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Opinion|‘That Was Shocking’: Four Autism Experts React to Trump’s Plan
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/opinion/experts-autism-trump-kennedy.html
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Guest Essay
Sept. 23, 2025, 5:04 a.m. ET
By Helen Tager-FlusbergAlison SingerBrian K. Lee and Eric Garcia
Dr. Tager-Flusberg is the founder of the Coalition of Autism Scientists. Ms. Singer is the president of the Autism Science Foundation and mother of a child with autism. Dr. Lee is an epidemiologist. Mr. Garcia is the author of “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.”
Alex Ellerbeck, an Opinion health and science editor, hosted an online conversation with four autism experts to discuss the Trump administration’s news conference Monday on autism.
Alex Ellerbeck: On Monday, President Trump suggested that vaccines were contributing to the increase in autism and told parents to space out their children’s vaccine schedule. Mr. Trump and top health officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., linked Tylenol to autism. Trump said pregnant women should only take it if they couldn’t “tough it out.” What was your reaction to this announcement?
Alison Singer: It took me straight back to when moms were blamed for autism. If you can’t take the pain or deal with fever, if you can’t tough it out, then you are to blame if your child has autism. That was shocking. Simply shocking.
Helen Tager-Flusberg: I was expecting some of what was presented, but I have to say I was shocked and appalled to hear the extreme statements without evidence in support of what any of the presenters said. In some respects this was the most unhinged discussion of autism that I have ever listened to. It was clear that none of the presenters knew much about autism — other than the mothers’ lived experience — and nothing about the existing science. This may be the most difficult day in my career.
Eric Garcia: Same here. The other comment that hit me was Dr. Marty Makary, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, saying: “If you’ve seen a kid with autism, with severe autism, it’s hard to watch. Kids get frustrated, they get angry, they can be crying because they want to speak and they can’t speak. It’s hard to watch.” Nobody disputes that high-support-needs autistic people have significant health challenges. But him saying “we can end the suffering” and “it may be entirely preventable” will offer tons of folks false hope.
Ellerbeck: Mr. Trump called the increase in autism a “horrible, horrible crisis.” He claimed that autism had risen 400 percent, that people in Amish communities don’t get autism. Brian, you’ve studied the epidemiology of autism. What do you make of this?
