The Autism Community Finally Has a Voice. Let’s Use It.

Louis Conte, Health Freedom Editor, The Kennedy Beacon

Voters concerned about the health of their family and the nation may very well determine who the next president is.

A sizable portion of this voter block will be families affected by autism. My family is one of them.

Years ago, I informed a politician that I was going to vote for the candidate who protected the needs of my sons with autism, and particularly my most vulnerable child – who has difficulties speaking. He was surprised by my statement and asked why I didn’t care about other issues that were more pivotal to the Democratic Party platform. I responded that I did care about many issues affecting America, but that my passion and mission is to improve the life of my sons with autism.

All that I care about is that when my sons look at me that they see a father who stood up for them.

Over the years, both major political parties have failed to do anything meaningful to improve the lives of people with autism. Even more shocking, as autism rates have continued to rise, nothing has been done to address the causes of autism.

Since 2000, Autism Spectrum Disorder Rates have steadily increased from 1 in 150 children to 1 in 36 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control. As of 2017, it is estimated that over 5 million Americans, or 2.21% of the adult population, have autism.

But try asking questions about why there has been so little progress in uncovering the causes of autism. You’ll get this response: there isn’t enough money to devote to studying autism because it’s genetic. We are then advised that autism was not diagnosed correctly in the past. This explanation implies that diagnosticians from the 1980’s and 1990’s were idiots. They were not. 

The truth is that there cannot be a genetic epidemic. The increase in autism must be driven by something in the environment. Why not commit the money needed to rigorously investigate an illness affecting so many of our loved ones? What is a good reason why the medical establishment has turned its back on a preventable disorder affecting over five million adults, that impairs them for the rest of their lives.

Years ago, one doctor quietly told me, “If you ask about what causes autism, you piss off the medical establishment. Ask too many questions, and the establishment will get vindictive.”

Those of us who have connected the increase in autism to the increase in mandatory childhood vaccines, and to the very idea of vaccine injuries, have faced withering attacks at the hands of mainstream media. Politicians know this and typically walk away from the issue. One candidate has stuck with us. That is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has put his heart and soul into advocating for my community, and for that he has been verbally flayed by the establishment.

I have been, too. Several years ago, I was the lead investigator on a paper that discovered that many of the children compensated for vaccine injury by the federal government also had autism. I was attacked; so were my co-authors. Our jobs were threatened, and we were smeared in the mainstream media and on the Internet. But our experiences have been a fraction of what men like Kennedy and Dr. Andrew Wakefield have endured.

As the days tick down toward the election of a lifetime, I ask myself: which of the candidates cares most about vaccine safety? And autism rates spiking? Which would be better for my sons? Now that he is partnered with Kennedy, my answer is former president Donald Trump. 

Kamala Harris has not mentioned the word autism in public since she was nominated. She doesn’t present as a woman concerned in the least about America’s chronic disease epidemic. And yet she wants my $5 dollars of support?

Louie, we’re writing to ask you to make a $5 donation to Kamala Harris's campaign.

Why $5? Because, for around the cost of a bag of Doritos (Kamala’s favorite!), you could make a significant difference in this race.

As Kennedy and others supporting Trump continue to inform the American public about the epidemic of chronic disease – and offer ways to solve it – Harris’ approach is to let us eat chips.

She’s still mandating employees be up-to-date with their Covid vaccines, and she seems poised to do precisely nothing for families with autism.

We in the autism community have watched our government refuse to take on the autism epidemic, allowing it to rage and grow.

Now other Americans are beginning to connect the dots, too – from autism to chronic health problems. A rising number of our fellow citizens, whose well-being have taken a nosedive since their Covid-19 jabs, are feeling vulnerable and unsure. Now, for the first time, some are questioning vaccines they were mandated to take. What exactly was injected into their bodies? They want to know more. They want to be sure. They have a right to be sure. 

America has long neglected the autism community. But now, five million strong, we have the power to show the political establishment that we matter. 

We are millions and we can vote. We must vote.