Does there become a point where reporting on this kind of stuff is just feeding the trolls? Ars is both giving them the reaction they want and platforming their nonsense.

The government put up a poster that says vaccines bad very autism and maybe the right response is to just ignore it. This admin seems to be fueled by outrage and very loud showy public displays of basically nothing when you get down to it. Cool story RFK, anyway moving on.

What gets lost in this debate, which to me seems settled in favor of the actual science done over the last several decades, is how insulting and dehumanizing it is to use autism spectrum disorder as the boogeyman for vaccines, to the point people are passing on treatment for completely preventable, horrible diseases on the belief there is a small chance their kid could come out gasp "autistic."

Up to 70% of people on the autism spectrum are considered high functioning, requiring minimal to moderate support. That's the other insulting thing about it - the fact that the worst autistic outcomes (nonverbal, low IQ, etc.) are used to represent the whole of the population.

The whole thing is gross. Say somehow you could eliminate autism spectrum disorder - there goes half your IT staff.

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45992756

Doesn’t the new CDC site say something like “the autism connection has not yet been ruled out”? Why is everyone so intensely upset about this? What’s so bad about further investigation and science being done? The opposition to science here is so odd.

Imagine if any other topic were treated like this. “Nah no need to investigate any more, enough people have said they’re satisfied.” Such a person would rightly be scoffed at.