RFK Jr. Puts an Axe-Grinder in the CDC
Not a Scientist, Not a Medical Expert
Mark Blaxill has been many things: business executive, activist, blogger. What he has never been is a subject-matter expert on autism or vaccines. Yet late last week, MSNBC reported that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s CDC appointed him as a senior adviser.
An Axe to Grind
Blaxill calls himself a "warrior dad" of an autistic daughter. For decades he has treated autism as injury and vaccines as the culprit. His activism helped fuel the Age of Autism blog and the group SafeMinds, both central to the anti-vaxx movement. His claims? That every vaccinated child is harmed, that thimerosal caused an "autism epidemic." Decades of research have disproven all of it.
From Outbreaks to Office
Blaxill is not new to harm. In 2017, during a measles outbreak, he told Somali parents not to vaccinate their children. Now, instead of fringe advice, his views are being institutionalized. With his new role at CDC, autism policy risks being recast as vaccine injury by default.
Expertise Replaced by Ideology
Staffing is a method. By replacing scientists with activists, Kennedy has redefined what counts as knowledge inside the agency. Autism surveillance is now vulnerable to being framed as proof of injury rather than recognition of human variation.
The Real Epidemic
The story is not autism. It’s the erosion of scientific standards and the substitution of ideology for evidence. Autistic people are once again being reduced to symptoms of parental fear—this time stamped with the CDC’s seal.
The Cost at Home
Blaxill calls himself a warrior for his daughter, but his war has always been waged against her identity. One day she may realize her father spent his life insisting that who she is should never have existed. That is the quietest, cruelest erasure of all.