Questioning RFK’s Circumcision Comments
RFK Jr Links Circumcision, Tylenol, and Autism and what an incurious lot we’ve become.
At a recent cabinet meeting, RFK Jr said, “There’s two studies which show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism,” and we should be talking about that. We’re not, because he continued, “it’s highly likely, because they were given Tylenol.” All the interesting questions were swept away by that last part.
We know RFK Jr is a dangerous kook who’ll cost us many lives. This is just exhibit M or W or whatever we’re up to. He’s such a demonstrable kook that we should ignore a study published by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health another done by the NIH that say acetaminophen, the engine that makes Tylenol do what it does, may be linked to our suddenly high rates of spectrum disorders. They don’t say Tylenol causes autism, just that there’s evidence suggesting it might.
The Cato institute published an article by Jeffrey A. Singer in which it’s pointed out that Secretary Kennedy said his Tylenol related circumcision claims were based on two studies, but he didn’t mention which studies they were. I don’t know much about Singer, but he’s a senior fellow in Cato’s Department of Health Policy Studies and seems to know his way around the material. He suggests that Kennedy was referring to a Dutch study by Morton Frisch and Jacob Simonsen, and another by Ann Z Bauer and David Kriebel and capably explains why those two studies can make no conclusive claims to a causal relationship between acetaminophen and circumcision. He doesn’t dispute the findings that autism is more common among the circumcised.
I am certain that somewhere out in the wild, wild internet there is someone who does, but in all the grand pageantry of kook-calling-out our media and denizens of Twitter love to indulge in, I haven’t seen anybody dispute that there is a notable difference in the number of people who have autism who are and are not circumcised. Kennedy says those who are cut are twice as likely to suffer. Singer points out the Frisch study, “found that among that group, boys who were circumcised were 46 percent more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by age 10. However, being 46 percent more likely is not the same as being twice as likely.” Fair enough. But there is a notable difference in diagnosed occurrence between the two groups.
This should be a needle scratch moment. It’s still debated that we have an increase in autism and spectrum disorders at all. There are reasonable claims that an uptick in diagnosis coincides with awareness and advances in our ability to detect the disorders and identify those who display what would have been chalked up to oddball behavior in the past. Here we have evidence that when something is done, incidents increase.
It may be Tylenol. It may not. I’ve read musings that trauma of early surgery may be a cause, but those musing are presented as ball tossing and quickly dismissed by the muser. Our rate of autism is 1 in 33 or 36 births, depending on who you read. Circumcision is much more prevalent in Israel, where the rate is 1 in 88. Again, per Singer, “In most Jewish ritual circumcisions, for example, a few drops of wine are placed on the baby’s lips—not acetaminophen.” The traditional Jewish rite doesn’t use the painful clamp common in hospital procedures, at least according to the what this Catholic’s read. There are reasons to believe yea or nay. Autism frequency may have nothing to do with circumcision, the method by which it’s done, or what its analgesics. This is still very valuable information.
What does a circumcision imply? What does it imply about the parents of those who have their sons circumcised, and what does it imply about those who do not?
Circumcision was recommended by our pediatrician and the hospital where our sons were born. Is that prevalent? Do parents who accept doctors recommendations on one procedure tend to accept doctors’ recommendations wholesale? Do parents who trust their doctor consider individual procedures or see childbirth as something best left in the hands of those who know? Do they see it as a package deal? Are those who refuse circumcision more likely to refuse other recommended procedures? Are there people who see hospital services as an à la carte menu? This will get people screaming about vaccines.
There is a great disparity in evidence and incredibly, instead of trying to find out why, people are spending energy demanding it not be Tylenol. We aren’t disputing studies that say there may be a reason for concern. We’re denying they exist. All at the cost of following inquiries that present themselves. All because a guy who talks funny, isn’t afraid to stop the class when he sees a contradiction, and once did something hilarious with a bear carcass is on the wrong team.
As it stands, it is disputed that autism is on the rise, and, if it is on the rise, whether the rise is naturally occurring, man-made, or environmental. We’re too smart to not know. So we protect our assumptions.
Asking questions is an admission of ignorance. That shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is in our status conscious public debate. There are people who know things and there’s cretinous MAGA. A slip up, a gaffe showing you aren’t in right with the smart set, might get you bumped down a caste or two. If you’re wrapped up in not being wrong but have the misfortune of being human, you’re headed for disappointment; better to fall in line. For God’s sake, don’t raise your hand.
The media are awful and I want so badly to lambaste them as incurious herd types, shallow at best, cowardly and insecure at worst, and lay my gripe at their feet. But it’s not just media. Students go to college knowing. Women yell at their phones in cars. We’re insular, smug, terrified, and unwilling to admit even an aspect of personal inferiority. “Debunked, debunked, debunked.”
So we mock the kooks like RFK Jr while we secretly hope they figure something out. Something useful. Something we can pretend to have known all along.