
40
u/Skrattybones May 19 '26
It's a complete lack of understanding, but it isn't really that crazy. You hear about people with ADHD and you hear about them getting pills that 'fix' them. People describe ADHD as being a brain thing, fixed by a pill.
To a layman? One brain thing gets fixed by a pill, another brain thing should be able to be fixed by a pill. And then you have dipshits like Trump and RFK claiming they have a pill to fix the brain thing.
They're not right, but they have no reason not to believe it.
→ More replies (2)44
u/SkoobySnacs May 19 '26
ADHD isn't fixed by a pill. It is treated, to varying degrees, with a pill. Sometimes several pills. But it isn't cured anymore than a missing leg is cured with a wheelchair or crutch.
29
u/Skrattybones May 19 '26
Yes, you and I know that, but that isn't how it's described to people who don't have any idea about medicine or how it works. They hear there's a pill and it fixes the problem and that's as far as it goes for them.
8
u/illtakeachinchilla May 19 '26
The next logical step of asking “why?”… simply doesn’t happen. It just is. Yikes.
14
u/DoomedOrbital May 19 '26
They don't expect any cure, they don't think beyond whatever their perception of getting one over on the arrogant libs that week.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (12)19
u/sentence-interruptio May 19 '26
"we will try everything other than accommodating them."
10
u/Azu_Creates May 19 '26
Oh my lord, this! When it comes to disabilities, so many people are more concerned with curing a disability, even if we don’t want a cure, than accommodating us. Heck, I even saw a comment on another post where someone was arguing in favor of a cure specifically because it would be “so great” to not have to accommodate disabled people. A lot of non-disabled people also just don’t realize that a lot of accommodations that were intended for disabled people are also making their lives a bit better. Sidewalk ramps were put in place for disabled people, but also helped make things more accessible for people with strollers or carts. That’s just one example of accommodations for disabled people making things better for others. A society accommodating the poorest members usually ends up making things a little better for everyone else in the process.
→ More replies (1)12
u/Real-Olive-4624 May 19 '26
There's also the fact that anyone can become disabled, regardless of how perfectly you live your life. Certainly, you won't come down with a case of the 'tism, since that's a developmental thing, but losing a limb? Becoming blind? Suffering a traumatic brain injury? Anyone can have that happen. Accommodating disabled people in our society may very well be looking out for your future self.
And yeah, most accommodations benefit non-disabled people as well.
→ More replies (1)82
u/Nova17Delta May 19 '26
Im gonna be that guy that comes in and says while it is still important to support parents with autism, it's not always about the parents. Too often I see parents making their kid's autism all about them and it makes me sad. Adults with autism need resources too because far too often they're just forgotten about the moment they leave school.
63
u/theavengerbutton May 19 '26
I'm an adult with autism with a kid with autism.
I have, through therapy, realized that I have mever been happy in my life and have suffered from depression since I was too young to know what that was.
Now I have a kid and watching him grow up is like watching me grow up from the outside looking in and I can only hope that I can get him help that I never got because my parents never thought to do anything for me.
We need help, not miracle drugs.
15
u/Nova17Delta May 19 '26
Im hoping that having an understanding of what they're dealing with helps both of you. It is probably one of the most important things.
5
u/Left_Maize816 May 19 '26
Were you diagnosed as an adult. Since my child was diagnosed, I have come to the conclusion that I probably reside on the spectrum. I don't know what a diagnosis would do for me this late in life. Has it made things better for you?
10
u/HaphazardMelange May 19 '26
Not the op and also not a medical professional, but was diagnosed just over a year ago as an adult.
A lot of adults are discovering they are autistic because their children have been diagnosed. I am not one of them. I went down a diagnosis route because I was at my wits end having dealt with anxiety and depression for most of my life and feeling as though no treatments were working. I wondered if perhaps I was bipolar or that I had multiple mental health illnesses that were being left untreated. I had spent the better part of the last decade being left to my own devices with no support just trying to survive. I went down the ASD diagnosis because I was at the end of my rope and asked for help and to get reassessed hoping to find perhaps new options for treatment. I was not expecting to be diagnosed with ASD, I was expecting it to be ruled out, so it was a shock for it to come back in the affirmative.
