this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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Summary

RFK Jr. is using private medical records to create a registry of people with autism in the United States.

The National Institutes of Health is helping to collect private medical records from government and commercial databases, including “prescription records from pharmacies, lab testing, and genomics records from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, private insurance claims, and data from smartwatches and fitness trackers.”

Kennedy, a longtime critic of vaccination, has made the study of autism one of HHS’s primary goals. He has called autism “preventable” and claimed “he can find a cure for the condition by September.”

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[–] Noerknhar@feddit.org 191 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Holy shit, do they want to speedrun fascism?

[–] kobra@lemm.ee 207 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yes. They laid it out with Project 2025 and a staggering amount of people voted for it.

[–] Ton@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Pretty sure the staggering amount of people who voted for Trump have never heard of P2025 before the election, as FoxNews pretty much never spoke about it.

Until after the election; https://www.foxnews.com/politics/heritage-president-project-2025-liberals-doge-takes-ax-bureaucracy

[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes. There are a lot of ignorant people but I feel they choose to be ignorant.

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[–] KingOfSleep@lemmy.ca 25 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Why do you think they are so concerned about government efficiency?

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[–] polyploy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 146 points 4 days ago (7 children)

A couple things I would like to highlight for the unfamiliar, and I'll preface this by saying that I am autistic myself.

First, autism is not something for which there are any clear medical indicators, no blood tests or brain scans or anything of the sort are involved in diagnosis. It's entirely subjective and observational, something that states entrust people who are ostensibly professionals to determine.

I point this out because I want people to understand that there is absolutely nothing stopping the present administration from hiring people (or using AI) to simply diagnose undesirables with autism through whatever criteria they decide to deem fit.

This might sound absurd, but we're seeing people with nothing but tattoos being transformed into "criminals", "gang members", and "terrorists" by similar logic.

Second, Asperger was a Nazi, and the child euthanasia program was one of the main projects which experimented with the tools and machinery of mass murder that would later be used in extermination camps. Zyklon B was tested on autistic children and other "diseased offspring" long before it was ever used in the gas chambers.

How long do you think it will take before they are using AI to comb through the social media and medical records of teens looking for any indications of anything they don't like, and flagging them as potentially autistic? September has been RFK's set date since he first started talking about it, and people have been puzzling about that from the beginning. September is the start of the school year.

[–] Zippygutterslug@lemmy.world 45 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Lists are not neutral; they are tools of social hierarchy and ideological enforcement.

Creating a national database of autistic people could grow from “support services” to stigmatizing surveillance or work farms—especially if the one proposing it has a history of pseudoscientific views or conspiracy ideation, as RFK Jr. does.

[–] marketsnodsbury@lemm.ee 19 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Work farms? No no no— these are wellness farms! Completely different! The labor will be very therapeutic! Plus, if we determine you’re taking medication for any co-occurring disorders, like ADHD or depression we’ll get you clean of that crippling addiction pronto.

:/

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[–] BeNotAfraid@lemmy.world 100 points 4 days ago (36 children)

It's Eugenics, this is them warming you up to forced sterilisation. This is Timesplitters shit, let's just kill the Billionaires. Come on.

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

Well technically they're warming people up for full blown death-camps.

It starts with tracking, then sterilization, then "work camps", and then suddenly there are hundreds of thousands stuffed into cargo trains on the way to the furnaces. With tons of them telling themselves they should have done something when they first came for...

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[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 87 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Well that's not great. This is the kind of shit why I haven't wanted to get diagnosed. Granted I'm already in it deep for being trans and that resulting million mile paper trail...

Behind the Bastards has a good couple episodes about what happens when people say they can cure autism (spoilers: many children die horribly)

[–] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Their RFK episodes are also highly relevant at the moment.

(spoilers: even more dead children)

[–] santa@sh.itjust.works 84 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

This is fucking terrifying. How is this not a HIPAA violation?

Edit: Fixed spelling. What can we do to protect ourselves and loved ones?!

[–] Cuberoot@lemmynsfw.com 39 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Because it's called HIPAA, not HIPPA. The second P is the one that stands for privacy.

Fifty years ago, doctors would protect their patients by accidentally losing certain files if they didn't think the authorities had a good reason for seeing them. Under HIPAA, they're required to keep and maintain good records in case the government subpoenas them.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago

For those trying to keep the spelling straight, it helps me to think the last two letters stand for "Accountability Act" meaning it can never be spelled "HIPPA" as there is only one "a".

[–] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

HIPAA died when Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Roe v. Wade guaranteed Americans the right to medical privacy.

[–] boydster@sh.itjust.works 78 points 4 days ago (3 children)

He's looking for the solution to the autistic people question

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 46 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Next will be ADHD people... and I'm sure they all will be sent with a camp, that will help them focus... a concentration camp if you will.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 52 points 4 days ago (1 children)

A camp? Its not like he's ever suggesting sending people to camps before. Oh wait:

collapsed inline media

source

See? Its not a camp, its a "wellness farm". Aren't you relieved now? /s

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[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago

Might you call it the final solution?

