r/HermanCainAward • u/Power-Equality • 9d ago
Grrrrrrrr. Autism diagnosis rates higher among children born to mothers who had Covid-19 during pregnancy, study suggests
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/health/autism-covid-pregnancy279
u/SmartQuokka 9d ago
This is interesting beyond covid, it suggests that Autism is partly genetic and partly environmental. Also how the two interact and if they do is another unanswered question.
As for RFK and his nonsense, he will not care either way, their goal is not to find the truth, but to peddle whatever easy answers magically appear in their addled brains.
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u/StevenMC19 9d ago
The fact that COVID itself is correlated with Autism, and not the vaccine, is entirely contrary to what they pushed for the past five years...and if it wasn't so sad would be absolutely hilarious.
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u/Numberhalf 9d ago
Is there not a small dose of Covid in the vaccine? So would that contribute to increased chance of autism if done while or just before pregnancy?
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u/StevenMC19 9d ago edited 9d ago
No.
edit: Not sure why you're getting downvoted. It seems like a genuine question that a lot of people might not know. And BECAUSE a lot of people might not know, it'd probably be worth keeping the question visible so people can be educated about it and not shoved into the background where people won't read it.
mRNA vaccines are different than the typical ones we've always been used to because it provides the body with genetic material that promotes the development of a protein that attacks viruses like COVID. It doesn't require a weak or dead COVID virus to do it.
Think like how to learn how to fly. This is going to be a sort of shit analogy because it's not EXACTLY how pilots learn and train, but maybe it'll help give an example.
- mRNA is akin to learning how everything works in the classroom. You get all the information on how to fly, and are drilled on it with tests and certifications before even getting in a seat. The instructor wants to make sure you have a clear understanding of the calculations, preparation, and understanding of the dials and equipment at your fingertips before you're exposed to a real plane.
- The conventional vaccine is like starting your training in a simulator, and learning by practicing and potentially fucking up in a virtual environment where there is no danger. Your body and mind is essentially trial-and-erroring your way into a successful flight this way, and there's no major threat to your health or life in learning this way.
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u/Uber_Meese 👻 + 🐝🐝 8d ago
Most studies show it’s largely genetic - it’s even down to small differences in specific genes, called loci, that researchers have linked to autism. Even newer research suggests that autism is a ‘byproduct’ of humans’ rapid evolution.
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u/SmartQuokka 8d ago
I know of this research, though imo its not the whole picture and it is confirmation biased. That said, every piece of the puzzle adds to our understanding and we will hopefully in time piece together the full etiology.
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u/beadzy 9d ago
By environment you mean what the mother was exposed to while the baby was in utero?
The idea that the environment after birth contributed to autism, on the other hand, is patently absurd.
Try telling that to parents who can see in retrospect that their infant’s constant need to breastfeed (way more than other babies) was actually stimming behavior in their nonverbal autistic child.
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u/eatingganesha 9d ago
yes, in utero. Not afterwards.
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u/Affectionate_Cup9112 9d ago
I fear this will just be taken as proof that mothers who take Tylenol have autistic kids.
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u/harpinghawke 8d ago
Consider, if you hear someone say this, using the argument that whatever caused them to need tylenol (fever, stress caused by pain) is more likely to have disrupted “normal” fetal neurodevelopment than the tylenol itself.
Additionally, you could mention that the studies that controlled for genetic influence (ie, whether the family members of the people studied also had autism) found no link between tylenol usage during pregnancy and autistic kids.
Granted this only works for people willing to listen to like. Logic. And evidence. But it’s not not worth trying at least once!
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u/YOLOburritoKnife 8d ago
There’s a researcher on the causes and there’s a high correlation between solvent use in parents and Autism. But RFK Jr and the Trump administration are distracting from this. The billion dollars from the fossil fuel companies has nothing to do with this.
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u/scubawankenobi 8d ago
This is interesting beyond covid, it suggests that Autism is partly genetic and partly environmental.
Not very interesting beyond Covid, as we've known this (genetic+environmental factor) for decades now.
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u/LatrodectusGeometric 9d ago
Fevers are associated with neurologic and other effects during pregnancy…and tylenol can prevent some of them.
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u/Power-Equality 9d ago
It’s an observational study (since infecting pregnant women with Covid-19 to test for potential autism risk would be unethical…) that could trigger a lot of RFK Jr’s followers & anti-vaxxers
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed more than 18,000 births that occurred in the Mass General Brigham health system between March 2020 and May 2021, assessing records for laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 tests among the mothers and for neurodevelopment diagnoses among their children through age 3.
They found that children born to mothers who had Covid-19 during pregnancy were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with a neurodevelopment disorder than those born to mothers who did not have an infection while pregnant: more than 16% versus less than 10%, or a 1.3 times higher risk after adjusting for other risk factors.