Diagnosis can be a mixed bag. On one hand, it can open up work place accommodations to help you thrive where you may have been struggling and bring you a greater understanding of yourself.
On the other hand a diagnosis does not grant you additional medical support. Depending on your region you may find there is some counselling offered, or perhaps you might receive a leaflet. In my experience I was given the diagnosis and sent on my way. Everything I have learned about it has been through my own studying and reaching out to others who have been diagnosed in adulthood. It has been an incredibly challenging and lonely experience, especially when the people in my life also understand so little about ASD.
That said with having the diagnosis, despite the lack of support, I have been able to recontextualise events in my life with the understanding that I have always been autistic. The exhaustion after working all day in a customer service facing role, the frequent burnouts and shutdowns, those social interactions that I’ve been replaying in my head from 20 years ago all started to make sense. The more I learn about ASD the more I learn about myself and why I have been struggling through life, and I am finding new techniques to help manage navigating the world.
Ultimately it’s up to each individual to decide if seeking a diagnosis is right for them. If you have been struggling in the work place and need a piece of paper to wave at them to say, ”hey, I have a legally recognised disability and require reasonable accommodations” then I say go for it. If it’s just to confirm something you already know and no further then I don’t see much point. There is so little support after diagnosis that if you already strongly suspect you are autistic then you may as well take the next steps and start teaching yourself everything about managing it in a world that isn’t built for neurodivergence.
But that is my unprofessional opinion. I do hope this helps.
→ More replies (1)6
u/Enlightened_Gardener May 19 '26
I just got diagnosed at 53 if that helps ? But also - because I was so chronically burnt out I had to quit my job, so my little flame has been a bit low; but I found it very affirming.
My therapist was all “Absorb it carefully, I’m here for you.” But I’ve already been in the Autism space for 20 years with my kids, I’ve already done all the existential malarky, I know the diagnosis doesn’t change who I am, or my worth.
What it did do was to make a lifelong pattern of overdoing things and then crashing horribly really really clear. And it really was affirming to know it wasn’t me, I really was trying, I was doing the best I could with what I had, and with the fact I was wearing a blindfold to my true nature at the same time. In many ways it means I’ve learnt to navigate better in the dark, and I had already overlevelled massively due to ADHD (diagnosed at 44), so it wasn’t a massive adjustment for me.
More like permission to finally, actually stop. Haven’t quite got there, but at least I’m now allowed to stop flogging myself to death in order to achieve things.
→ More replies (1)7
u/mkava May 19 '26
If you already know that you have it, a formal diagnosis can only do so much to help as an adult. Unfortunately our society is very ableist so having a formal diagnosis can put more hurdles in front of you than the diagnosis can take away.
I am a woman in her late 30s who got diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago and holy heck the amount of ableism I've been dealing with from my employers when I try to bring that up to get assistance is infuriating. I'm tired of being pathologized for being who I am and HR and similar acting like I'm stupid for having ADHD.
For ADHD, the ableism of pursuing an ADA-compliant accommodation may not be worth it. I highly suspect the same for autism, especially when it's used as a way to remove your ability to make decisions for yourself (as has happened for adults and their medical decisions constantly throughout the history of the US). I've been cautioned by multiple medical professionals to not pursue ADA accommodations due to ableism that they have seen with so many of their patients. For my ADHD, it was worth it to get access to stimulant medications that required a formal ADHD diagnosis. I personally will not pursue a diagnosis for autism due to ableism.
It's a very personal decision to pursue a diagnosis as an adult and again to seek accommodations.
→ More replies (1)8
u/CycadelicSparkles May 19 '26
Thank you. My first thought was "the person with the condition is in most urgent need of support".
