Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / RFK Jr on Autism Misunderstood or Misleading? Here's Where I Stand

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RFK Jr on Autism Misunderstood or Misleading? Here's Where I Stand · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

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  You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
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  Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
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  an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
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  spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
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  OK guys, let's talk about RFK and the autism thing.
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  So Robert F Kennedy Junior, he is the health secretary of
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  America, I believe, or he's, I'm not entirely sure.
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  So like American politics is different to UK politics.
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  But anyway, he's come out saying that he's looking at different
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  things. And two of the main things he's
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  looking at is, is, is toxins in food that are unhealthy for
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  people because he lives quite a healthy lifestyle, as far as I
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  can tell. I mean, the guy's like, you
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  know, jacked and he's like super old.
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  And then the other thing is autism, this is like a big thing
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  on his list. Now.
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  He's released 2 statements on this and one was a big speech
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  and one wasn't. The the first part where he said
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  that his rhetoric is less than favorable in terms of autism.
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  The way he speaks about it, he says like autistic individuals,
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  it's like a disease for autism. It ruins families.
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  Autistic individuals won't pay taxes, don't have normal lives.
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  And you know, it's a, it's a really, I want to talk about it
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  and I want you guys to chime in. And I really want to look at it
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  from a, just a viewing perspective, like as an autistic
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  adult myself with low support needs versus, you know, friends
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  of mine who are high support needs and they can't speak
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  right. So there are a lot of us with
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  different issues and different needs.
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  Now, the first thing is some autistic individuals will be so
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  profoundly disabled that they won't be able to, you know, hold
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  down a typical job or, or, or, or live independently.
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  And I understand that. And that is a shame.
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  And that is painful for the families.
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  It's painful for the person because they want to be
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  independent. You know, there's a person
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  inside there that like, just wants to, to do things like
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  anybody else. And that is a difficulty.
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  It's, it's harsh. It's, it's hard going and it is
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  difficult. But that doesn't make them any
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  less of a person and it doesn't make them any less loved, right?
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  Because they're still here, they still matter, they're still part
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  of our community, and we should do everything to protect those
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  people. Now, why is RFK saying this
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  stuff? He's saying this stuff because
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  he is trying to. He wants to figure out what is
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  the cause of autism by September.
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  Sorry, it sounds so funny saying, but what's the cause of
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  autism by September? So in like 4 years, the rate of
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  autism in the US went from like 1:00 in like 60 to one in 31
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  kids diagnosed with autism. So he's calling it an epidemic.
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  And I'm trying to figure how, how, how to best talk about this
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  because it's such an interesting topic and it's very sensitive.
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  And I want to do it from a kind of like just a viewpoint.
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  I'm not going to take, you know, my emotions into this at the
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  moment because there's a lot of people talking about their
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  emotions. I think we need kind of a stable
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  kind of look at it because there's a second part, which
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  we'll get into in a minute. Now, when RFK said this stuff
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  about autism, it kind of shocked me because I'm like, look, it's
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  not a disease. And the research we have
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  currently that's been done over like 80 years says that autism
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  is genetic, right? Which means that we inherit
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  those genes from ancestors. And, and kind of like one of
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  the, one of the doctors I spoke to said that like, you know,
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  maybe there's, you know, 1 grandparent has this kind of
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  piece, you know, that relates to autism.
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  And this grandparent has this piece and it comes together.
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  And then your parent has a piece.
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  And then the other parent has a piece.
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  And then it comes together and gives it more of a volume in you
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  as a, as a human being to be more prevalent on the spectrum
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  because obviously it is a spectrum.
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  And depending on how those genes kind of come together and how
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  your brain develops, it's neurological, right?
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  So there is no cure for autism. There's no reversing autism.
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  And I'm not sure that he's looking for, I don't think RFK
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  is looking for a cure for autism, right?
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  I think he's just looking to stop the rate in which autism is
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  increasing. Now this comes from the fact
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  that he looked at data over 17 years of data and this data
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  shows that the, the rate of autism is increasing and not
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  just due to diagnostic criteria improvements, which is what I
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  would say. Well, I did a video on this.
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  I did a video on like why autism rates are increasing.
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  And I, and I took to my knowledge, believe that it's the
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  increase in the diagnostic kind of criteria that the, the
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  ability to do it. Now, the technology we have is
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  so much better. The education around diagnosing
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  autism is way more relevant and we have some really good cutting
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  edge assessment processes coming out, right?
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  And I think that kind of, and then you have a backlog, right?
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  You have people who who are in their 50s to their 20s who, who
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  were missed out of those and diagnosis of their kids and then
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  they get this kind of updated diagnosis.
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  So this could account for the epidemic as RFK says.
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  Hey, just a heads up guys, if there are any of you out there
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  who are autistic and you're finding it hard or struggling to
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  cope with situations right now, I actually have a program really
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  affordable called Coping Secrets or Autism Coping Secrets.
