By Ahmed Aboulenein, Leah Douglas and Siddhi Mahatole
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday remade a federal panel that guides national autism policy, naming a new slate of 21 members that includes some with ties to groups promoting unproven claims that link vaccines to autism.
Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine activist who has tied vaccines to autism and claimed that no vaccine is safe, said his appointees to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee bring decades of experience and would “deliver the answers Americans deserve.”
The appointments drew criticism from former panel members and autism experts in the medical and scientific community.
“This will hurt people with autism, those currently alive and those yet to be born, and all who love them,” said Autism Science Foundation President Alison Singer, who served on the committee for 12 years.
A Health and Human Services Department official said the previous members’ terms had ended and were not renewed, adding that the new appointments were made in line with long-standing procedures.
The appointments include Daniel Rossignol, a doctor who has promoted discredited autism treatments including chelation therapy, which removes heavy metals from the body, as well as John Gilmore, a co-founder of the Autism Action Network who has said his son became autistic after being vaccinated, Brownstone Institute fellow Toby Rogers, and Autism Health founder Tracy Slepcevic.
The committee, created in 2006, provides non-binding guidance to the federal government on strategies and opportunities for government funding on autism research worth about $2 billion annually.
It has traditionally consisted of parents of people with autism, autism self-advocates and researchers, as well as government officials.
Dr. Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of Boston University’s Center for Autism Research Excellence and head of the Coalition of Autism Scientists, said some members will typically remain on the board when new members are named, although Kennedy appointed an entirely new group with no carryover.
In prior years, scientists on the panel have hailed from renowned universities and health systems, but many of the new members represent organizations that “advocate for alternative kinds of treatments that are not mainstream,” said Tager-Flusberg, a former member of the committee. “Autism funding could change drastically.”
Newly appointed member Walter Zahorodny, who appeared with Kennedy in a press conference last year and backed the secretary’s stance on autism’s rising prevalence, said the committee would focus on updating the strategic plan for autism research in the United States.
“While it is too early to know what my specific assignments will be, I expect that they will have something to do with advancing knowledge of autism epidemiology and efforts to enhance the early detection of autism through effective screening,” said Zahorodny, who directs the long-running New Jersey Autism Study.
Kennedy has declared the rising rates of autism in the U.S. — now estimated at one in 31 children by age eight — to be an epidemic and has pledged to find answers behind its cause, as well as cures.
At a White House event last year, Kennedy, President Donald Trump and other health officials backed leucovorin as an autism treatment. Researchers say the data on leucovorin, used to treat some cancer patients on chemotherapy, is inconclusive and while it has shown some promise in very small trials, large randomized trials are still needed.
They also made claims against the use of Tylenol by pregnant women, saying studies suggested a link to autism, although health experts and medical groups called that warning unscientific and dangerous.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Leah Douglas in Washington, Siddhi Mahatole in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco and Kamal Choudhury in Bangalore; Editing by Alan Barona and Edmund Klamann)
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