RFK Jr. Seeks Broad Access to Health Records for "Autism Research"
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is collecting sensitive medical records from federal and commercial sources for Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new “autism research” initiative, which will give external researchers access to “comprehensive” patient data, representing “broad coverage” of the U.S. population.
The NIH will also be creating a national registry to track Americans with autism, which will be integrated into the sweeping federal data collection effort.
According to officials, the initiative will connect a wide range of personal health information, including prescription histories from major pharmacies, genetic and lab data from patients within the Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service systems, insurance billing records, and data collected from wearable devices like fitness trackers and smartwatches. The NIH is also negotiating with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand existing data-sharing agreements.
Kennedy, a longtime promoter of disinformation about autism, has been condemned for his ableism by disability rights advocates. He has said that “autism destroys families,” has repeatedly endorsed debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, and has portrayed autistic people in profoundly dehumanizing ways.
In a recent press conference, Kennedy responded to new CDC data indicating an increase in autism diagnoses by declaring autism a “preventable disease” and an “epidemic”— claims unsupported by medical consensus. Kennedy claimed that “environmental toxins” cause autism, disregarding extensive research that has found no such link. Nevertheless, he has pledged to identify the “cause” of autism by September.
https://truthout.org/articles/rfk-jr-seeks-broad-access-to-health-records-for-autism-research/
He'd better not try to get his hands on my son's or we will go to court. My son just had a (government-mandated) exam for his disability.
= new reply since forum marked as read