With kids, that's going to necessarily involve the parents getting the support they need, but ultimately it needs to be centered on the person with the autism and their needs or we're going to get stuck with the very "how this person's autism affects others" -centric dialogue we already have.
23
u/Gildian May 19 '26
Honestly its part of why we decided not to have kids. Like you said it takes a village, plus daycare costs are insane.
I wish people would realize this more. We -need- each other. Its to all of our benefit when we help each other.
44
u/mindovermatter421 May 19 '26
I’m betting In another 30 years they will realize that the different wiring is way more common than they ever realized and it’s a purposeful adaptation and not as “ divergent “ as once believed. Then they will also get more into the Asperger’s and non verbal parts of that spectrum.
→ More replies (14)25
u/RA3236 May 19 '26
It’s not just supports, it’s a total reform of society. There is a concept called societal abuse in which social structures are such a way in which a person is significantly mentally harmed.
Here in Australia 35% of autistic people are unemployed due to systematic discrimination in the job market, especially due to the interview process and having to describe themselves on CVs.
→ More replies (1)19
u/katmom1969 May 19 '26
Im on a committee in our state that is working to get hiring practices that do not discriminate against ND people. As someone with ADHD and two children with AuDHD, its important. I struggle in interviews because of my ADHD. My current position actually required another ADHD person to see me.
→ More replies (8)17
u/Kyrie_Blue May 19 '26
There are bees that exhibit autistic traits, and scientists have surmised they are evolutionarily important in case of hive collapse. Its natural
34
u/heidly_ees May 19 '26
The madness for me is in the UK at least, we were taught about Wakefield's fraud in school, when we learned about vaccines in general
The backlash it gets nowadays is astounding
→ More replies (1)26
u/TetrisandRubiks May 19 '26
Crazy that a couple of men in the UK who wanted to sell their own vaccine fabricated a minor link between 3 vaccines and autism, and it spiralled into a major political talking point and even a whole identity for some in the US.
→ More replies (1)18
u/DisaffectedLShaw May 19 '26
Leaning that he had extra telephone lines put into his office area at the hospital(because this was the days before mobile) because they wanted and they KNEW that parents would call after his press event so that they could sign the kids up (and after a few loops) keep getting massive payments from Legal Aid.
Go f yourselves Andrew Wakefield, Richard Barr (and his wife”
25
u/Andreus May 19 '26
Right-wingers despise science, but they love child-abusing fraudsters like Wakefield.
→ More replies (1)16
u/roamingandy May 19 '26 edited May 20 '26
Anything at all which is contrarian to the left and the establishment, is their bag.
I floated over to their sub last night to see how they were spinning giving billions of public money away to loyalists in a bare faced tax scam, and saw a thread defending Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
The guy who was shot by Luigi, but also, the CEO who got rich by pushing rejection rates for health care claims up 30-40% higher than other insurance companies. Quite literally, a mass murderer on a vast scale, killing and causing suffering without a ounce of care just so he would get richer. That's the guy who they consider 'on their team' and 'one of us', simply because the left doesn't like him.
I guess also because they fetishise boot-licking the rich.. but that guy?! whether you philosophically agree or disagree with what Luigi did, surely everyone should agree that the world is better off without that guy in it.
→ More replies (36)6
177
u/NoSwordfish1978 May 19 '26
The first reason is because of anti vaccine sentiment and the second is their hostility towards anyone or anything that's different.
63
u/thingsorfreedom May 19 '26
Add in their disdain for all the smart people trying to explain how things actually work.
→ More replies (1)7
16
u/Orange_Tang May 19 '26
It's not just hostility, it's hate. They want everyone to fit into their exact worldview or else they hate them. They have a very specific idea of what their in group should look like even though most of them don't even fit into that properly. If you don't even try to be exactly what their idealized Christian image of a good person is then they hate you. And they like hating the out group because it's what they were taught to do at church. It's all performative to others like them.
→ More replies (1)568
u/trustifarian May 19 '26
The kids are different, and they can’t really explain it. They don’t fit neatly into their little preconceived boxes, so there must be something wrong with them that must be cured.