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  Now you can get access to this by visiting the link in the
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  description down below and looking for Coping Secrets
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  course, or you can go to learnautism.net/coping Secrets
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  right now and get access to that course.
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  It's highly recommended. It's my bestseller.
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  Most people that come through my programs will take this one
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  first and they swear by it's a seven step program.
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  It's it's really good. Check it out.
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  He also states a study that was done and it was a, a very, a
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  very detailed study done over 17 years in the US and they took
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  into account that type of data and that still left 97% of the
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  cases down to like genetics, right?
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  It wasn't, it wasn't because they've missed out kind of these
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  are like new, but it was like not new bones, but like young,
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  young kids. I think they were like 8 year
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  olds. I think they're zero to 8,
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  right. And, and so it kind of it, it
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  kind of said the data conclude that it, that autism is rapidly
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  increasing and there must be a reason for this.
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  We don't know the reason, right, That, that that autism happens.
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  We don't really know. We know it's genetic, but there
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  is no actual, you know, data to suggest otherwise.
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  And just like anything else, it's kind of like it, it
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  happens. It's a natural occurrence and
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  RFK is kind of like, it's a bit scary when he talks about it
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  because he talks about autistic individuals like it's a drug on
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  society and that kind of retrograde hurts, you know how I
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  feel about it, but it also hurts the kind of the image of autism
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  and, and it kind of, it's reminiscent of some really eerie
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  weird stuff. Now, RFK might be a bit of a
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  crazy, right? I don't really know.
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  I don't know the guy. I, I only, and I'm not American,
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  like I know a little bit about American politics and what I see
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  on the news and what I hear in videos I see, but that is a
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  little bit like off the wall. Now, the second part is he
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  speaks about this autism registry thing.
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  Well, it's been W autism registry.
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  And basically what he wants to do is track data or access data
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  from private healthcare records and smart data from like smart
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  watches and things like that on people who are autistic and try
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  to put together some kind of registry to find data points
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  that match or, or come to a a point.
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  Because he thinks he believes that it could be environmental,
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  right? The cause of autism could be
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  environmental. I don't think so.
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  You know, I mean, OK, let's let's give a scenario.
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  Yes, somebody could be in a car crash and they could have brain
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  damage and that brain damage could mimic the symptomatic
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  traits of autism. OK, I get that kind of
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  environmental thing. But he's trying to say that I
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  think what he's trying to lead to is that there's some
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  environmental factor like pollution or toxins or something
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  that's causing autism, right? Which I disagree with because I
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  did a video all about how vaccines don't cause autism,
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  right? Like there's, there's a bunch of
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  like anti vax kind of people who say otherwise and, and they're
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  allowed to believe and think what they want.
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  And I'm allowed to believe and think what I want.
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  And I don't believe as a chemist.
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  I have a BSc, a bachelor's degree in chemistry.
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  And the vaccines that we are exposed to, don't they, they're
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  safe. They don't look like they're
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  going to cause autism, right? But the bigger picture is, you
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  know, RFK can have his, his, his thoughts on like what's causing
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  autism and then he'll figure out that it's genetic and, you know,
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  maybe it's a new stage in human evolution.
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  I don't know. I'm just saying, I'm putting
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  this out there. Please don't.
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  I'm not going crazy. But the autism registry is, has
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  entanglements and the entanglements are basically
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  this. It's dangerous to collect
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  private data on individuals, have them on a database,
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  especially when they're vulnerable individuals who could
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  be targeted for all kinds of things.
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  This is private data, healthcare data, smartwatch data, who
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  knows? And even more so, you don't know
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  what the next level of government will do if they have
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  access to that data. I mean, we've all seen
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  horrendous things happen in history.
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  And I'm not saying that any of this has been repeated.
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  What I'm saying is that we have to be mindful of this.
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  And I can admire that somebody wants to do something to help
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  autistic individuals, but I don't know if this is the right
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  help. And I don't think that creating
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  an autism registry is going to be helpful to anybody apart from
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  detrimental to the privacy of the lives of the people who
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  they're collecting the data from.
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  Now, this is just my personal thought.
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  This is an edited video. This is just straighten the
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  source. What do you guys think about it?
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  You're in America, Let me know. Drop me a comment down below.
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  I won't have this discussion. And as you can tell, I really, I
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  reply to every single comment that I get.
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  So please drop me a comment down below.
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  Let's talk about it and thanks for joining this video.
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  I know it's a bit of a random abrupt video and it's different
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  to my normal one, but I wanted to address it because it's
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  everywhere and everyone's talking about it And I have
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  thought about it and I wanted to kind of really come to the the
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  the plate with something that I felt was adequate to say at this
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  time. All right, I will see you in the
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  next one guys piece. Hey, guys, thank you so much for
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  checking out this podcast. Make sure you are subscribed
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  because there are people listening right now who are not
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  subscribed to this podcast. I can see you make sure you
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  subscribe. OK guys, See you in the next
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  one. Peace.