by Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent comments about “discovering the cause of the autism pandemic” aren’t just scientifically unfounded — they’re profoundly harmful.
Blaming parents for autism takes us back nearly a century to the long-debunked “refrigerator mother” theory — a damaging, sexist narrative that falsely blamed mothers for their children’s neurodevelopmental differences. It caused real trauma. We’ve moved beyond that. Or at least, we should have.
Reviving vaccine myths — again — is equally reckless. Vaccines save lives. There is no credible evidence linking them to autism. Suggesting otherwise doesn’t just threaten public health — it perpetuates the dangerous idea that neurodivergent lives are mistakes to be prevented.
Kennedy’s comment that “everything is on the table” might sound like open inquiry, but it’s often a smokescreen for pseudoscience. When the aim is to “find the cause” of autism, the conversation shifts away from support, inclusion, and lived experience — and toward elimination. That isn’t science. That’s ideology.
Autism is not an epidemic. It’s a natural variation in neurodevelopment. And it’s time we treated it that way. Autism is also an evolving concept. In our (best seller!) book, Amy Pearson’s chapter walks readers through how autism has been conceptualised — contrasting outdated medical models, which frame autism as a disorder needing cure, with social models that understand autistic people as disabled by systemic barriers, not by their brains.
You can read more about the book here
We see this disconnect in services too. Many mental health supports still operate from a behaviourist, medicalised framework. But research — including my own — increasingly shows that this can have long-term consequences on the mental health of autistic children and young people (CYP).
An experience-sensitive approach offers a powerful alternative. Rather than framing autism as something to fix, this approach centres lived experience. It challenges us to move away from narratives built around “problem behaviours” and toward relationships grounded in mutual respect and understanding.
The ‘double empathy problem’ helps explain why this matters. Autistic people may struggle to understand the intentions of neurotypical professionals — but the reverse is also true. When services only demand autistic CYP adapt, they miss the opportunity for real relational change. The result? Disengagement, misdiagnosis, and worsening outcomes.
See below an animation our team created in 2022 on the double empathy with Kieran Rose (The Autistic Advocate)
We don’t need a return to blame, fear, and control.
We need investment in inclusive education, mental health services, access to communication, and neurodiversity-affirming care.
Autistic people are not problems to solve. They are people to listen to — with insight, perspectives, and strengths the world urgently needs.
Because real progress doesn’t start with “what’s wrong with them?”
It starts with: “what’s not working for them — and how do we fix that?”
#Neurodiversity #AutismAcceptance #PublicHealth #DisabilityJustice #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs
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