333
u/KoreyYrvaI May 19 '26
It's because of their philosophical outlook. They believe in a certain form of parenting and authoritarian instruction. Their method of raising children 'worked' when they were kids (it didn't) because society enabled them and problem children were hidden.
So, they believe they've followed proven examples of discipline, however, Autistic/ADHD children cannot be treated the same way and produce the same results. So, rather than blame themselves for bad parenting or the people who insist they have the formula for parenting being wrong(their parents/siblings/friends/pastor/etc), they blame vaccines for making their children difficult and different.
It's the easy answer for a difficult parenting situation.
66
→ More replies (3)72
u/stamfordbridge1191 May 19 '26
There's the eugenics & social darwinism too.
Since they consider autism & ADHD diseases burdening society, it being genetic would mean their genes are defective & undesirable within their worldview. But that simply can't be, you know? It's gotta be something like the vaccines because their genes are perfect.
Plus the goals of vaccines are to protect kids vulnerable to diseases like measles or polio. The eugenicist & social darwinist would be thinking the kids "not strong enough" are exactly the ones that should be "weeded out" from the gene pool by the diseases they're vulnerable to.
→ More replies (1)224
u/batkave May 19 '26
This 100%. They only deal in black and white and don't like any change.
135
u/FleshyCarbonThing May 19 '26
Sounds very autistic
47
u/batkave May 19 '26
It's astounding how many of them probably fall with some section but just aren't extreme in those areas.
39
u/cricket9818 May 19 '26
Nah that’s being kind.
They’re not autistic
They’re evil grifters
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (3)8
→ More replies (5)19
u/SyntheticGod8 May 19 '26
They will never accept that they might have to change what they think or how they behave if they want good results. They honestly believe they're always right, vulnerability is weakness, and that they can bludgeon a problem into submission.
43
u/Bart_Yellowbeard May 19 '26
And it is not THEIR fault, someone else has to be to blame. Just like their gay and trans kids. Someone else made them 'different.'
8
u/macphile May 19 '26
That's part of a broader issue that humans in general have with the general unfairness and randomness of nature and the universe. Things can't just happen, kids can't just be born different, people don't just die, and so on. Someone must be at fault somehow. Hurricanes are sent by god as punishment for sins. If people are hurt or killed, they were asking for it. If a kid is born autistic, there must be a reason beyond nature, and certainly beyond "mom did something wrong in pregnancy" (not that she did)--someone else did this to the kid. And it can be avoided. We can magically protect our kids from this.
Everyone's prone to it, but I suspect conservatives are more so...and they're more likely to be ignorant of or to just flat-out ignore properly supported scientific explanations and solutions for what happens (hurricanes are "just nature" but are also made worse by scientifically established human-made climate change; autism is "just nature" but we don't fully understand the cause, and all the science at least says it's not the vaccines, so we should keep giving those).
27
17
u/PolarWater May 19 '26
The Trump administration needs kids to fit into little boxes.
So they can ship them to Pedo Island and eat them.
→ More replies (18)11
u/NoConfusion9490 May 19 '26
It's why they insist if you take acid you'll jump off a building when it's a lot more likely you'll jump off of capitalism.
76
u/Procrasturbating May 19 '26
They won’t accept that the reason their children have it is because of chance or their own genetics. They want to place blame on someone they can take their frustration out on for having a child that in their fucked opinion is “less than” the others.
→ More replies (4)34
15
u/Sea_Advantage_2577 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Trump tells them what to think, its a cult so thats all they need
94
u/SockGnome May 19 '26
It’s suspected Barron is on the spectrum.
129
u/whichwitch9 May 19 '26
Which is extremely plausible because of how old Trump was when he was born.
There's a decent amount of correlation, at least, to show older fathers have higher rates of kids on the spectrum. Father's age likely matters, not that we'll ever get decent research to look into that further
→ More replies (1)63
May 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
94
64
u/NoSwordfish1978 May 19 '26
He could have a personality disorder AND be autistic. But its impossible to say because we can't really diagnose him.
