Checkup From the Neck-Up, Episode 31 - Autism: A Transformative Moment

Psychologist and researcher Dr. Anthony M. Graziano describes meeting 6 kids with autism in 1959 and discovering that almost everything he had learned in graduate school about autism as “a disease to be cured” was useless. He went on to develop a successful program to teach the kids how to engage with others, to relax, and to make lives previously thought impossible. He says that HHS Secretary Kennedy is broadcasting the erroneous “disease” concept of autism from the 1950s. Then he compounds his error by tragically linking it to the totally debunked idea of autism being caused by vaccines which are actually one of the greatest public health successes of modern medical science. Dr. Graziano calls instead on our society to commit to teaching these unique individuals the skills they need to function in society.