Autistic children injected with unapproved stem cell treatments supported by RFK Jr

[groundloop]

Source: The Guardian

Autistic children as young as 18 months old are being injected with human stem cells derived from umbilical cords in unapproved, unproven and potentially harmful “treatments” that scientists warn are proliferating across the US under the active encouragement of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Clinics in Florida, Texas and other states are selling what they bill as “regenerative medicine” to families with autistic children who have intensive care needs. Parents who have taken their children through the process talked to the Guardian about their hopes and fears for a therapy that appears to be gaining ground in the US.

The procedure, which can involve the child being sedated with ketamine before receiving intravenous doses of millions of stem cells, costs up to $20,000 each treatment. Families are often advised to return for regular top-ups.

Profoundly stressed parents are being wooed to the clinics with promises that a high-dose infusion of umbilical cord stem cells can lead to dramatic improvements in their children’s ability to speak, socialise, or avoid aggressive or self-harming behaviour. Yet there is no scientific evidence that the procedure works – the most comprehensive clinical trial staged so far, a placebo experiment conducted by Duke University, found insignificant benefits for most of the 180 children tested.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/12/autism-stem-cell-infusions-rfk-jr

[yellow dahlia]

1. WTAF!!!

These are kids, not lab animals.

[Bmoboy]

3. The parents believe the kids belong to them

[yellow dahlia]

5. Backwards thinking. Parenting is a responsibility - not ownership.

[DBoon]

9. a lot of parents think their children are their property

and have no shame in saying so

[yellow dahlia]

12. Sad.

Is that why they think they have "permission" to screw them up?

[GenThePerservering]

19. No, they are desperate

and Bobby Brainworm and these companies are grifting off it.

[flashman13]

2. Pure unadulterated expensive quackery prescribed by a witch doctor. What could go wrong?

[3catwoman3]

4. So, immunizations, which have been studied exhaustively, are a problem...

...but this is just fine?

180 is not exactly a massive sample size.

[LisaL]

7. Insignificant benefits means no differences between this treatment and placebo.

So the study didn't find that stem cells were beneficial.

[yardwork]

17. The Duke study found no benefit.

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Isn't that special. ... s/

We have our own 21st-century version of Dr. Josef Mengele. Only he isn't a doctor. But he's definitely crazy and a nazi.

[hlthe2b]

8. I remember the horrific episode from the advised use of hyperbaric chambers for these kids

In the case I mention, a large rigid (standard) hyperbaric chamber with room for a health care worker to oversee the process was not in use, but rather a much less expensive semi-inflatable chamber and only room for the child to lie on a table within. Unfortunately the child began moving around as the pressurization commenced, triggering an spark and explosive fire that the mother, unfortunately was watching from outside the chamber. I think the imagination can take hold as to what would become of a child trapped in this "chamber" while it exploded in fire. Beyond horror and of course it was fatal.
https://abcnews.com/US/hyperbaric-chamber-explosion-death-murder-charges/story?id=119677003

Yet, I don't know if any regulation or changes in allowing these non-regulation chambers occurred. There was another incident of a wealthy and someone renowned physician using one in his own home for supposed life-extending benefits. Unfortunately he used it without anyone
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/horror-as-much-loved-doctor-burned-alive-in-hyperbaric-chamber-at-his-own-practice/ar-AA1IpqTU


What does unregulated and fatal events in hyperbaric chambers have to do with RFK Jr's pushing unregulated unproven stem cell treatments in autistic children while decrying scientifically proven vaccines? Well, both of the two former "treatments" describe the lengths to which his and other advocates will go to ignore actual scientifically proven treatments and avail themselves to the far riskier unproven rantings of nonmedical "influencers" and others online. And there is very little to stop it when the head of our HHS is among those proponents.

[ultralite001]

10. Where are they obtaining...

these “millions of stem cells”???