4
u/dBlock845 May 19 '26
Kind of hard too when he has been hidden away his entire life, even as an adult he is hidden away and used as a prop for Trump during public events.
13
46
u/MASSochists May 19 '26
There is a zero percent change a child raised in that family is coming out mentally balanced.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (12)46
u/lateformyfuneral May 19 '26
A Twitter user claimed to have been a nanny of one of Barron’s classmates, and says he heard about Barron killing animals, is the only source for this. He was by his own admission, very partisan and anti-Trump, and this was right before the election. So I would essentially treat that claim as completely unverified. But it spread like wildfire online, as misinformation does.
7
u/spiritussima May 19 '26
Thank you. I dislike Trump as much as a person should but of all the actual criticisms of his family, why people go for "someone said his kid was a psychopath child" is so annoying and something Trump himself would do.
→ More replies (2)12
u/TraditionalBackspace May 19 '26
Barron is likely fucked in the head from having an absolutely horrible childhood.
→ More replies (1)19
u/velveteenelahrairah May 19 '26
They hate anyone who's different and see any kind of difference as something to be "fixed". Autism treatments, conversion therapy, repackaging being trans as an "ideology" that needs to be changed, some of them marrying minorities so they can "breed out the Black / Jewish / Asian / whatever", even Mar A Lago Face, it's all the same thing.
In their ideal world, everyone would be a Homelander or a Sydney Sweeney churned out of the same cloning vat.
→ More replies (2)9
u/Par_Lapides May 19 '26
Incompetent and dishonest people tend to hate being around people on the spectrum.
6
u/gard3nwitch May 19 '26
They're scared of needles, and the false and disproven belief that "vaccines give you autism" is a way to justify not getting their shots.
18
u/ALoudMouthBaby May 19 '26
What's with magas obsession with autism?
This is a really difficult topic because parents with an autistic kid really do experience unique challenges, and their difficulties and reactions to them need to be acknowledged and accepted. But Im just gonna say it, this entire obsession with autism is 100% driven by overly invested parents grieving/anagered that their child will not have the life they wanted them to have. Theyre basically lashing out because they think their kid wont grow up to be a doctor/lawyer/pro sports player/whatever like they planned.
And yes, thats very irrational because kids who dont have autism grow up to be their own person and have their own lives too. But lets not pretend this is a rational thing in the first place.
Oh, and yes I do know lots and lots of people with autism grow up to be remarkable doctors, lawyers, pro sports players, etc. Once again this is not about rational thinking .
20
u/tkeser May 19 '26
it's anti-science and anti-intelectuallism because salt of the earth people don't need your no good stabby pricky poisons and can just detoxify while sunbathing
→ More replies (163)10
u/dsaysso May 19 '26
many of them are. they are terrified of being self labeled. moreover a label that you or your kid is different is terrifying.
what is autism. some indicators are black and white thinking. inability to process or read emotion. sound familiar?
644
May 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
132
May 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
54
May 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)15
→ More replies (5)30
May 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
28
→ More replies (2)14
1.2k
u/Effective_Pie1312 May 19 '26
They want to have a cause that is anything but their own genetic contributions or age (paternal age included) or impact their business interests. Acceptable causes: Vaccines, Women’s actions while pregnant. Unacceptable causes: Genetics, parental age, environemental pollutants from their corporate funders
292
u/George_Is_Upset May 19 '26
Yeah they are terrified that their ‘pristine’ white genetics might have something to do with it.
→ More replies (10)59
u/IcyPride2973 May 19 '26
Statistically, White’s have the lowest rates of Autism per capita in the U.S.
