The NY Times acknowledges that autism is NOT primarily genetic
The mainstream autism narrative is crumbling before our eyes
For the last several decades, the official autism narrative was that ‘autism is genetic, a GIFT, and anyone who says otherwise is a NUTTER who must be banned from polite society.’ The mainstream media pounded this message into the public consciousness every chance they got and this narrative was enforced through censorship and blacklisting of anyone who proposed other theories of the case.
Then this past weekend a curious thing happened. On Saturday (October 18, 2025) the NY Times published “A Furious Debate Over Autism’s Causes Leaves Parents Grasping for Answers.”
The story follows two families dealing with autism interspersed with quotes from various mainstream autism “experts.” It conforms to the standard paint-by-numbers script — ‘autism a mystery; it couldn’t possibly be caused by vaccines, Tylenol, or food dyes; Robert Kennedy Jr. is terrible;’ etc. And then, out of nowhere, the NY Times reporters (Gina Kolata and Azeen Ghorayshi) demolished the official genetic narrative:
But genetic mutations still only explain about 30 percent of cases, typically those with the most severe forms of the disorder.
So, not 100%, not half, not even a third of autism cases are genetic. That’s a MASSIVE paradigm shift. Next:
Dr. Audrey Brumback, a pediatric neurologist at the University of Texas at Austin, said she offers genetic testing to most of the patients she diagnoses with autism even though, as she cautions the parents, a relevant genetic mutation will be found in only one out of four cases.
One out of four is 25%, so they’re already backing away from the 30% claim. And THEN:
A landmark publication in 2007 showed that children with autism were much more likely to have so-called de novo mutations, spontaneous mutations that were not present in their mother’s or father’s genome.
Oh, so these children are NOT inheriting these genes from their parents (heritability is always what’s been implied by the multibillion dollar search for the mythical ‘genes for autism’). Instead these are de novo genetic mutations that are only found in the child with autism.
Do you know what else causes de novo genetic mutations? TOXICANTS.
That narrows the possibilities down considerably. Autism is not genetic — that’s not me talking now, that’s the NY Times. The most likely toxic exposures are from vaccines, SSRIs, Tylenol, pesticides/herbicides/fungicides, fire retardants, chemicals in plastics, EMF/RFR, and pollutants in our air, water, soil, and food — all the toxicants that I reviewed in my 2019 doctoral thesis.
So I figured out and published the definitive systematic review of the autism causation literature six years ago. My reward was to be hunted, censored, and economically blacklisted. The Washington Post, Guardian, BMJ, Springer/Nature, USA Today, Reuters, AP, Vice, and Politico have all published hit pieces on me. They never engage with my actual work, they never present contrary data, and all are engaged in racketeering on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry. I stood my ground and fought back by telling the truth and citing the relevant data. Now the paper of record has abandoned the genetic narrative which opens the door for a thorough examination of the role of toxicants in autism causation.
We are winning this debate. The official narrative is crumbling before our eyes.
I doubt the NY Times reporters even realize what they’ve done. When a paradigm shifts it’s not even necessarily a conscious choice, people just feel the overwhelming gravitational pull of the new narrative.
The people at the Simons Foundation, even though they are quoted favorably in the article, will be none too happy with this development. They won’t be able to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine once everyone realizes that autism is not genetic. Presumably their staff are on the phone right now calling for retraction of all of the evidence that reveals the multibillion dollar autism genetics research grift.
And the pharmaceutical industry will not be happy either. The heads of GSK, Merck, Sanofi, and Pfizer have likely instructed their representatives to deal with the NY Times editors who allowed this information into print. This crack in the official narrative is so enormous that I would not be surprised if the pharmaceutical industry resorts to dirty tricks to try to change the narrative and distract the public in the coming days.
But the genie is out of the bottle — autism is not genetic. Our task is to just keep telling the truth, one difficult conversation at a time, until we stop the autism epidemic.
Blessings to the warriors. 🙌
Prayers for everyone fighting to stop the iatrogenocide. 🙏
Huzzah for everyone building the parallel society our hearts know is possible. ✊
In the comments, please let me know what’s on your mind.
As always, I welcome any corrections.
Wild social phenomenon in my replies over the last 24 hours on X, Substack Notes, and FB. The defenders of the status quo have pivoted. Now they are claiming that they NEVER said autism is primarily genetic and they ALWAYS thought it was multifactorial. They can just never admit that they were wrong.
“The Washington Post, Guardian, BMJ, Springer/Nature, USA Today, Reuters, AP, Vice, and Politico have all published hit pieces on me.” — That's nine glorious feathers in your cap. Makes for a fine headdress. Congratulations Toby!