An hourlong press conference about autism was filled with false and misleading claims about the condition and vaccines from President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., many of which we have written about before.

As Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pediatrician and vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit said on CNN about the Sept. 22 press conference, “It was just misstatement of fact after misstatement of fact. It was a fire hose of misstatements.”

In a statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics said the event was “filled with dangerous claims and misleading information that sends a confusing message to parents and expecting parents and does a disservice to autistic individuals.”

In a separate story, we took a deep dive into the president’s main news — his claims linking autism and Tylenol use by pregnant women — but here’s some of the other misinformation we flagged:

• Trump exaggerated old estimates of autism prevalence and misleadingly compared them with recent figures. Researchers say increased awareness and broader definitions of autism explain much of the higher observed rate today.

• Kennedy selectively and deceptively cited research while dismissing as a “canard” the idea that higher reported rates of autism may be largely due to changing diagnostic criteria and better recognition.

• Kennedy also wrongly claimed “full blown autism” exists only in people under 50 years of age.

• Kennedy claimed that “research on the potential...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiiAFBVV95cUxQb09WSmtRTExNc1hDNDQzZVpT...