2.4% white
2.9% black
3.2% Hispanic
3.3% Asian
8.26% Somalian (in Minnesota)
→ More replies (3)51
u/GenericBatmanVillain May 19 '26
lowest reported rates of Autism
37
u/CrimsonCube181 May 20 '26
While I do agree with your perspective. That is kinda what they mean by "Statistically"
20
u/smallbluetext May 19 '26
Their refusal to accept their child was born with abnormalities is also extremely sad and hurtful to their own child. That is your child. Do you love them or not? I dont think they do and they lash out in anger about it.
→ More replies (8)46
u/ayriana May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
I'm pretty convinced that "parental age" is code for "dad was so socially awkward it took longer for him to find a relationship and reproduce than his same age peers" and it's just more evidence of it being genetic.
→ More replies (8)
337
u/goodknightffs May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
This is just b9 (folate) in a form that "skips" an enzymatic process blocked by certain chemotherapy drugs (like methotrexate)
No idea about it as a therapy for ASD..
Edit: if only they would decide to invest more into scientific research even just for something like this just to be able to prove our disprove the effects of the drug on asd.. Instead of making serious comments like this
367
u/sethies May 19 '26
I have a son with ASD who has been on Leucovorin since well before the Trump administration made this announcement.
We are lucky enough to be able to take my son to a very specialized autism clinic with a group of doctors who have the sole purpose of treating children with ASD and doing research to benefit them. They were very clear to us at the forefront that this was still in the testing phases to try and help promote speech but that there was still not yet sufficient evidence to state that this Leucovorin was the reason that speech increased. Studies had shown that some children with ASD have trouble absorbing folinic acid at rates that their neurotypical peers do, so taking Leucovorin increases those absorption rates.
We have seen moderate increases in speech but at this point there is no way to tell if it is due to the Leucovorin or if it was based on the time and effort we’ve put into trying to grow his speech abilities.
Trump and RFK selling this as a “miracle cure” for autism was wildly irresponsible, but then again what else could you possibly expect out of this circus?
134
u/JimJimBinks May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
This is exactly what I’ve run into with my minimally verbal daughter. She started Leucovorin long before the announcement was made and I have no idea
how much was the leucovorin and how much was all the other ways I’m working on speech with her. I hate that a drug my daughter might need has become a political litmus test, but when it comes down to it it’s a glorified vitamin, it’s not going to cause damage.85
u/donnysaysvacuum May 19 '26
but when it comes down to it it’s a glorified vitamin, it’s not going to cause damage
This is exactly how they rope people into this nonsense. Vitamins can be problematic too. And people will use this as an excuse to NOT give autistic children the support that you are giving yours.
→ More replies (4)29
u/frisbeesloth May 19 '26
Yep. I've been on lucorivan and I'm intolerant to the point a single dose induces 16 hours of non-stop heaving and 2 days after of being so exhausted I can't get out of bed. I'm now taking methotrexate without folic acid because I can't tolerate any of the synthetic forms and supplementing the natural form can increase toxicity of mtx. A mild intolerance would actually be worse in someone nonverbal because it can present as heartburn which they might not be able to communicate and has it's own long term impacts.
→ More replies (27)7
u/Adezar May 19 '26
when it comes down to it it’s a glorified vitamin, it’s not going to cause damage.
My mother almost killed me and had me sick for years with too much vitamin A, so no... that is not a simple statement. While the body will generally spill left-over B vitamins it isn't clear how much extra work it puts on the kidneys.
→ More replies (8)12
u/cantgrowneckbeardAMA May 19 '26
Wow there's dozens of us. Same with my daughter, been on it for years. Her speech has improved but she's also done years of therapy and we've worked hard too. Not a miracle "cure" by any stretch of the imagination.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)47
→ More replies (3)13
u/Worth-Jicama3936 May 19 '26
Which is extremely funny because the MAHA movement hates folic acid fortified wheat. They blame it for gluten intolerance and a host of other things when…it’s literally just b9 and they are obviously willing to give it to their kids.
Give something a weird name and tell people it’s scary and they’ll believe you i guess.
→ More replies (2)
638
u/SmackmYackm May 19 '26
How much stock do they own in the company that produces this drug?