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[–] TON618@lemmy.world 73 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I'm more worried about why he's doing it, than that he's doing it to be honest, because the only realistic use case I see for this is eugenics.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 67 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In 1936, three years after taking power, the Nazis ordered families with a mentally or physically handicapped person to send them to nearby hospitals for the best treatment. Soon after, they started receiving letters that their loved one had passed away.

The first to notice the pattern was the clergy, who realized that the families in their congregations who had vulnerable members were ALL getting these letters, and they rightfully concluded that a euthanasia program was going on.

Many spoke out from the pulpit, demanding an end to this atrocity, and Hitler responded, saying he was shocked at this revelation, and promising to end it. He didn't, of course, he just buried it, expanded it, and evolved it into the Holocaust.

To Nazis, the best way to reduce the statistics of autistic people, is to reduce the numbers of autistic people, and the first step in doing that is to compile their names.

Of course, the real issue is HOW are they going to reduce the autistic population? Considering how much MAGA openly admires the Nazis, it's not hard to make an educated guess.

[–] werewolfborg@ttrpg.network 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

They don’t even have to kill anyone on purpose. They just have to force people to undergo experimental autism cures, which have historically killed patients. An example of this would be chelation therapy, aka using the medication used to remove heavy metals from the body under the (unconfirmed) assumption that autism is caused by heavy metals.

If a database is good enough to connect pharmacy records, medical records, and even health info from smart watches (which a doctor or insurance company would not have access to) then it would need to link patient info together in a way that’s not as anonymous as they claim it to be. Theoretically, this could be enough information to force someone into doing these experimental treatments in order to keep their driver’s license (even if they’re otherwise high functioning enough to not be hospitalized) or force someone to be hospitalized with promises of being taught to be more independent later down the line.

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[–] lemmy_acct_id_8647@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago

This. This is way more worrisome than first glance.

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[–] KingOogaBooga@lemmy.world 59 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 46 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Get ready my fellow autists, for you are the new jews, this time in magastan instead of Germany.

[–] BozeKnoflook@lemmy.world 33 points 4 days ago

The Nazis started with the disabled, trans, gays, and autistic. The Jews came after the political dissidents.

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[–] isles@piefed.social 42 points 4 days ago

Who's laughing at self-diagnosis now??

Anyway, fuck this place (USA)

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's not contagious you fuckstick.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 32 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (6 children)

I bet at some point soon he’s gonna suggest the creation of camps for ADHD-havers to help them concentrate better. We can call them “concentration camps”.

Wait… wait no no NO NO N-

[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 32 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Absolutely nothing good will come from this.

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[–] Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (15 children)

Didn’t the Nazi’s do this too?

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[–] febra@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago

This is just them preparing the launchpad for further mass surveillance programs. First, they'll poke around with innocent sounding programs, testing the waters to see how much data they can sniff out of different private databases without anyone noticing. They'll claim it's for the good of autistic people. They'll enact legislation to further cement their practices of data gathering. If their proof of concept turns out to be delivering results, they'll keep going.

Slowly they'll keep tracking all kinds of people they deem as "ill". They'll start with vilified minorities that can't fight back. Most likely trans people. Then the rest of the queer community. Of course, they'll claim there's no ill intent in gathering this data, after all, it's not like they're going to commit any vile acts.

And slowly but surely, once the public debate around these minorities turns even more sour, you'll have them enacting all kinds of laws, and these databases will prove to be quite handy tools in aiding their goals.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The first people Nazi germany systematically exterminated were the disabled

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[–] pleasegoaway@lemm.ee 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why is it so hard for some people to believe that there is genetic variation in the human brain?

[–] sunflowercowboy@feddit.org 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Because the genetic variation is confused and muddled by foundational things they can't understand.

Simple things like family structure and the importance of it. A lot of autism overdiagnoses are purely from the developmental differences; economic class, quality of life, nutrition, exposure, and obviously parents or lack there of.

For example, simple acts like kids getting to play in the dirt exposes them to beneficial bacteria. Which I could also see laying the groundwork for gut bacteria. With how common kids do try and eat it, along with developing nations cooking with it, seems at least conceptually plausible.

I believe in autism and am not denying its existence as my fiancée has autism.

I am more saying that there is a huge upbringing differential that can cause kids to experience trauma. Trauma that can give the same responses. Social media enables this issue by pushing kids who don't have access to self identify, pushing a false representation. However, it is good for kids to be trying to put the pieces together - they just need help.

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

he can find a cure for the condition

A "final solution", if you will…

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemm.ee 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

“Fund a cure” — a solution, as it were.

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[–] Donkter@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago

What's crazy is that it's perfect. Getting rid of autistic people is exactly the intellectual purging that fascists want when they get into power.

I know not every autistic person is "an intellectual" but many transgressive artists and radical leftist college professors are autistic.

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