Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2910 readers

355 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Awa@lemmy.world

WhoRoger@lemmy.world

RoyalEngineering@lemmy.world

110

RFK Jr contradicts experts by linking autism rise to ‘environmental toxins’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

US health secretary bucks expert opinion as research shows rise in diagnoses due to better tools and screening

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said in his first press conference that the significant and recent rise in autism diagnoses was evidence of an “epidemic” caused by an “environmental toxin”, which would be rooted out by September.

Autism advocates and health experts have repeatedly stated the rise in diagnoses is related to better recognition of the condition, changing diagnostic criteria and better access to screening. Many also reject the label of an “epidemic”, arguing that neurodivergence should be valued.

…

RFK disagreed with the consensus of health researchers, and said that “we need to move away” from the idea that the increase in autism prevalence “is simply due to better diagnostic tools”.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

RFK disagreed with the consensus of health researchers, and said that “we need to move away” from the idea that the increase in autism prevalence “is simply due to better diagnostic tools”.

When the ones using those tools are telling you that it is because of the tools, trust them. This is the same moronic take Trump had about Covid testing. "Stop testing and the numbers will go down", as if that also means that actual number of cases goes down. Better diagnostic tools will almost necessarily lead to more positive diagnoses because... they are better at diagnosing. What a fucking novel concept you brain worm eaten fool. People diagnosed with autism were autistic before the diagnosis too, they just weren't counted in the statistics because they weren't diagnosed. If you don't get that, then you sure as shit shouldn't be in charge of ANYONE'S medical information or decisions.