“Autism destroys families, and more importantly it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children.” In the United States, Health secretary RFK Jr is attempting to reframe autism as an epidemic rather than natural neurodiversity. Backed by the Trump administration, these ideas have already begun to make concrete impacts in the US, as Kennedy dismantles established public health policies and slashes critical research funding. For skeptics of mainstream medicine such as Tracy, who is also a mother to an autistic son, RFK is a white knight for the movement, which identifies vaccination as a key ‘cause’ for autism. “Unfortunately, the pre genetics I believe are the loaded gun and the vaccines pull the trigger,” she explains. But her son, Noah, who has been at the centre of her activism his whole life, acknowledges that her beliefs have been largely shaped by radical internet communities; “She’s basically in this echo chamber of right-wing people”.