The National Institutes of Health announced on Monday that private medical records from several federal and commercial databases will be used to support Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to study autism.
CBS News also reported that, as part of those efforts, “a new disease registry is being launched to track Americans with autism, which will be integrated into the data.”
The prospect of a national autism registry is terrifying TikTok, leaving many creators with unanswered questions about its purpose.
“How are they going to collect all this data without violating HIPAA laws and privacy protection?” pondered Dr. Joel Shulkin in one video. “How are they going to de-identify all the data so that it cannot be misused against people who are involved in it? And what are they planning to do with that data once they finish their so-called study?”
@drjoelshulkin Why is HHS really demanding a national “autism registry”? Why is a fake “autism epidemic” their top priority when there are actual outbreaks of measles and rubella? How will this “study” protect HIPAA & what meaningful information can be gained from it? #autism ♬ original sound – Author Joel Shulkin, MD
Commenters on the video expressed numerous grim conspiracy theories.
“It’s a smokescreen to find out who has autism so they can eradicate them. Let’s call it what it is,” claimed the top comment.
“The end result of this will be that people will start to hide their family members who have disabilities,” concluded another person.
Another creator blasted in a separate video: “If the fact that RFK Jr. is putting together what they’re calling a ‘disease’ registry is not scaring the shit out of you, I don’t know what will. If this does not prove that this man does not understand that autism is not a disease that can be cured, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“This is not about researching autism. This is about identifying autistic people,” concluded another TikTok commenter.
“everyone should be concerned,” stated someone else.
@mindballads everyone should be worried
♬ original sound – meg
“He’s looking for a reason insurance companies can discriminate,” mused one commenter.
The accumulated data will provide external researchers picked for RFK’s autism studies with “comprehensive” patient data with “broad coverage” of the U.S. population, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said on Monday.
Those researchers include longtime vaccine skeptic David Geier, a researcher handpicked by RFK, who likewise has espoused anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, including the claim that vaccinations cause autism.
In addition to his controversial anti-vaccine research, Geier was previously disciplined by Maryland regulators for practicing medicine without a license after peddling unproven and risky treatments he purported would treat autism.
The news of the database comes just days after RFK Jr. gave a press conference on autism rates in America, saying diagnoses were increasing at “an alarming rate,” and claiming that the mainstream media was denying the existence of an “epidemic.”
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