{"id":713,"date":"2026-01-15T10:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/rfk-jr-s-fda-pulls-warning-about-fake-autism-treatments\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T10:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:10:08","slug":"rfk-jr-s-fda-pulls-warning-about-fake-autism-treatments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/rfk-jr-s-fda-pulls-warning-about-fake-autism-treatments\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr.\u2019s FDA Pulls Warning About Fake Autism Treatments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rfk-jr.-sept-30-2025-1280x853.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has emboldened plenty of charlatans since taking over as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Now, the Food and Drug Administration under his leadership has taken down a webpage warning the public about popular pseudoscientific remedies for autism.<\/p>\n<p>Ars Technica reported on the removal Tuesday, though it appears to have occurred in late December. The webpage criticized a variety of unapproved interventions claimed to treat autism, particularly chelation therapy. Kennedy has previously stated his intention to expand Americans\u2019 access to unproven, alternative medical treatments, including chelation.<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cLife-threatening outcomes\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Chelation therapy is the use of drugs that bind to heavy metals in the body, allowing them to be excreted through urine. It\u2019s an effective treatment for certain kinds of acute poisoning or toxic exposures. But in the alt med world, chelation is instead marketed as a potent cure-all for removing toxins that supposedly cause a variety of chronic illnesses, autism included.<\/p>\n<p>The FDA webpage (an archived copy can be seen here) was labeled a consumer update and titled \u201cBe Aware of Potentially Dangerous Products and Therapies that Claim to Treat Autism.\u201d It rightly noted the lack of evidence supporting chelation therapy as an autism treatment and the dangerous side effects that can come with using it improperly. People have gotten hurt or even died after taking chelation for autism and other unapproved uses.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"\u201cPopular Alt-Med MMS Is Toxic at \u2018Therapeutic\u2019 Doses, Scientists Warn\u201d \u2014 Gizmodo\" src=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/popular-alt-med-mms-is-toxic-at-therapeutic-doses-scientists-warn-2000693940\/embed#?secret=WareemM9J8#?secret=F7DjlxysQS\" data-secret=\"F7DjlxysQS\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cChelating important minerals needed by the body can lead to serious and life-threatening outcomes,\u201d the page previously stated. It\u00a0also tackled other purported autism cures and treatments, such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, detoxifying clay baths, and bleaching agents like \u201cMiracle Mineral Solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The RFK Jr. bump<\/h2>\n<p>HHS has denied any nefarious intent behind the FDA\u2019s removal of the page. In a statement to Ars Technica, a representative claimed the webpage was retired as part of a \u201croutine cleanup\u201d of older pages from the FDA\u2019s website; the agency also pointed the outlet to an active page on fraudulent treatments for various health conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The autism section of that page is threadbare, however, listing no specific treatments that should be avoided. Another FDA webpage criticizing unapproved chelation therapy in general remains active as well; it briefly discusses its improper use for autism. But this page was last updated in 2016, whereas the pulled autism and chelation page was last updated in 2019. That raises the question of why the FDA removed the more current public warning but left the older page intact.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"\u201cCDC Website Now Boosts Debunked Link Between Vaccines and Autism\u201d \u2014 Gizmodo\" src=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/cdc-website-now-boosts-debunked-link-between-vaccines-and-autism-2000688898\/embed#?secret=0iBr7mSvGT#?secret=SZJfrNCVMm\" data-secret=\"SZJfrNCVMm\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth noting that RFK Jr. has already personally pushed for the editing of public materials disseminated by health agencies under HHS to suit his ideological agenda. Last November, Kennedy directed the CDC to drastically change its webpage concerning vaccines and autism. The page now claims the federal government hasn\u2019t done enough to rule out a link between vaccines and autism\u2014a connection that\u2019s been debunked by dozens of studies, but one RFK Jr. has supported for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Last May, during an interview on the Ultimate Human Podcast hosted by Gary Brecka, RFK Jr. stated that HHS would make it easier for Americans to get their hands on treatments not currently approved by health regulators; he also specifically name-checked chelation therapy as one of these alternative treatments. Notably, Kennedy and many of his allies in the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement have previously profited or are currently profiting from selling products popular in alternative medicine and wellness circles.<\/p>\n<p>Amazingly, Kennedy even acknowledged during the interview that expanding people\u2019s access to unproven remedies like chelation would have harmful consequences. \u201cAnd of course you\u2019re going to get a lot of charlatans, and you\u2019re going to get people who have bad results,\u201d he said at one point. \u201cAnd ultimately, you can\u2019t prevent that either way. Leaving the whole thing in the hands of pharma is not working for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The wolves, it appears, have fully taken over the henhouse.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has emboldened plenty of charlatans since taking over as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Now, the Food and Drug Administration under his leadership has taken down a webpage warning the public about popular pseudoscientific remedies for autism. Ars Technica reported on the removal Tuesday, though it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rfk-jr.-sept-30-2025-1200x675.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}