Summary

RFK Jr. is using private medical records to create a registry of people with autism in the United States.

The National Institutes of Health is helping to collect private medical records from government and commercial databases, including “prescription records from pharmacies, lab testing, and genomics records from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, private insurance claims, and data from smartwatches and fitness trackers.”

Kennedy, a longtime critic of vaccination, has made the study of autism one of HHS’s primary goals. He has called autism “preventable” and claimed “he can find a cure for the condition by September.”

  • febra@lemmy.world
    23·
    8 hours ago

    This is just them preparing the launchpad for further mass surveillance programs. First, they’ll poke around with innocent sounding programs, testing the waters to see how much data they can sniff out of different private databases without anyone noticing. They’ll claim it’s for the good of autistic people. They’ll enact legislation to further cement their practices of data gathering. If their proof of concept turns out to be delivering results, they’ll keep going.

    Slowly they’ll keep tracking all kinds of people they deem as “ill”. They’ll start with vilified minorities that can’t fight back. Most likely trans people. Then the rest of the queer community. Of course, they’ll claim there’s no ill intent in gathering this data, after all, it’s not like they’re going to commit any vile acts.

    And slowly but surely, once the public debate around these minorities turns even more sour, you’ll have them enacting all kinds of laws, and these databases will prove to be quite handy tools in aiding their goals.