Here’s how we know that RFK Jr’s alarmism about autism isn’t backed up by evidence. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-.... I had a lot of thoughts reporting this. 🧵 - ThreadSky

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sipappas.bsky.social • 18 days ago

Here’s how we know that RFK Jr’s alarmism about autism isn’t backed up by evidence. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-real-reason-autism-rates-are-rising/.

I had a lot of thoughts reporting this. 🧵

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sipappas.bsky.social•18 days ago

Before I was a reporter, I was a teacher’s aide at a school for autistic kids who needed 1:1 support. That was in the early 2000s and I was struck by how stuck in that era Kennedys language was.

sipappas.bsky.social•18 days ago

Talk of epidemics and regressions and terrible depictions of autism were already getting pushback in the community then, but it wasn’t unusual to see it in the media. And it’s just so demoralizing to see it back in the mouth of such highly placed people.

sipappas.bsky.social•18 days ago

The kids I worked with had more profound needs, with the kind of behaviors like stimming that Kennedy spoke of with such disdain. (PS why is he so weird about toe-walking??)

sipappas.bsky.social•18 days ago

They were awesome people living full lives. They and their families needed support to do things a little differently. But hearing him talk about them like that? “They’ll never pay taxes, they’ll never write a poem,” made my jaw drop.

sipappas.bsky.social•18 days ago

I have no profound ending here, just that my relationships with those kids were so close to my heart, and there could be nothing further from the truth than the way Kennedy talked about autism.

lesja.bsky.social•18 days ago

this is sooo good!! i have really been wondering about the debate around (and data on) changes in diagnostic criteria and rising diagnosis rates, and this lays it out so nicely

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