STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The journalist Eric Garcia came by our studio to talk the other day, and he found it comfortable.
ERIC GARCIA: You know, I'm glad that there's no fluorescent lights because that would be a sensory processing nightmare for someone like me.
INSKEEP: Really?
GARCIA: Yeah.
INSKEEP: OK.
GARCIA: And, like, on top of that, like, even I have to time out when I take the metro to go to work, because if it is too crowded, that will just...
INSKEEP: You're overwhelmed.
GARCIA: Yes.
INSKEEP: Garcia is autistic. His disability is in the news, including news stories that Garcia himself has been writing. So we asked him over to talk about it.
Would you define autism as you understand it?
GARCIA: Basically, it is a disability, in many ways, of communication and of social interaction. And that includes people who are willing to - who are able to speak and who can't speak. That includes people who require around the clock care and people who can live independently.
INSKEEP: Garcia lives independently, although he spent a lot of time in school learning how to navigate life.
GARCIA: I mean, I was bullied a lot. I think a lot of times I didn't understand when people were taking advantage of me. I didn't understand a lot of the social cues. A lot of it just felt like - a lot of what my peers were doing, particularly men...
INSKEEP: Meaning you didn't understand how to relate to the boys?
GARCIA: I didn't understand how to relate to people.
INSKEEP: People like the kid who offered Garcia a diagnosis.
GARCIA: Kids had diagnostic labels, too. And I remember one time I was in special ed when I was in fourth grade, and this one kid says you know what RSP stands for, right? I was like what? He says, really stupid people.
INSKEEP: And here's what finally made things better.
GARCIA: It wasn't really until I was in college that I accepted, yeah, I'm disabled, because then I needed to get accommodation services to get more time on tests. I had to be with my guidance counselors, things like that. So I went to community college before I went to university.
INSKEEP: This sounds like what you needed was the academic equivalent of timing your ride on the subway.
GARCIA: Yes, exactly.
INSKEEP: If you make adjustments, you're fine.
GARCIA: Yes, exactly. Yeah.
INSKEEP: Clearly, you've adapted. You're Washington correspondent and bureau chief for the Independent, the British paper.
GARCIA: Correct, I am.
INSKEEP: And now covering, among other things, the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a cabinet position at the Department of Health and Human Services. What's that been like?
GARCIA: Oh, boy.
INSKEEP: Kennedy has promoted theories that vaccines cause autism and has questioned large scientific studies that show no link at all. In the halls of the Capitol, Eric Garcia interviewed some Republican senators who took an interest in Kennedy's theories.
What truly bothers you about the idea of people walking around thinking that vaccines caused your condition or anybody's condition like yours?
GARCIA: Yeah, what really bothers me - a few things. One is there's this idea that autism is so terrible and finding something to blame on it rather than loving and accepting autistic people.
INSKEEP: Garcia believes this is just how he is, autistic, a characteristic, like his height or his eye color.
GARCIA: Your humanity is not defined by whether or not you're "fixed," quote-unquote.
INSKEEP: He does not see autism as a disease like cancer, yet people have spent generations suggesting that somebody must have done something wrong, like the researchers in the mid-1900s who blamed parenting styles.
GARCIA: Autism was caused by these unloving refrigerator parents.
INSKEEP: That was the notion, which eventually was discredited and then replaced for some by vaccine theories.
GARCIA: I really have a lot of sympathy for parents because for so long, they were blamed for their children being autistic. And then they have something to pin the blame on with vaccines.
INSKEEP: During the presidential campaign, Kennedy talked about vaccines. And the day after the election, he told NPR that he would have the power to follow his beliefs.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
INSKEEP: How quickly will you act on federal support for vaccines or research on vaccines?
ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: I will work immediately on that.
INSKEEP: Kennedy vows to pursue what he considers deficiencies in the studies to better inform citizens, which Eric Garcia considers a distraction from a much more promising approach.
GARCIA: We spend such a drop in the bucket on lifespan issues when it comes to research at the NIH, in the National Institutes of Health. We spend so little on the services that people need in transition from childhood to adulthood. We could've focused on that, and instead we focused on what's causing this terrible thing and how can we stop it? And that really is a waste of time. And it's also saying that autistic people are something that need to be prevented. That's what really offends me, aside from the public health thing...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
GARCIA: Which is terrible.
INSKEEP: When I've talked to some more conservative people, they will sometimes raise questions about RFK's beliefs on this or that issue. But they seem to feel he's not going to be able to do what they would consider to be crazy stuff.
GARCIA: Well, I mean, the thing of it is, is that he's still the secretary. There's still a lot of - you know, think about all the things that HHS encompasses. That encompasses the National Institutes of Health. That encompasses Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If he's confirmed, he will have a lot of discretion and authority.
INSKEEP: Kennedy's stance on vaccines could affect the lives of millions, and people like Eric Garcia just a little more than most. He will be covering that story as a reporter while also living it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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