Yesterday, Donald Trump claimed his administration had found the "answer to autism." Moments later, the White House followed up by publishing this "FACT" Sheet, proudly trumpeting the Trump and RFK Jnr's bold plans for tackling the "epidemic" of neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and Autism.
As one of tens of millions of late diagnosed neurodivergent adults and someone who has spent the past 3.5 years studying and building technology to actually support brains like mine, let me be crystal clear:
There is zero evidence to suggest that Autism (or ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Tourettes etc) can be cured.
None.
This sobering fact is backed up by the Trump Administration itself, in the letter it sent to all US doctors and physicians directly following their own press conference.
"Given the conflicting literature and lack of clear causal evidence, HHS wants to encourage clinicians to exercise their best judgment in use of acetaminophen in pregnancy"
Dept of Health — Official Press Release
If there is any evidence worth discussing, maybe it's the shamefully outdated lack of updates to diagnostic criteria by the APA.
Or the universally acknowledged dangers of mistaking correlation with causation.
Does that mean a cure is impossible?
No.
Am I suggesting that living with or caring for someone with Autism is easy? Or that we should stop researching potential causes?
Of course not.
I'm merely pointing out that it was already hard enough for expecting parents to make informed decisions before this sad clown show.
The last thing the world needs right now is false hope, based on weak science, sold by weak minded politicians.
What we need is a little more humility, curiosity and nuance.
This Time It's Personal
Like the vast majority of neurodivergent folks, I spent most of my life believing what I was told as a kid; that deep down, I was just 'overly sensitive', lazy or worse. After all, how could all my teachers, doctors, friends and extended family possibly be wrong?
Needless to say, being told I have ADHD a few years ago was a huge relief. Not because I was dreaming about a cure… I wouldn't give up my experience of the world if you paid me.
All I wanted was exactly what I got: a faded photocopy of my own brain's instruction manual, just like everyone else seemed to receive in their early twenties. A complex but somewhat wholesome alternative to the incessant, brutal inner monologue I'd been silently practising for decades.
My diagnosis gave me a whole new dictionary.
Terms like "Executive Dysfunction" and "Pre-Frontal Cortex" opened me up to podcasts and books by people with similar lived experience. Soon, I was deep diving into the history of cognitive research, which is what led to my current project.
Heumans is the world's only product design studio hyper focused on supporting the neurodivergent community.
We're building the first community-owned research platform, where your lived experience contributes to tools that actually help.
No fake cures.
No untested treatments.
Sign up here to join 1,000+ people already proving that neurodivergent minds don't need fixing - they just need respect and tools that actually work.
PS - Despite all of the above, I still think it's excellent that RFK Jnr seems genuinely passionate about autism and I'm grateful to see neurodivergence being discussed on front pages all over the world right now.
But just in case there's any doubt about where this whole thing actually started…
In 1998, a supposed link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was proposed in a study authored by former surgeon Andrew Wakefield, published and then retracted by "The Lancet" medical journal.
This study was based on just 12 cases of vaccinated children, yet contained no control group and it relied on parents' memories, rather than official records. Worse still, Wakefield later revealed that he was being paid to work on a lawsuit against vaccine companies, and that he had falsified some medical records to support his conclusion.
Despite being banned from practising medicine ever again, the alarm that Wakefield created with this tiny study was enough to cause genuine harm, including falling vaccination rates and rising cases of measles.
So it's safe to say that many experts and lifelong advocates were rightly surprised in April when old mate anti-vax RFK Jnr said that he would announce 'the cause of Autism' by September.
At the population level, it's been answered. There have been innumerable studies, in fact, to such a point that they have actually stopped conducting the studies, from what I could see, or at the same extent that they had been before because the conclusions are always the same.
— Dr. Kumanan Wilson
CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Bruyère Health Institute, Ottawa
This question has been so thoroughly investigated. One could argue, why throw even more money at a question that has been answered, when that money could be better spent trying to figure out what does cause autism, not what doesn't cause autism?
— Charles Nelson III
Professor of Pediatrics, Neuroscience & Psychology, Harvard Medical School
Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Did RFK run out of ways to connect vaccines to autism?
Or did Trump simply brush him aside at the last minute, like a pesky world leader in a global photo op?
Only time will tell.