Dem
47
GOP
53
The Kennedy officeholders of generations past—particularly John F., Robert Sr., and Teddy—were Harvard men and had a reputation for having some real brainpower and for following the evidence. On top of that, one of the main themes of Teddy's career in the Senate was healthcare for everyone, and evidence-based medicine. He served for many years on the Senate Health Committee, including more than a decade as chair, and was substantially responsible for the passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act, the Mental Health Parity Act, the S-CHIP children's health program and the COBRA program.
We mention this because if the Kennedys of generations past are somehow able to be aware of what their progeny Robert Jr. is doing to the nation's health, they must be absolutely horrified. Yesterday, perhaps because Trump will be unavailable for some period of time (see next item), there was a meeting of the Cabinet. And the way these things generally go, at least under Trump, is that the various secretaries congratulate the President on how great he is, and the President responds by agreeing that he is indeed great.
So it was yesterday, when it was Bobby Jr.'s time to talk. He and Trump had a fairly long dialogue, which you can read here, if you wish, in which they congratulated each other on fighting autism with their anti-vaxx and anti-Tylenol campaign. And Trump himself certainly said some pretty crazypants stuff, like noting that he might not be a doctor, but he is a "man of common sense." Maybe that's the solution to the nation's shortage of doctors and surgeons. After all, it takes years and years to be properly trained as a physician but, in our experience, people who claim they have an abundance of "common sense," often earned at "Life U." or "The School Of Hard Knocks," can be found on every street corner.
Anyhow, while Trump was plenty nutty yesterday, Bobby Jr. managed to out-crazy him, which is no small feat. And so, it was the Secretary who got all the headlines. Here's the specific portion of Kennedy's remarks that had people's heads exploding:
There's two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. So none of this is dispositive, but all of it is stuff that we should be paying attention to.
We presumably don't need to say it, but in medical research, two studies is nothing. Further, we again run into the problem that correlation does not equal causation. Assuming the correlation actually exists, the obvious explanation is not the Tylenol, it's that circumcision correlates with higher economic status, which in turn correlates to access to doctors and other medical professionals. It's pretty hard to be diagnosed with autism if you don't have access to healthcare. Note that the larger and better-known study that notes the possible circumcision/autism correlation specifically points out that more study is needed before any conclusions can be reached.
Let us also reiterate an observation made by reader J.G. in San Diego just a few weeks ago when the Tylenol announcement was first made. If you're going to offer up a conspiratorial explanation for some condition or disease, then it has to be both plausible and not really falsifiable. For example, if you want to blame sunspots for autism, then that's pretty wacky, but it's also nearly impossible to disprove.
On the other hand, people are going to notice things like: (1) circumcision rates have dropped at the same time autism rates have risen, (2) many people have been circumcised without becoming autistic, and many people have become autistic without being circumcised, (3) there is plenty of autism in places that have no tradition of circumcision at all. Or, to quote a message we got from reader A.G. in Scranton, PA: "My autism did appear only after I converted....there might be something to this! I'm suing the Jewish people. As a Jew, I feel it is my duty." (Actually, that's the part of the conspiracy theory that works best; many of the people who embrace conspiratorial thinking really, really love to find a way to blame [THING X] on the Jews.)
So, that's this week's lunacy. Who knows what Mr. Brain Worm will crap out next week. (Z)