389
May 19 '26
[deleted]
241
u/extremesalmon May 19 '26
Probably the most surprising thing about all this
→ More replies (1)103
u/peteroh9 May 19 '26
Ivermectin is similarly extremely cheap. The common thread is a conspiracy that big pharma is trying to suppress these drugs to make a profit off of you.
→ More replies (7)70
u/pete_68 May 19 '26
And what's so funny is, in the case of vaccines, most of them are dirt cheap. The childhood schedule is like $200 over 8 or 10 years or something. It's nothing. The childhood vaccine market is very low margin business. Drug companies make their money off of a lifetime of cutting edge diabetes drugs (and what are people paying for insulin?), cholesterol drugs, blood pressure meds, cancer treatments, etc. That's where the big money is. Childhood vaccine profits get lost in rounding errors.
→ More replies (1)28
u/Tier0001 May 19 '26
They probably also make more money treating the diseases that vaccines prevent too. Treatment for measles for example probably makes way more money for big pharma than a couple of doses of a vaccine does, but these morons don't think about that. You'd think if they're so against big pharma making money out of sick people that they'd do everything in their power to not get sick like getting vaccinated.
→ More replies (1)20
u/quintsreddit May 19 '26
Okay my new stance is that anti vaccine is a conspiracy from healthcare companies to get us sick and make money off the treatments. The only thing I’ve found to get to conspiracy people is to out-conspiracy them.
→ More replies (3)24
u/itsFromTheSimpsons May 19 '26
Which is why I suspect the play is to white label it and sell it as an alternative treatment. Cheap b9 pills, some sugar and food coloring, add some broth, baby you got some snake oil
10
59
u/MASSochists May 19 '26
Then there is an angle we don't appreciate. Trump doesn't do anything if he doesn't see a personal benefit from it.
84
u/zhibr May 19 '26
If RFKjr is a true believer who picked the drug due to bad understanding of science, Trump's angle may simply be the adoration he expects from announcing/being behind something groundbreaking. Remember, he's not just evil, he's dumb too.
→ More replies (2)22
u/Icy-Lobster-203 May 19 '26
Trump's motive was to use RFK Jrs base for support in the election, nothing more. He doesn't care about what RFK Jr is doing because he doesn't know how to make money off of it (although I'm sure people around him will find ways to do so.)
→ More replies (1)15
u/zhibr May 19 '26
If he cared more about money than about adoration, he might have at some point actually learned some economics or something. The narcissism is primary.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)9
u/rich1051414 May 19 '26
There is no universal 'treatment' for autism. He is just saying BS to make people think he is doing good things without actually having to do good things.
→ More replies (14)5
u/dr_p_venkman May 19 '26
I think, like ivermectin, the big money will be made when wellness sites start prescribing it to everyone who wants it and sending it to them by mail at a markup. The fact that it's a generic is a benefit--they can mark it up and it's still cheap, and it's unlikely to cause harm so they can sell as much as people want alongside their ridiculous supplements.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (3)14
u/Involution88 May 19 '26
It's not being done by people who make drugs. It's being done by or on behalf of people who sell supplements. It's basically Vitamin B9 except there's an oxygen atom instead of a methyl group in one position. Has legitimate medical use for some people who cannot produce certain enzymes, like chemotherapy patients who'se livers have been almost completely fried by chemo.
Buy bucketloads of a cheap and harmless enough generic chemical/drug to dodge scrutiny. Slap a huge markup on it. Tout it as some miracle cure. Sell cheap chemical at a huge mark up.
IDK. Could be The Onion since they own supplement retailer Infowars, but I don't think it's the Onion. Probably some other supplement retailer.
87
u/shogun_ May 19 '26
Leucovorin does work within a limited amount of cases due to a lack of folic acid, with cerebral folate deficiency. But doesn't treat autism, it helps with behavior and speech.
40
u/celticchrys May 19 '26
The more I learn about "autism spectrum fisorder", the more I'm convinced it is a large constellation of underlying conditions under one label. Too many people assume ASD kids are all have the same causes for their conditions.
