The RFK-MAHA Deception on Autism

All right, now we're going to move on to another health story. This one is important because I've been saving this one for a while and waiting for the right time, and I think it's just, it's time to talk about it. So under Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. We've seen the promotion and the growth of this Make America Healthy movement. And it's all about trying to remove toxins from our foods, get people exercising, all kinds of things that I think everybody listening to this would support and be grateful, you know, if they were actually happening. Unfortunately, when you get down to really looking at what Trump is doing and what RFK is doing, for every positive they may be doing, there's lots of negative happening. So, for example, in the last month or two, Americans have been told it's not the vaccines that have anything to do with autism, it's Tylenol. Now, Tylenol, acetaminophen, the ingredient that's the active ingredient in Tylenol, it can cause harm to your liver if you take high doses. I say this is somebody who tried to overdose using Tylenol 20 something years ago, and it can do a lot of damage to your liver. It can, it can become fatal. But they're claiming it's related to autism. Okay, I'm not going to speak to that specifically. I haven't looked into their, their references. I know they did reference one or two studies. Most of the mainstream just kind of laughed and said, aha, Trump and rfk. Or pointing at Tylenol. What a bunch of idiots. And then it seems like some of the health freedom movement was like, oh, my God, okay, why are they not talking about vaccines? This seems like a cop out. Well, here's another reason we should be concerned about this. If RFK is genuinely trying to find the causes of autism. I've got a bunch of links here showing that what Trump is actually doing and what RFK is doing is not helping. Because if it's not just the vaccines and let's say it's Tylenol, I think it's more than likely the rise of autism is related to a number of environmental factors, which could include things like vaccines and autism and Tylenol, but it probably could include the things that are being sprayed in the sky above us and getting into the soil. It could include pesticides and it also could include forever chemicals. And so this is from ProPublica from back in August. RFK Jr. Vowed to find the environmental causes of autism. Then he shut down research trying to do just that. And so here's just the highlights again. All these links I'm about to go over will be in the show. Notes at the consciousresistance.com slashed autism funding RFK Jr promised to identify the causes of autism, but has eliminated parts of his agency actively investigating them and has cut millions in funding for autism research. Silent on rollbacks Once an ardent environmentalist who took on big polluters, RFK has been silent on Trump's dismantling of efforts to combat climate change and pollution. Again, I'm not a big, you know, proponent of this climate change theory stuff, but it's absolutely true that Trump and some of the funding that he's getting rid of was focused on fighting pollution and trying to find solutions to that. Now, personally, I'm not a big believer that government should be taking taxpayer dollars and using it for all kinds of projects, but nevertheless, they are taking money from projects that are specifically focused on pollution, which has been linked to autism. Conflicting priorities RFK Jr helps lead an administration that is reversing regulations on pollution and chemicals, including some legal linked to autism. That's the big thing here is that the steps that Trump is taking that RFK is sort of by his relationship, supporting and condoning are going directly against their efforts to find out where autism is coming from. Aaron McCanley's was listening to the radio one morning in April when she heard RFK promising to find the cause of autism. By September, the Secretary of Health and Human Services said he believed an environmental toxin was responsible for the dramatic increase in the condition and vowed to gather the most credible scientists from all over the world to solve the mystery. Nothing like that has ever been done before, he told the interview. McCandley's was stunned. This is a researcher again. She's a researcher with the the government, she said. The work has been done. That's exactly what I've been doing, she said to her husband, Fred. She's an epidemiologist, or she was at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which Kennedy oversees. And she said she has spent much of the past two decades studying how parents exposure to workplace chemicals affects the chance that their child will have autism. Just three weeks earlier, she had been finalizing her fourth major paper on the topic when, excuse me, when RFK eliminated her entire division. Kennedy also has overseen tens of millions of dollars in cuts to federal funding for research on autism. So I mean, right there, it's like you've got a woman within the government, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, who is an epidemiologist who says she's written several papers showing that there's workplace chemicals that parents are exposed to that are linked to autism and may be causing the rise in autism. And instead of promoting that, working with that, they decided to get rid of that. And now they go on here and talk about how, you know, he's an anti vaxxer. So we'll skip past that again. It's important to be