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There is so much wrong with this statement by Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary RFK Jr.
1) Autism isn’t a chronic disease. It isn’t even a disease.
2) Autism doesn’t lead to someone potentially developing fatal encephalitis (brain swelling) or pneumonia.
3) Autism doesn’t require urgent medical hospitalization (which measles can) & stress the healthcare system.
3) Autism doesn’t spread from person-to-person in the air.
/1
@dalfen @hannu_ikonen first, I do agree Kennedy is totally off base. However, I’m going to disagree with the idea that autism doesn’t stress the healthcare system. My own son’s hospitalization cost $6K/day for the 3.5 weeks he was in the ICU after he ate enough plastic over an extended period to cause two bezoars. Rehab was another $350 a day. (Edit: rehab was 650/day.)
@ccampboyle Oh I’m sorry to read that 
The point I was making is that there are known potentially fatal, medical complications of measles like encephalitis, whereas the complications/effects of autism vary (thus, it is considered to be a spectrum). Some people on the autism spectrum need little to no therapeutic intervention or intervention mainly in childhood.
@dalfen @hannu_ikonen understood and recognized. But adults like my son are frequently almost invisible in discussions. I commented not to take away from your larger point (which I agree with), but to make a caveat: that to adequately meet the needs of autistics we need to recognize that those needs exist.
@dalfen@mstdn.social@ccampboyle I absolutely 110% believe in meeting those needs, and of the needs of their caregivers.
In fact, one of my grad theses was about how important it is to meet those needs 