Helen Tager-Flusberg
@HelenTager
autism scientist; @BU; avid reader
On the worst thing Trump has done, abolishing USAID: "In 2022 it cost the average American household $6 to prevent 1/2 as many deaths as occurred in the Holocaust... For all our faults, we are not so small a people as to refuse such a financial and moral bargain." How could the…
My NYT oped: 1)What RFK doesn't know about Autism is everything 2)Vaccines didn't cause 60X increase in rates during last 30 yrs 3)DSM-IV did- thru looser definitions 4)Also pushed by internet/need for school services 5)Many harms from careless diagnosis nytimes.com/2025/06/23/opi…
Thirty years ago, a doctor named Mark Geier and his son, David, allied with a group of parents to spread fears about vaccines and autism. Now David is at HHS, reportedly looking for a link for RFK Jr. nymag.com/intelligencer/…
‘Language regions’ might be methodological artefacts biorxiv.org/content/biorxi… Language regions should be better seen as connectivity hubs that coordinate varying (around 40%) peripheral activity
Today is the first-ever Genetic Testing Action Day! Join the #StartGenetic movement and visit StartGenetic.org for the free Parent Toolkit.
Grateful for this positive review of “Conversations in Critical Psychiatry” in the British Journal of Psychiatry by Tom Harrison. Aftab “condenses an understanding of psychiatry that everyone working in the field would benefit from” cambridge.org/core/journals/…
On behalf of the CNV analysis workgroup of the @PGCgenetics I'm pleased to share our latest paper "Psychiatric disorders converge on common pathways but diverge in cellular context, spatial distribution, and directionality of genetic effects" 🧵1/N medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
Tom Nichols: "Donald Trump ran, in order of importance, for three reasons: stay out of prison, get revenge on his enemies, enrich himself and the people around him by every means possible. Everything else is just window dressing."
New Study Reveals Subclasses of Autism by Linking Traits to Genetics ow.ly/bPQ350Wn0vU #broadlyaffectedautism #profoundautism #simonsfoundation
RFK Jr's investigative agenda raises new ethical questions for autism advocates. Read the entire article here: ow.ly/BZI250WizG4
"The anti‑vax movement, once seen as confined to the U.S., is now spreading globally." An excellent piece.
The U.S. may be doing more than simply failing to aid global vaccination efforts, Rivka Galchen writes. “The domestic stoking of anti-vaccine sentiment is itself infectious.” nyer.cm/zF3gF4L
Free Will, Genetics, Autism, and What Makes You... You w/ Dr. Kevin Mitchell youtu.be/ntWpH97LXog?si… via @YouTube
Calculating the Damage of Vaccine Skepticism | my interview with Rivka Galchen in @NewYorker re: @gavi and the tragic globalization of antivaccine activism newyorker.com/science/elemen…
Conference on Language Development share.google/xkYEa4SipPJPwq…
My comments with @ReporterGoodman @CNN amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/06/26…
In the space of 48 hours HHS Secretary RFK Jr has announced he will prioritise wearable "wellness" trackers which have no proven health benefits, and slash funding for vaccines which have saved tens of millions of lives globally He's a dangerous fraud.
Mr. Kennedy is wrong. Here’s my analysis of the health impact of the @gavi alliance in saving under 5 child deaths, based on newest open access @IHME_UW estimates. The numbers = under 5 child deaths since Gavi was launched in 2000 to 2021. % reduction in deaths in parentheses.
In its zeal to promote universal vaccination, @gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety. When vaccine safety issues have come before GAVI, it has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem. During the COVID-19…
There is a direct connection to RFK Jr's firing of CDC vaccine advisers and actions to undermine vaccination here at home. RFK Jr is now proving to be a direct threat to children's lives in the US and around the world.
nytimes.com/2025/06/25/hea… via @NYTimes Excellent and disturbing article