able to use discernment and nuance. You can read an article like this and you can skip past the garbage that when they're like, oh, these are just a bunch of crazy anti vaxxers. As Kennedy promotes his new initiative, ProPublica has found that he has also taken aim at the traditional scientific approach to autism, shutting down McKanley's lab and stripping funding from more than 50 autism related studies. Meanwhile, he has stood by as the Trump administration encourages the departure of hundreds of federal employees with experience studying the harm caused by environmental threats and rolling back protections from pollution and chemicals, including some linked to autism. Kennedy and the HHS did not respond to questions for this article. Genetic factors account for a significant portion of autism cases, according to this researcher. And research like hers and other government funded scientists have conducted over the past two decades has established that environmental factors have a role too and can combine with genetics. And if you understand epigenetics, the that your DNA and your genetics can change, they're not static based on your emotional state, trauma, as well as environmental factors. So it can be a combination of things. It can be genetic, which is the sort of nature argument versus environmental factors. But maybe the two can combine together and that your genes and your DNA can change and maybe make your children more predisposed to things like autism because of things you've been exposed to in the environment. Multiple factors can even converge within the same individual. Some of those environmental risks could be reduced by the very measures that the Trump administration is rolling back. Kennedy would have been well positioned to advocate for researchers looking into environmental causes of autism while he's on Trump's cabinet. Unfortunately, that's not what he's doing. So this is a pretty long article. We're just going to read a little bit more here. And this epidemiologist that they're interviewing, she says, I don't think he's aware of my work or most of the literature that he's, that's been published on what the causes of autism are. She says that she's been studying how a toxic chemical called beryllium causes chronic lung inflammation in workers. When she Began to seriously think about autism. This was in 2005. She starts researching getting into autism and then she starts working with other researchers. They start comparing data sets, information that they gathered from two large group of parents. Those who had children with autism and those whose kids developed neurotypically, which means they didn't have autism. Comparing the group's chemical exposures before their children were born could help illuminate the causes of the condition. Another epidemiologist at the University of California, Davies, says that they were a pioneer searching for the cause of autism. And in that 2009, she published a much cited paper highlighting a sevenfold increase in diagnosis in California. So what could that be? Well, it could be related to these chemicals that people are being exposed to at work. And it says these researchers found that the autism risk is increased. It has to do with parental age at the time of birth, a mother's fever during pregnancy, and more traditional environmental considerations such as chemical exposures. So this just goes into the story of this researcher and how she the two researchers started partnering together. They published a study in 2012 using the data to see if parents of children with autism were more likely to have been exposed to chemicals of already thought to be affecting the developing brain. The work was technical and time consuming, but the analysis showed a clear relationship. Mothers and fathers of children with autism were more likely than parents of unaffected children to have been exposed to solvents such as lacquer, varnish and xylene on the job. These solvents evaporate quickly and can be easily inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chemical plant workers, painters, electricians, plumbers, construction workers, cleaners and medical personnel are among those who may be exposed to these solvents. Now, they had a small sample size, just 174 families, but the results found that there were possible links between autism and exposure to metals and certain solvents during early childhood and pregnancy, including one solvent called methylene chloride. They also tracked with studies linking chemicals to miscarriage, reproductive problems, birth defects, and other developmental problems besides autism. So the point in this article is that they've done a study in 2019. They did another study in 2020 12, then 2019, with more than 950 families. That 2019 study showed that women exposed to solvents during pregnancy and the three months leading up to it were one and a half times more likely to have a child with autism than women who are not exposed to it. Then they published another study in 2023 which took the link between solvent exposure and autism as a starting point. They looked at blood samples to check out the genetic makeup of the parents of the children with autism. And they found that when they were exposed to solvents on the job, people with specific variants of 31 genes had an especially elevated risk of having a child with autism. Their genetic makeup appeared to increase the risk solvents by themselves posed. Some of those 31 genes help cells connect with another. Others play a role in