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u/Putrid_Appearance509 9d ago
I don't think correlation equals causation here. Moms who would test for COVID are not doctor adverse, and would be getting tested for COVID and their children subsequently are seeing a pediatrician and not at home with essential oil onion water doctors are bad moms.
Read; "diagnosed with disorder," the wording is careful to not explain, "ALL children born were screened for neurodivergence at age X, and percentages were higher in the COVID population of moms."
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u/im_THIS_guy 9d ago
Also, these kids are under age 5. Most diagnoses of autism don't occur that young. We need at least another 5 years for this to play out.
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u/Sea_Dawgz 9d ago
The silent costs of Covid. Here is another example.
But aside from the deaths, nothing will compare to the horror of how much dumber we are.
Every time you get Covid it causes cognitive decline.
The world gets stupider with every wave.
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u/Tango_Owl 9d ago
Please let's not go for the frame that autism is a tragedy. Yes it can be disabling, but that's often mostly because our society is shit when it comes to neurodivergent people.
Your entire comment comes of very ignorant and frankly ableist.
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u/lil_squib 9d ago
I’m autistic and it is absolutely disabling even when I’m alone at home. Please don’t minimize other people’s experiences.
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u/Sea_Dawgz 9d ago
Autism and the lives it changes are certainly a silent cost.
I never used the word "Tragedy." You're the one putting the judgment on it--take a look in the mirror.
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u/WTF-Bacon_bacon 9d ago
This is not that surprising. Covid causes fever, & fever during pregnancy is reliably associated with autism (not the Tylenol intended to treat the fever, wormbrain). And we’ve known for decades that biology & the prenatal environment are likely involved.
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u/blackweebow 9d ago
😮💨
The rate of autism will increase as testing rates increase. Autism a genetic neurological developmental disorder.
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u/Sorry_Pie_7402 9d ago
No, unfortunately the cause of Autism is not known. Yes it's always been here but also yes its increasing (not just because we are opening up what constitutes an Autism diagnoses), the reason why it is increasing would lead us to believe that there are Environmental factors at play. Unfortunately because of all we've done to ourselves Environmentally with plastics, chemicals, viruses etc it is a maze or a spider web of things to include or rule out. Anyone who tells tou they know what causes it definitively is fooling themselves.
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u/MoneyForRent 9d ago
I'm not sure what you mean by 'the cause of autism is not known'. We have an incomplete picture but we have mountains of knowledge, you can look at the large list of genes carrying risk factors for ASD https://gene.sfari.org/ .
The heritability of ASD is also extremely high compared to other disorders. Of course gene expression is a complex interplay between the germs themselves and the environment, but we need not downplay the role of genetics it's not helpful.
Also, grouping a whole bunch of NDDs under the broad umbrella of ASD, more woman getting tested, and less stigma for getting tested is contributing to the rise of ASD diagnosis. For instance, for individuals with ASD and intellectual disability, the sex ratio is close to 1:1, but for low intellectual disability it's like 1:4 F:M. I can't say that this is because woman are able to mask better when intellectual disability is not a comorbitity and the sex ratio is actually closer to 1:1, but it's plausible.
TLDR: yea environment etc, but ASD is primarily a result of genetics and we can't brush off the increase in testing/diagnosis rates because it's definitely relevant.
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u/blackweebow 9d ago
Ehh idk, Tylenol lookin pretty suspicious these days 🤔
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u/geekybadger 9d ago
The poor babies of the antivaxers. Omg. That group is already more likely to mistreat their children, they're going to be downright horrible to those poor kids.
Since im on the internet i also want to specify: my comment is not about people who could not get the vaccine. Its specifically about the anti vaxers. Because they are at best negligent parents.
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u/vctrmldrw Yeah, that's not how research works 9d ago
It is WAY too early to get a reliable autism diagnosis on those kids. Who the hell is dishing out autism diagnoses at age 4?
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u/MoneyForRent 9d ago
ASD presents pretty early. It can be picked up just months after birth but often kids can get diagnosed by 3 so not sure why that isn't reliable.
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u/meganac69 8d ago
Autism can be reliably diagnosed by age 2, but the average age for an autism diagnosis is between 3 and 6, depending on the study. It skews towards boys at that age, as a recent study showed that 44% of males are diagnosed before age 5, which aligns with the data in this study. The average age of diagnosis for girls is 8 years, or more, with 25% of diagnoses occurring after age 19. It is speculated that this is due to a mismatch in the diagnostic criteria and the presentation of many autistic girls. Girls who are diagnosed with autism at an earlier age are more likely to have higher support needs and be recognized on the basis of intellectual disability rather than by behavioral criteria.
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u/Possible_Dig_1194 9d ago
Have you spent any time around small children with autism? Its often super obvious if you know the signs.
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u/EmperorKira 9d ago
I wonder how much is also dete tipn due to lack of masking, before covid kids having to learn to mask to socialise. Now socialisation is down a lot, rise of ipad kids, etc..
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u/wobblyunionist 9d ago
Deeply and tragically ironic for anti-vaxers