“The FDA warned in 2021 that it had received reports of complications following applications of umbilical cord stem cells and other related unapproved products leading to ‘blindness, tumor formation, infections and more.’”

Don’t these individuals have enough challenges already??? They are not guinea pigs or Sprague-Dawley rats…

[JustKay]

11. Hire a snake oil salesman and that's what you get - snake oil!

[QueerDuck]

13. Will this snakeoil failure create distrust for legitimate stem cell research and it's funding?

[WinstonSmith4740]

14. I'm by no means an expert.

But I have worked with autistic kids, from elementary through high school. First of all, again I feel like screaming this to those assholes...autism is NOT a disease! It does not need to be "cured". We need more research and obviously a better understanding of its effects (you know, like potential genius) but cured, NO!
What I really want to know is how do you diagnose an 18 month old child as autistic? But then again, we're dealing with people who think it's possible to see mitochondrial damage by looking at a child as you walk passed them on an airport.

[ShazzieB]

21. "What I really want to know is how do you diagnose an 18 month old child as autistic?"

This was the first thing that went through my mind. I don't know at what age autism can be reliably diagnosed, but 18 months? Also, jumping straight to such a risky, unproven, and expensive "treatment" at such a young age seems like a bit of an overreaction, to say the least

[LisaL]

22. There could be signs, even at that age.

I am not suggesting by any means that children should be injected with stem cells, but signs could appear earlier than 18 months.
https://www.cdc.gov/autism/signs-symptoms/index.html

[ShazzieB]

25. Thanks for the info!

I did some googling and have found several reliable sources that say autism can be diagnosed that young but is more typically diagnosed when children get closer to school age.

It still blows my mind that a parent of such a young child would panic to the extent of being willing to pay BIG bucks for a completely unproven and likely risky treatment. Poor kid.

[SheltieLover]

26. Same here, Shazzie!

[Skittles]

29. I had a severely autistic brother

what I eventually learned was I had to stop getting frustrated because he couldn't adapt to MY world, and make an effort to enter HIS world.....yes indeed.

as far as how young to diagnose? I knew he was different from the day he was born - for example, he rarely cried.......also, when I held him I could NOT get him to look me in the eye - I remember bringing him nose to nose with me and he STILL would not look straight at me, his eyes looked up, down, left, right........when we got our passport pics done I had to work on him for some time to convince him he had to LOOK at the camera - yup

[GiqueCee]

15. NO one...

... with the common sense of a potted plant should ever believe a word that comes out of that evil turd's lying mouth. Kennedy is a psychopath on a scale that has the potential to rival Jim Jones, and he's already well on his way to that goal.

[dave99]

16. Mr. Anti-Science, RFK Jr, wanting to use science ?? Why didn't Lightening come down and burn his ass down ?

[Karasu]

18. Apparently Republicans hate autism even MORE than stem cell research now? Wow.

Even just back in the '90s, Republicans clutched their pearls so hard over stem cell research that the thought of this would've been inconceivable to them, and now they're willing to embrace it and do some crazy-ass unproven RFK Jr. bullshit? Out of fear of autism?

They have fully embraced pseudoscience and quackery. I really don't see how this country has a future in science anymore when so much of the country has succumbed to this shit.

[highplainsdem]

20. Horrifying.

[pat_k]

23. +1

On so many levels.

And utterly heartbreaking for any who experience side effects like fever, tumour growth, abnormal bone growth, seizures, infection, allergic reaction and immune system rejection.

In other countries, unproven stem cell therapies have been associated with serious complications and death.

Death is a pretty significant "side effect."

https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/therapies-guide/stem-cell-therapy

[SamuelAdams]

24. We're back to the pre-FDA snake oil days.

Of course those "cures" didn't go for $20,000 a pop.

[Passages]

27. I despise that man. He must be prosecuted.

following applications of umbilical cord stem cells and other related unapproved products leading to “blindness, tumor formation, infections and more”.

[LisaL]

28. I don't even understand under what theory they think stem cells could cure autism.