helping cells migrate to different areas so they can grow into the various parts of the brain. So the point is that these researchers are saying, like hey rfk, we've already done a lot of this homework. We've already shown how these different forever chemicals, including bpa, air pollution, pesticides, diesel exhaust, etc and in those solvents that they just mentioned can lead to autism and other defects. But the Trump administration is either not paying attention to these studies or they're firing the people who are doing the studies, like this woman here. Here's another one. Trump 1.0 funded her PFSAS study. Trump 2.0 revert revoked it and PFAS is the forever chemicals. A research project on forever chemicals was abruptly canceled by the EPA in April. The agency still wanted the report though. When EPA awarded researchers 1.6 million grant in 2020 to study forever chemicals in rural community, the age rural communities, the agency described the work as a top priority. But three months ago, the research team was abruptly ordered to stop their project. In Contrast to the EPA's support during Trump's first administration, the current administration defunded the research because it no longer quote advanced program goals or agency priorities. And so this just goes into another story of how people, you know, who are researching forever chemicals and how that could be connected to autism and just forever chemicals in general are being defunded over under Trump's second administration. Here's another one. This is the big announcement. This is where Trump decides to reverse a rule by Biden. This is one of the good things that Biden did or whoever was, you know, putting their was the puppet master of Biden that they did. EPA announces it will keep maximum contaminant levels for PFOA and pfos. These are forever chemicals. EPA intends to provide regulatory flexibility and and holistically address these contaminants in drinking water. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he will keep the current national drinking water regulations for perfluor. So I can't even pronounce it. We'll just call it PFOA and pfos, which set nationwide limits for these forever chemicals in drinking water. The agency is committed to addressing PFAS in drinking water while following the law and ensuring that regulatory compliance is achievable for drinking water systems. So what this doesn't say because this is the official EPA announcement, is that the Biden administration had set new limits for this forever chemicals. And then the Trump administration said, no, never mind, we're not going to do that. We're going to keep the same, we're going to keep the maximum contaminant levels where the Biden administration was trying to lower the allowable amounts in the water. Here's another one from Pope Obica. Trump's first EPA promised to crack down on forever chemicals. His second EPA is pulling it back. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin claims to prioritize combating long lasting chemicals called PFPFAs. Despite this, the agency has delayed enforcement of standards and terminated over $15 million in funding for forever chemicals. This is back in July. I will include this in the show notes as well because these are just more examples how they're cutting research into forever chemicals. They are limiting efforts to regulate or ban those forever chemicals. They're limiting research that's actually looking at the causes of autism, all the while pointing the finger at freaking Tylenol. Now here's just to kind of give a little bit of the various opinions out there. According to a January 2023 study, study finds little evidence of link between autistic traits and forever environmental chemicals. Kaiser Permanente analysis of the Echo program data is the largest study to date on autistic traits in children and forever chemicals. It's it says that they found suggestive evidence of an association with autism related traits in children for just one of eight forever chemicals studied. This was published in the journal Epidemiology found a modest increase in autism related traits in children exposed to PFNA but no association with the others. So this study is basically saying like no, forever chemicals are all good. I haven't looked into this. There could be some industry funding behind it or it could be what it says and there's just other variables here. But let's look at some other reports. Researchers find forever chemicals impact the developing male brain. This is more recent July 2025 University of Rochester Medical Center. Forever chemicals have been widely used in consumer and industrial products for the better part of a century, but do not break down in the natural environment. New research from the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of of Rochester suggest that they are not safe, finding that early life exposure to PFH XA may increase anxiety related behaviors and memory deficits and male rice male mice. Excuse me. Although these effects were mild, finding behavioral effects only in males was reminiscent of the many neurodevelopmental disorders that are male biased, said Anya Majeska, professor of neuroscience and senior author of the study, which is published in the European Journal of Neuroscience. Research has shown that males are often diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD at a higher rate than females. The researcher says, quote, this finding suggests that the male brain might be more vulnerable to environmental insults during