Why RFK Jr. Is Obsessed with Autism and Not Obesity Epidemic?

Why doesn’t RFK Jr., go after a REAL epidemic such as obesity or cancer which unlike autism causes widespread death and debilitating chronic illness for millions more?

How many people do you personally know whose lives have been “destroyed” by autism?

Now, how many people do you personally know who’ve lost a child or parent to cancer?

You probably have several family members who struggle with morbid obesity in that it severely impacts the quality of their lives.

How many family members do you have for whom their own autism has significantly impacted their life in a negative way?

Now, I’m certainly not trying to minimize the effect that autism has on those who’ve been diagnosed with this neurotype.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is most deserving of attention and especially acceptance. I myself have a clinical diagnosis of autism.

My oddness, for lack of a better term, has not “destroyed” any of my family members.

When someone such as RFK, Jr., is in a position to make substantial changes in the health realm, we have to admit that it’s a billion-dollar question: Why doesn’t he go after obesity or cancer?

Okay, we can give RFK, Jr., some credit in that he wants a ban on cancer-causing food dyes found in candy.

But that hardly skims the surface of that proverbial iceberg.

He wants autism obliterated. How about cancer? How about the obesity epidemic?

Obesity costs American workplaces an estimated $425.5 billion annually, according to a 2023 report by GlobalData. 

This stems from increased medical claims, absenteeism, reduced productivity, disability and workers’ compensation.

On average, each employee with obesity costs employers $6,472 per year, compared to $1,244 for those who are overweight but don’t meet the criterion for obesity.

I’ve never heard of autism costing workplaces staggering amounts of money.

In fact, autistic people are vastly under-employed, even though they make great employees due to their attention to detail, hyperfocus on repetitive tasks, heightened sense of justice and straightforward approach.

Gee, how much would it cost an employer to make accommodations such as allowing the use of noise cancelling headphones, specific locations for a workstation with perhaps dimmer lighting, written instructions and lower expectations for engaging in office politics?

Meanwhile, obesity and cancer are kingpins when it comes to draining resources.

Does autism kill 760,000 Americans every year?

Obesity and cancer combined are responsible for approximately 760,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer alone accounted for over 608,000 deaths in 2022.

Obesity is responsible for approximately 280,000 deaths annually in the U.S., according to a 1999 study published in JAMA.

When adjusted for nonsmokers, the estimated number of deaths increased to about 325,000 per year.

The number of U.S. deaths caused by obesity will vary, depending on the source and year that the determination was made. But it’s always an enormous number.

Being that obesity has been skyrocketing for many years, you can only imagine just how many Americans will die by obesity in 2025 alone.

As for smoking, there’ve already been policies in place – for many years – to curtail this destructive habit, including a ban on workplace smoking and the long-held ban on TV ads for cigarettes.

Not Minimizing Autism’s Effect on Families

Yes, severe and profound forms of autism exist and have caused significant and ongoing problems for families.

RFK, Jr., eventually amended his comments about autistic people never being able to pay taxes, play baseball, write a poem or get married by pointing out that his original declaration had pertained only to the 25% who were nonverbal and were affected more severely.

But once those original words were out, they were out.

I’ve been to numerous autism events since my diagnosis in March 2022.

At those events I’ve seen the very autistic individuals whom RFK, Jr., was referring to during his HHS press conference in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2025.

One is a teen girl who emits loud, shrill shrieks to communicate; she’s not even able to use a picture board to express her needs and requires continuous line-of-sight supervision.

She once kept reaching for my hamburger, having no concept of “that food belongs to someone else.”

Certainly, this petite, blue-eyed girl has brought much joy to her parents, but at the same time, has presumably left them utterly exhausted and depleted at the end of most days.

There should definitely be more support available for such families — and support that’s easier to access.

The initial remarks at the April 16 conference by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have put in the heads of gullible listeners that ALL autistic people are a burden on society and largely unemployable.

So even though he retracted somewhat and pointed out he had meant only that 25% who are nonverbal, his initial words have set autism acceptance back at least a generation.

So now, if I tell people I’m on the Autism Spectrum, will they more likely – due to RFK, Jr.’s words – assume that I’m prone to screaming fits, taking swings at people, bashing my head against walls and requiring assistance with adulting tasks such as banking, grocery shopping, cooking and paying bills on time? 

Will his words make more businesses think twice before hiring an autistic person?

Promotion of Obesity

Maybe Robert F. Kennedy Jr., should wage war on all the women on TikTok and Instagram who promote morbid obesity.

Morbid obesity is primarily driven by unhealthy lifestyle choices (which is why we don’t see a similar prevalence of obesity uniformly across the globe).

Social media influencers continue to declare that it’s perfectly okay, in terms of health, to be morbidly obese.

They spread medical misinformation all over the place, claiming that even being “super” fat doesn’t cause harm to the body, that one can be in great health and have great fitness despite weighing 300 pounds.

Now replace “obese” with “smoking” or “heavy drinking,” and this rhetoric would be banned in an instant.

Meanwhile, autism is not the result of lifestyle choices or inept parenting.

ASD is a different operating system, an alternative way of thinking and seeing the world.

Though autism acceptance should be a priority (and it needs a serious reboot thanks to those HHS conference remarks), Kennedy should leave it alone and declare an all-out war on cancer and obesity: two conditions that cause enormous drains on the healthcare system and the workplace, not to mention tragedies to so many American families.

So why is RFK, Jr., fixated on autism?

Rather than much bigger medical or societal issues such as the obesity epidemic, cancer, suicide, drug use among youth, drunken driving — to name a few?

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s focus on autism likely stems from personal experiences and of course his long-standing skepticism toward vaccine safety.

We can only speculate, but this is a pretty grounded speculation. 

While his stance on autism being caused by vaccines and environmental factors distracts from broader public health issues, he perhaps sees it as part of a larger fight against corporate and governmental overreach.

Perhaps RFK, Jr., has targeted autism because he thinks that exposing perceived health system failures can spark systemic change.  

Is autism really America’s biggest problem? There are so many far greater problems that fall under the category of public health that a man in his position should chase down.                

Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness, where she was also a group fitness instructor, she trained clients of all ages for fat loss and maintaining it, muscle and strength building, fitness, and improved cardiovascular and overall health. She has a clinical diagnosis of ASD.

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