Power says cure. Autistic people say support.
When leaders revive debunked cures, autistic voices answer with truth and support
Two articles landed the day after we entered into a new Autism Era. Axios published a piece titled Trump and RFK link Tylenol and vaccines to autism: Here's how people with autism respond. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel followed with Autism community reacts to Trump comments on Tylenol with alarm. Both cover the same White House press conference, but their choices show two paths: one records power, the other records harm.
What Axios did
Axios covered the story around autistic responses. They quoted advocates who named the damage done when government officials revive debunked autism myths. Russell Lehmann called it "death by a million cuts". Laura Kennedy called it fear mongering. The piece noted that large studies have found no causal link between Tylenol and autism, even as Trump told pregnant women to "tough it out." Axios set the context and made sure autistic people spoke first.
What the Journal Sentinel did
The *Milwaukee Journal Sentinel kept the focus local. Erin Miller, an autistic woman in Wisconsin, explained how cure rhetoric harms her life and relationships. Noor Pervez from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network called RFK Jr.'s language dehumanizing. A midwife pointed out the medical risk of discouraging Tylenol, since untreated fever is more dangerous in pregnancy. The piece also captured how families turned inward, asking if they had caused their child’s autism. That detail matters. It shows how policy pronouncements echo into guilt and confusion at the kitchen table.
The frame clash
Both stories center autistic voices, but their emphasis differs. Axios maps the national debate while the Journal Sentinel documents lived fallout. Together they show what happens when cure rhetoric leaves the podium and enters daily life. The contradiction is sharp: leaders reduce autism to a preventable tragedy, while autistic people and their families ask for support, stability and dignity.
Questions power will not ask
Why does federal funding still chase causes instead of supports? Who benefits when autism is cast as a horror to avert? What would change if journalism let autistic framing set the agenda, not just our quotes? These are not abstract questions. They decide where money flows, what risks pregnant people take and how autistic people are seen in public.
After the microphone
Once the cameras cut, autistic people live with the fallout. Cure rhetoric lingers long after a press conference, reshaping family conversations, tilting research budgets and telling the public who counts as tragic. Axios and the Journal Sentinel both recorded this moment. Their work matters, but the story does not end there. The real closing beat belongs to autistic people who keep living, building community and insisting that autism is not a horror to avoid. It is a life to sustain.