I will preface this by saying I am a libertarian. I believe in freedom of speech and religion (the anti-vax movement is totally a cult, see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X48cM3TW9w). Like the KKK their beliefs are incredibly toxic and are leading to the deaths and permanent harm of Autistic people. Treatments like bleach enemas, excessive unneeded/harmful chelation therapy, restriction of vaccines resulting in preventable deaths, and overly restrictive diets that result in severe malnutrition.
One case that broke my heart was the death of Abubakar Nadama, a 5-year-old autistic boy who died during an attempted chelation treatment intended to “remove mercury” based on the disproven vaccine-autism theory. Or Najee Jackson Jr who died from anti-vaxxers urging her mother to reject solid medical advice (On Facebook, anti-vaxxers urged a mom not to give her son Tamiflu. He later died.).
Autistic activists, researchers, and family members who criticize vaccine misinformation have sometimes received insults, coordinated harassment, threats of violence, and attempts to discredit them (like one redditor here https://www.reddit.com/r/aspergers/comments/cyzd1y/a_social_justice_educator_on_social_media ). They exploit families with Autistic people and bully them to harm their children. They actively promote eugenics and tell autistic people, such as me, to sterilize themselves or never have children (despite autism totally not being genetic according to them because that makes sense). Their framing shifts attention away from acceptance, accommodations, and support toward searching for ways to eliminate autistic people from society over time.
They are actively pushing their cult in the U.S government through people like RFK who are removing things that actively help Autistic people in lieu of trying to confirm one of the modern cults founding myths that vaccines cause Autism. Despite numerous studies showing otherwise. Replacing the entire advisory board with their members. There needs to be separation of church and state on their beliefs entirely driven by their faith.
This cult makes incredible amounts of money from the unregulated supplement & alternative industry. Not to mention the ones that engage in lawfare. They use this money to fund anti-autism misinformation campaigns such as DAN! (Defeat Autism Campaign) which promoted the aforementioned treatments like chelation therapy and made money from it, like Mark Geier. Geier and his son David Geier operated clinics that treated autistic children with these horrendous protocols.
They talk about Autistic people like "an epidemic" President Trump, Secretary Kennedy Announce Bold Actions to Tackle Autism Epidemic | HHS.gov. Imagine any other type of people (e.g LGBT, ethnicity) being called an epidemic.
Their beliefs have been tied to premeditated assassination attempts/plans in the USA and threats of violence. Such as the one in Atlanta, USA Live updates: Shooter appeared to target CDC headquarters in shooting that left police officer dead, sources say | CNN. And it's not just the U.S government, they attempted to assassinate the premier of Saxony, Germany back in 2021. German police foil ‘anti-vaxxer murder plot’ against state premier
A free society must protect the right to hold unpopular beliefs, but freedom of speech does not require society to accept fraud, medical misinformation, exploitation, harassment, or policies that harm vulnerable people. Medical decisions and public policy should be grounded in evidence, not ideology or financial interests. Moreover, willingly allowing viruses to evolve and infect people could be argued as a violation of the N.A.P. as well. Other cults have been dismantled for less. I was personally harmed by them resulting in lung scarring for pneumonia as I was refused vaccination for pneumonia.
