We talk with Eric Garcia, author of We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation and a political reporter at the Independent, about the myths spreading about autism under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Yes, there’s the one about how vaccines cause autism, which the scientific community has rejected. But there’s also a more fundamental one that Kennedy references often: Is there, as he repeats, an “autism epidemic”? And if not, what explains the dramatic rise in reported cases of autism over the last few decades? Garcia also recounts his own story growing up autistic in the age of exploding diagnoses, and landing now in a moment where, for his job, he covers a health secretary’s particular brand of concern. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is very concerned about autism. He has been for a couple of decades, since he first became convinced that mercurian vaccines made children autistic, which, by the way, there is no credible evidence supporting this theory. On April 16th, now as head of Health and Human Services, RFK gave a press conference, and he described the tragedy of what he calls the autism epidemic.
For years, he's insisted there is an epidemic, even though there's a lot of debate among researchers about this, all of which he dismisses as, quote, epidemic denial, a term he repeated several times in that press conference.
There are many, many other studies that affirm this. And instead of listening to... to this canard of epidemic denial, all you have to do is start reading a little science because the answer is very clear. And this is catastrophic for our country.
Catastrophic, he says, because a lot of families are suffering as they watch their kids struggle in life. And it's true. A lot of families are suffering. I'm Hannah Rosen. This is Radio Atlantic. there is a lot of confusion out there about autism, why it's increasing, if it's even increasing, and what even counts as autism.
And I think it's fair to say that RFK's strong and public entry into this debate has not in any way helped to clear things up. So we're going to talk to someone who writes about autism, also covers politics for the UK paper The Independent, and is himself autistic. Eric Garcia, author of We're Not Broken, Changing the Autism Conversation. Eric, welcome to the show. Thank you.
So Eric, you covered that April 16th press conference that RFK held about autism. Mm-hmm. Was there anything in his statement that stuck out to you? Yeah. You know, there was obviously the whole thing, which is that autism destroys families.
It's an individual tragedy as well. Autism destroys families. More importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which are our children.
Saying that autism destroys children or destroys families is so corrosive and it goes into the larger stereotype that people with disabilities are a burden.
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