RFK Jr.’s age anti-vaccine autism summit

San Diego – Participants at the second Autism Health Summit had already had hours of presentations on hours of presentations on miraculous treatments, including water filters and electromagnetic gadgets, supplements, stem cell therapy available only in Europe, and fecal transplants in the US.

Of all the speakers at the meeting, not even in the room received the biggest applause.

Former fixtures for this kind of gathering, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spoken to the audience multiple times before in short, pre-recorded videos, not as an anti-vaccine lawyer and activist, but as a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, Department of Health and Human Services.

And from that seat of power, Kennedy declared that he was still their man, praised the summit organizers Tracy and Steve Srupsevich as “dear friends” who “serve autism and their families.”

“Your problem is no longer a fringe,” he said. It concluded with the promise that “autism is once again very rare and well supported by autistic families, and the unique gifts that people on the spectrum must offer in our society.”

These types of gatherings are on the rise. They may promote a variety of subjects, but there is a common belief system between them: rejection of mainstream science, skepticism about government, and a big complaint that powerful people are hiding something from everyday Americans.

The rally is less connected and politically related, as there is now Kennedy in Washington and the president himself suggests that those claims are merit.

The meeting rooms at the Town and Country Hotel were already bustling with Kennedy’s latest bombs. While rattling off early efforts in his department at last week’s televised cabinet meeting, they had acquired “bad chemicals” from the food and included putting “delicious foods” in school lunches, but he clearly stated that he would discover the cause of autism in five months.

“By September,” he told the president, “We’ll know what causes the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

“It’s going to be very big,” Trump replied.

And it would – if it wasn’t that unlikely. Kennedy later told Fox News that Jay Battacharya, director of the National Institute of Health, was just beginning to recruit proposals from scientists around the world, and that HHS hadn’t said more about the timeline. Even if they quickly handed out grants, they would barely give them a season to solve the puzzles that have occupied researchers for over 80 years.

As Austrian-American psychiatrist Dr. Leo Canner first named it in 1943, doctors, scientists, parents, and people with autism have been seeking answers to a complex set of conditions that vary widely from presentation to severity. One of the 36 children has been identified as having an autism spectrum disorder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Research has pointed to genetics as perhaps a major factor, combined with the specific environmental and developmental influences scientists are still studying.

However, extensively studied and disproved theories that vaccines are blamed on autism have been accepted by parents and groups like Summit. This condition generally manifests itself in childhood when routine vaccinations are administered. For this group, that’s not a coincidence.

Science is not built to prove universal negativity. Not all variables can be tested in all situations at all times. Therefore, despite large-scale peer-reviewed studies in the US, Japan, Denmark and elsewhere, studies showing no causal relationship between vaccines and autism have never been proven in anti-vaccination community satisfaction.

This issue has also been litigated, with claims lacking against the overwhelming evidence presented by doctors and scientists. Still, the theory persists because the slivers of possibilities (even remote) can always be true somewhere.

Before the announcement of autism, Kennedy’s brief tenure as HHS secretary had already sparked criticism among public health experts who said his anti-vaccine views undermined confidence in science.

Author James Terrence Fisher, whose son has an autistic son, told the manipulation of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Kennedy’s rise in power “re-erupts” many autistic families, and that the administration “warned people like his son that they could make guinea pigs for guinea pigs.”

It happened before, he wrote. “It helped launch a modern anti-vaccine movement using invasive and sleazy techniques,” said Andrew Wakefield, a former British physician who retracted his research at the Lancet in 1998.

Kennedy’s loyal guy broke when he recently recommended Texas children get vaccinated to protect them from measles. For them, guidance was a betrayal of the movements he created.

However, by this fall, Kennedy’s promise has returned to the fundamental myth of the modern anti-vaccine movement, with his commitment to eradicate and eliminate certain environmental causes of autism, as suggested by “Shot” in the Cabinet meeting.

The crowd at the Autism Health Summit had heard him loudly and clearly, but now they were standing up.

During the three-day summit, they paid $395 for their tickets using their name and work email, as there was no press coverage option on their website. I wore a badge with my name, introduced myself as a journalist, handing out my business cards to everyone I spoke to. Photos and videos were allowed, and the event was live streamed to remote participants.

Touted as a “journey to wellness,” the Autism Health Summit was one of several anti-vaccine adjaculation events held in recent weeks. The Truth & Wellness summit took place in Rochester, New York at the end of March. Doctor. Pierre Corey and Mary Tully Borden are both known for prescribing ivermectin for Covid-19 and the long Covid despite lack of evidence, and shared with writer and conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf and President of Child Health Defense Mary Holland.

Earlier this month, a hotel in Atlanta hosted Honest Medicine: Redefing Health, a conference hosted by the Independent Medical Alliance – previously hosted the frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, a group where doctors prescribe antiviral drugs that go against the medical consensus. Some of their doctors are disciplined by the medical board to spread misinformation.

Previously there was only one such marquee gathering. Autism, held annually by a nonprofit organization of the same name in a Chicago hotel near the airport, was a flagship convention for self-proclaimed autistic moms and dads. However, the growth of other anti-vaccine groups that thrived during the pandemic, including Kennedy’s own child health defense, and the ease of online organisation have drained autism funds. They quietly disbanded in January.

Tracy Slepcevic, an Air Force veteran and author of the book Warrior Mom, has stepped into that Void (not to be confused with former anti-vaccine spokeswoman Jenny McCarthy’s “Mother Warriors”). Slepcevic supported Kennedy’s presidential failure in 2024 and registered Autism Health as a nonprofit last year. She is currently instructing other parents on how to “heal” children with autism.

She said she tried hyperbaric oxygen, special diet, stem cell therapy and “everything other than kitchen sinks” and now she tried to “heal” her son’s autism.

Slepcevic told the crowd that she even sold her house a short time to pay for treatment, using all the money she had.

“If someone says, ‘I can’t afford it,’ I’m not going to feel sorry for you,” Slepcevic said from the stage.

Movement Stalwarts After a song performed by Geoff and Simone Sewell, Slepcevic invited the couple to the stage. Her new client explained.

The father told the crowd that Slepcevic’s advice to limit dairy products and cut out apple juice just two weeks later, his 6-year-old son appears to be improving.

He spoke about how they were lost, hopeless and sad. They were as depressed as many people in the crowd, he suspected. But now they were optimistic.

They were going to do whatever it took, he said.

They will be warrior parents.

Outside the ballroom there is a vendor, packed with around 50 tables together, all offering the same message. It was healing – at the price.

Each table pushed a product or service that promised a path to wellness. There was a water filter (one for detoxification, the other “alkalinization”) and an electromagnetic gadget worth nearly $6,000 claiming to improve circulation.

The gimmick emitted infrared or pulsed electromagnetic fields. Supplement kits have promised to wash away mold, heavy metals and microplastics. The vibration plate was pitched as a neurological reset tool. There were also countless devices such as necklaces, patches, laptop shields, pet colors, and full-body blankets.

Along with gadgets, there was also a service. Nutritionists offer one vendor to promote on-site consultations, high-pressure chamber sessions, and what is called “blood oil changes.”