neurodevelopment. So that will give you that link and you guys can check it out. And here's another one. This says prenatal exposure to forever chemicals linked to autistic traits in children. Study finds. This is July 2025. This is coming from scipost.org which is a psychology website. So remember I showed you that other one a couple seconds ago that said in 2023 they only found one association with one Forever Chemical. But here we are two years later and this study is saying prenatal exposure to forever chemicals can lead to autistic traits. New research suggests that exposure to certain synthetic chemicals during early pregnancy may be linked to a higher likelihood of autistic traits in children. The study found children whose mothers had a higher level of exposure to a chemical called perfluo octonic acid PFOA in their blood during early pregnancy were more likely to show signs of social and communication difficulties by age 4. Now let me just go back real quick because I think that is the same same chemical here. Let's check this one out. So this one said study finds little evidence between autistic traits and forever chemicals. And I think it was the same one. Yeah. Pf. No, this one was a different one. Pfna. So they said that was the only one that they found that that was the 2023 Kaiser Permanente Study. But we go to this one in 2025 and they're pointing at another one, PFOA. So it's slightly different. Then they're also pointing to another forever chemical called pfhxs, which was strongly more strongly associated with autistic traits in children who had a higher inherited risk of autism. So these studies are coming out, guys. The data is out there. I'm going to give you a couple more here. This is from December 2024, the Journal of Hazardous Materials. Prenatal exposure to forever chemicals, genetic factors and autistic traits. Evidence from a Shanghai birth cohort. Prenatal PFOA exposure was associated with an increased risk of autistic traits in children at the age of four. Increased risk was mitigated by self reported pre pregnancy folic acid supplementation. Prenatal exposure to PfH XS exposure and genetic predisposition may collaboratively contribute to an elevated susceptibility to autistic traits in children. That will be in the show notes as well. And one more here. This is. What's the study called? Go up to the top. Excuse me, where is it at? Okay. The effects of parental occupational exposures on autism spectrum disorder, sexual severity and skills in cognitive and adaptive domains in children with autism spectrum disorder. This is from July 2025 and let's just go ahead and, and look at the what it says here. It's talking about autism. Let's go to the conclusion. Let's just click this. The statistical analysis showed that ASD severity was most consistently associated with increasing estimates of exposure during the index period three months prior to pregnancy until the birth of the child she to phenols, ethylene oxide and pharmaceuticals. These findings suggest that each of these types of occupational exposures may play a role in severe ASD phenotypes. That's autism. Furthermore, occupational exposures to plastics polymers were consistently and significantly associated with poorer cognitive skills, deficits in adaptive skills, lower composite measures of both cognitive and adaptive functioning, and increases in several aberrant behaviors. With such robust findings, the evidence presented here indicates broad neurodevelopmental impact from workplace plastics polymers. So again, this is just more and more evidence showing the concerns and how these chemicals, these various chemicals can be associated with autism. So all of these links will be in the show notes for you guys to peruse and take a look at. I just want to kind of, you know, go back to my original point here, which is that if RFK is claiming he is focused on getting to the root cause of autism and they're telling people that it's Tylenol, but meanwhile they are ending studies that were ongoing. They're firing people who are already studying the impacts of polymers and polymers and solvents and forever chemicals. And we have numerous studies over the years building up showing that forever chemicals are linked to autistic traits and very various neurodevelopmental disorders. But those are the same types of regulations that Trump is rolling back. So they're rolling back regulations. They are ending funding and getting rid of people who are doing studies in this area. And instead they're telling you to point the finger at Tylenol. They're not even talking about vaccines. They're saying it's Tylenol. They're not talking about Forever Chemicals. Yes, I know there have been times where RFK has talked about environmental exposures. That's great. Talk is nice, but you got to look at the action. And the Trump administration, with RFK's help, is actually working against what they claim they're fighting for. So how is that maha? How does that make America great again? I mean, I don't think it is. I don't think it is. I think it is more bullshit designed to get you to support politicians and people who don't have your best interest at heart. And I would love to hear all of you in the comments who were supporters of MAHA or who voted for Donald Trump specifically because of this MAHA movement. What do you think about this? Have you been fooled? Am I missing something here? Is this irrelevant? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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