RFK Jr. Has Packed an Autism Panel With Cranks and Conspiracy Theorists

US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filled a committee on autism with friends, associates and former colleagues who believe autism is caused by vaccines. Autism advocates now fear that this group could pave the way for the widespread use of dangerous pseudo-scientific treatments.

Last week, Kennedy announced an entirely new membership for the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a group that recommends the types of autism research the government should fund and provides advice on services the autism community needs. The group is typically made up of experts in the field of autism research, as well as policy experts and autistic people who advocate on behalf of their own communities.

In a statement announcing the new panel, which does not include any previous members, Kennedy said he had appointed “the most qualified experts – leaders with decades of experience in the study, research and treatment of autism.” But health experts and autism advocates strongly disagree, and a review of the group’s new members suggests Kennedy has named members of the anti-vaccine community who claim vaccines cause autism — although there is no evidence to prove such a claim.

Among those named last week was Daniel Rossignol, a doctor facing charges of alleged fraud after prescribing a debunked and dangerous treatment to a 7-year-old autistic child. Tracy Slepcevic, an appointee whom Kennedy calls a “dear friend,” is offering to expose a wide range of bogus cures for autism at her annual autism health summit, including one that involves injecting children with animal stem cells. Another named person, Toby Rogers, claimed that “no thoughtful person vaccinates” and that vaccine manufacturers are “poisoning children.” Rogers is a fellow at the Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research and has also called vaccines “one of the greatest crimes in human history.” He has written articles for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy that has linked autism to vaccines.

The other people named are no different: John Gilmore founded the Autism Action Network and said his autistic son was “vaccine injured.” Gilmore is also the founder of the New York chapter of Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense. Ginger Taylor, former director of the Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice, has publicly stated that many cases of autism involve “vaccine causation.” Elizabeth Mumper has written for Children’s Health Defense and is a senior researcher at the Independent Medical Alliance, a group formerly known as the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance that has promoted ivermectin as a treatment for Covid.

Mumper tells WIRED that her decades of work as a pediatrician and in the field of autism have qualified her to be a member of the IACC. She also denied being anti-vaccine, noting that she had “administered thousands of vaccines over the course of my career.”

None of the other new IACC members contacted by WIRED responded to requests for comment.

Just a few years ago, this might have looked like the all-star lineup at a conspiracy conference. Today, these appointments seem routine and are just the latest example of how Kennedy sought to overhaul America’s public health administration.

Kennedy’s decision, public health experts and autism advocates say, will result in fewer resources for autistic people and their families, and will also embolden those who promote pseudoscientific treatments that could threaten the lives of autistic people.

“Again, [Kennedy] proves that he is one of the most extreme and dangerous conspiracy theorists in the world, who loves to fill his committees with anti-science and anti-public health weirdos,” Gavin Yamey, a professor of global health and public policy at Duke University, told WIRED. “The research evidence is clear that vaccines do not cause autism.” To Yamey, “it appears that RFK Jr.’s new committee has been tasked with muddying the waters and seeding doubt about this evidence. RFK Jr. has spent the last year doing everything he can to dismantle public health and roll back vaccination, and this new committee is more of the same.