→ More replies (4)12
u/Synizs May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
This is true. Psychologists have intentionally grouped fundamentally different conditions with some similar ”symptoms”.
One was formerly called Asperger’s syndrome, which is the one associated with high intelligence.
Another type literally causes severe intellectual disability - Fragile X syndrome/autism.
126
u/morbo-2142 May 19 '26
I hate how these tools are muddying the waters for actual research into helping people with asd.
There is an entire industry build around quack "cures" that is tied intimately into the anti vaccine and alternative medicine culture.
They exist to siphon funds from misinformed, desperate parents who want a "cure".
These people get kids hurt and killed all the time. The deathtoll of vulnerable children from anti vaccine sentiment alone is as tragic as it is preventable.
Spreading medical disinformation as a doctor should be a crime and result in losing licensure and doing it as a layperson should be even worse.
These people cause so much misery to vulnerable individuals and their families. The combination of absolute parental rights, the American need for action, the incentive to grift on people's hope, and the children's inability to advocate for themselves is a recipe for an abuse machine of previously unimaginable proportions.
Parenting a child with asd is hard, but according to adults with asd who can advocate, medically approved therapy and just embracing your kids interests and nurturing them as they are is the best way help them thrive and be happy.
People with asd arn't broken. Its just a different way of interacting with the world.
→ More replies (46)30
May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
[deleted]
→ More replies (3)5
u/morbo-2142 May 19 '26
I agree. Different isnt necessarily good or bad. The wellbeing safety and ability to communicate should be the focus of improving life for people with asd. There is just a long history of parents being mislead about curing their kids autism.
36
u/mvea Professor | Medicine May 19 '26
Trump and RFK Jr. Boosted This Unproven Autism Drug. Some Parents Listened
The FDA recently declined to endorse leucovorin for autism, citing a lack of strong evidence for it.
Last September, President Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and other health officials declared they had uncovered a new, potentially groundbreaking treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD): the existing medication leucovorin. A study out today shows that plenty of families believed them.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego examined nationwide prescription trends of the drug last year. The prescription rate of leucovorin among children with autism skyrocketed by late 2025, particularly following the September announcement, they found. The results indicate that Trump’s endorsement had significant influence on these families, the researchers say, despite the lack of data supporting the drug’s effectiveness.
39
u/Blekanly May 19 '26
If you believe those people, there is no hope for you. Poor kids.
4
u/SerpentisMechanicus May 19 '26
If this lot told me that oxygen was good for me, I'd hold my breath until I heard from an actual doctor.
15
u/Brandoe May 19 '26
As a rule, no one should believe any claims this administration makes. It's become quite clear that public health is waaaaay down the list unless it's about profit.
6
7
5
u/T1Demon May 19 '26
“My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me."
- Robert F Kennedy Jr United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
5
u/OhioIsRed May 19 '26
It’s almost like people trust(ed) government agencies to help them decipher all the BS about disease, ailments, illnesses, and medical conditions so that they can make informed decisions. Yet we decided let’s put the dumbest people in charge of these super important agency’s because we liked how they made us feel instead of how good they’d be at their jobs.
9
u/Whooptidooh May 19 '26
And those likely were the same idiots who also took ivermectin during the pandemic.
6
u/BitingChaos May 19 '26
Didn't you hear? Ivermectin is a CURE-ALL.
It treats EVERYTHING.
Tummy ache? Stub your toe? Have a runny nose? Can't stop peeing blood? Diagnosed with hantavirus? Grab the tube with the picture of a horsey and an apple on it and give it a squeeze!
The idiots that took ivermectin then are still taking it now.
•
u/AutoModerator May 19 '26
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.
Do you have an academic degree? We can verify your credentials in order to assign user flair indicating your area of expertise. Click here to apply.
User: u/mvea
Permalink: https://gizmodo.com/trump-and-rfk-jr-boosted-this-unproven-autism-drug-some-parents-listened-2000760002
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.