Why Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy jr. obsessed with autism are

At a press conference on Monday in the White House, Donald Trump announced that the medication of paracetamol (US brand name: Tylenol) was jointly responsible for autism. That’s why he warned pregnant women about taking paracetamol: “It’s not good.”

Behind him was US Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He announced in spring to present the cause of autism until September – and delivered a neurological developmental disorder – and Kennedy provided: the devil’s stuff that contributed significantly to the development of the “epidemic” of autism, is paracetamol.

At that moment, the fact that science sees no connection did not matter in the White House. The fact that autism, according to the current state of research, is triggered by 80 percent by certain gene combinations. In addition to the genetic, other factors are suspected of increasing the risk: a higher age of the parents, infections during pregnancy (e.g. rubella) or the epilepsy medication of Valproic acid-which is why women of childbearing age no longer get the remedy in Germany.

But why are Kennedy jr. And so obsesses Trump from this disorder that occurs the infinite number of variants and degrees of severity?

Autism is a classic among vaccination opponents and conspiracy theorists, and Kennedy belongs to both camps. Trump may be more flexible in his views, he was properly vaccinated in pandemic. But numerous of his followers come from these groups, whose license plates are fanaticism and hostility to science. Of course, the conspiracy theorists of the influential Qanon movement took up the crude theories about the development of autism in their canon.

There are several reasons that autism is in focus in this milieus. On the one hand, there is the phenomenon that the number of diagnoses for autism has increased significantly worldwide. At the moment, due to studies in several countries, they start from 0.6 to one percent, which means a strong increase. “There has to be something that causes it,” Trump said several times with a view to the increase in autism diagnoses. It is believed that the increase has to do with medical progress. Doctors know more about autism. The same applies to parents. Autism is simply better recognized, and many adults also get the diagnosis.

For Kennedy, autism is therefore an epidemic that is triggered by external factors. “This is an avoidable disease. We know that it is environmental influences. It has to be so, because genes do not trigger epidemics,” he said.

Historically, the autism conspiracy takes its outcome in Great Britain in 1998. At that time, the doctor Andrew Wakefield presented a study in the renowned, medical magazine “The Lancet”. In it, on the basis of twelve autism cases, he wanted to have proven that there was a connection between MMR vaccines and the development of autism.

His study was later exposed as a fake. Wakefield had received money from parents of autistic children who wanted to sue doctors for compensation for vaccinations. All attempts to reproduce its results failed. “The Lancet” withdrew the study and the doctor received a ban on a job in Great Britain.

But the scientific education was of no use. The myth of the vaccine that triggers autism was in the world and was spread through the opponent. Today’s Minister of Health, formerly a committed environmental attorney, jumped up on the train. The fact that the Wakefield study turned out to be a humbug fan people like Kennedy jr. And not an opponent. As is typical for conspiracy theorists, they found other causes. The high vaccination density was now that caused autism, later the aluminum salts were added.

And now paracetamol. The drug was suspected because there are studies that suggest statistical correlation between the development of autism and the active ingredient. But this suspicion has not been proven. Nevertheless, the conspiracy theorists have the next explanation ready, regardless of that it is nonsense. What Trump and Kennedy jr. Arriving with their dangerous nonsense policy can currently only be guessed at.