Monday, July 9, 2018

Thread about Darla Shine's misleading tweet about autism

Thread by @EricMGarcia: "Ok, so I have been trying to think of a tactful way to address Darla Shine's deeply misleading tweets about African Americans and autism and […]" #aftereffect

Ok, so I have been trying to think of a tactful way to address Darla Shine's deeply misleading tweets about African Americans and autism and why they are harmful for autistic people of color but @ewerickson gives me a good inroad so
*Cracks knuckles* buckle up 1/
For background, @calebecarma and @yashar both reported Darla Shine, the wife of new WH comms director Bill Shine, tweeted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories 2/
Bear with me because I am writing a book about autism and have been working on my chapter on autism and race so my jimmies are rustled on this, Particularly, @calebecarma reported a tweet by Darla where she said "1 in 10 Boys has autism." 3/
this goes to a canard among anti-vaxxers, that plays to fears between African Americans and medicine. In 2014, Brian Hooker published a study saying black infant boys who got the MMR vaccine "are more likely to receive an autism diagnosis." 4/
But The CDC said the study was "most likely a result of immunization requirements for preschool special education program attendance in children with autism." Hooker was said to have "manipulated the media in a very savvy and sophisticated way". 5/
The danger with this is it plays on (very legitimate) fears African Americans have of the medical community as the result of the Tuskegee experiment. Per @fivefifths, a study showed it "reduced life expectancy among black men over 45 by over a year" 6/
Oh and side note I forgot to add, Hooker's study in Translational Neurodegeneration was retracted. But I digress. 7/
Now here's where it gets weird, scary and dangerous. Per this great @jezebel piece by @annamerlan, the Nation of Islam has taken up the anti-vaccination cause, specifically saying "We’re going to say, ‘Not another Tuskegee on our watch" 8/
Again referring to @annamerlan, the Nation of Islam teamed up with noted anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to prevent a personal belief clause from being stricken from California's laws on vaccines. Their attempts failed. 9/
oh and @annamerlan also traveled on a conspiracy cruise with Andrew Wakefield who said 80 percent of American boys will be autistic in 15 years, which is similar to Shine's claim found by @yashar that half of all boys will be autistic in 2050. 10/
Of course by now, Wakefield is rightfully seen as a quack who lost his medical license by 2010 . But here's why this is very dangerous for autistic black people. So sit tight. 11/
One of the reasons why the allegation more black boys are autistic if they are vaccinated is so absurd is that study after study shows that in fact, black kids are much more likely to not get an autism diagnosis. 12/
In 2007, @dsmandell and others found undiagnosed autistic black kids "were 5.1 times more likely than white children to receive a diagnosis of adjustment disorder than of ADHD, and 2.4 times more likely to receive a diagnosis of conduct disorder..." 12/
So if we are to believe Darla Shine's numbers that 1 in 10 black boys are autistic, that would mean a full 10 percent of black boys are autistic, which is more than 1 in 59 children that the CDC announced earlier this year. 13/
The ultimate kick in the gut for anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists? In the most recent CDC survey, the reason for the uptick was the racial gap in autism diagnosis was "were smaller when compared with estimates from previous years" 14/
Oh I missed this from @dsmandell's study, "Boys were 8.9 times more likely than girls to receive a diagnosis of adjustment disorder compared with ADHD and 3.5 times more likely to receive a diagnosis of conduct disorder compared with ADHD" 15/
Another reason why this whole thing is dangerous is because there is already huge (or should I say Yuge) stigma and misunderstanding about autism in communities of color that is detrimental. 16/
A 2012 study from then-FSU Professor Martell Teasley said African American families are more resistant to an autism diagnosis. 17/
socialworktoday.com/news/dn_022712…
Teasley also said black people are used to dealing with doctors with racial biases "so they may not readily accept what a doctor says" 18/
socialworktoday.com/news/dn_022712…
So one may think this is innocuous or as @ewerickson might say, it's part of a smear campaign and why does this matter? Well it matters because a lot of the same people whom Darla Shine cited have latched onto Trump world. 19/
Realizing I didn't properly threat these tweets so including this following tweet here so you can continue following here 12a/
Anyway, back to work. Of course, before running for President and during the campaign, Trump espoused anti-vaccine conspiracies. During the summer of 2016, Trump met with Andrew Wakefield, the discredited doctor and Wakefield went to an inaugural ball 20/
After Trump won and before the inauguration, Trump allegedly promised the aforementioned Robert Kennedy Jr. he would chair a vaccine safety commission. h/t @BySheilaKaplan and my former colleague @dylanlscott 21/
Of course, Trump being Trump, he hasn't really followed through on it and Kennedy has expressed some disappointment. As @jpitney says, Trump did to anti-vaxxers what he did to many of his supporters and contractors. 22/
Trump has expressed some shift in his views about autism His CDC Director Scott Gottlieb seems to support vaccination and sees them as a net plus. But coming into the administration, Bill Shine's own views about vaccines should come into question 23/
Anyway, TL;DR: anti-vaxxers have tried using the black community's mistrust of the medical community to make them skeptical of vaccines. and it is totally fair game for a WH Comms director to be asked about it 24/
Oh and one stray thought: here are some people you SHOULD follow who know a lot about autism and race. @BeingKaylaSmith @autistichoya, @MorenikeGO, @timgordonjr, @dsmandell and @stevesilberman. I'm going to bed. Good night.
Oh and if you want a comprehensive podcast that deals with the intersection of race and autism, check out @audreyqq’s #aftereffect podcast on @WNYC
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