The truth about the autism epidemic is hidden no more: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr:
• One in 31 children have autism.
• 22 years ago, one in 150 children had autism.
• One in 20 boys are diagnosed with autism.
• In California: one in 12.5 boys are diagnosed with autism.
These statistics cannot speak to the catastrophe of the diagnosis. One of my four children was diagnosed with autism 20+ years ago; his behaviors as a toddler – shrieking, tantrums, stimming – prevented us from leaving the house. With other young children and living in an area with limited services, it was indescribably challenging.
I stopped helping my husband with our business, hired a sitter, and studied the etiology of autism: what was causing these behaviors and sabotaging his development?
With detective work, I set about to help him. The business and marriage failed, but my son did not: he is verbal and doing well.
Our story is not uncommon: the divorce rate for parents of a child with autism is about 80%. The financial hit of the diagnosis is almost impossible for most families: according to Autism Speaks (in 2015) the cost of caring for a child with autism is $60k a year (the average annual cost for a child without autism: $13k). For a severely autistic child, the expenses are much higher.
A few years after my son’s diagnosis a close relative showed up on my doorstep with a profoundly autistic, non-verbal young child who required 24/7 one-to-one care.
It is a heartbreaking story…autism has been like a grenade that went off in my family. 125 years ago, Americans were the healthiest humans on earth; now we have a generation of children who are not only disabled, but many – like my young relative – require around the clock care.
Like nearly all parents of children with autism, I am grateful to RFK Jr for prioritizing this issue.
RFK Jr.: “…Genes don’t cause epidemics; you need an environmental toxin. And we’re going to look at all the potential culprits. We’re going to look at mold, we’re going to look at food additives, we’re going to look at pesticides, we’re going to look at air and water and medicines, we’re going to look at ultrasounds…Congress ordered EPA to tell us what year the autism epidemic began. EPA scientist came back and said it happened in 1989. You have to find a toxin that became ubiquitous around that time period.”
With autism, genetics loads the gun, and the environment pulls the trigger. What or who – which “culprit” – caused this, and why?
To take down an armed nation, why bother with bullets when you can just poison their offspring?
Source:
RFK Junior addresses CDC’s findings on autism and developmental disabilities