“Yes, There Is an Autism Epidemic (and It Isn’t Fun)”

On 5 January 2022, my wife Gayle DeLong lost her seven-year battle with breast cancer. She left behind a diary of the last two years of her life, which she fully intended to publish. I read it when she was almost on her deathbed, at her request. My last promise to her was that I would see it through to publication. That diary has now been published by Anthem Press under the title Gayle chose: Love in the Age of Autism.

The diary absolutely stunned me, for three reasons. First, it was an intensely romantic and intimate record of our marriage, where our love sustained us through all the trials and heartbreak of raising two autistic girls.

Second, as a professor of history, I immediately recognized that it was a revealing human document of two devastating plagues—the COVID lockdowns and autism epidemic. Historians today increasingly use the diaries of ordinary people (the most famous example is Anne Frank) to understand how great historical events impacted individuals, tracking their lived experiences day to day without the benefit of hindsight.

And third, I realized and hoped that this book might change the whole public discourse surrounding the autism epidemic (for it is a real epidemic).

That discourse has so far been dominated by the “neurodiversity” paradigm. Those who champion neurodiversity argue that autism is “just a different way of thinking,” not really a disorder, but a harmless quirkiness which demands only “acceptance” by the larger society. According to this logic, there has been no real increase in autism. Autism was “always there” and we are hearing so much about it now only because of “increased awareness” and “better diagnosis.”

Frankly, this is unscientific nonsense. Every educator, medical doctor, and parent who studies the medical research and clinical outcomes knows that. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently challenged that complacency, arguing that the increase in autism is enormous and all too real, and that the impact of autism on the human mind is often absolutely devastating. For that he was slammed by the mainstream media and mainstream autism organizations.

Gayle worked with RFK, Jr. on vaccine-injury issues. Her book (which I edited) shows that the autism rate has leapt upward by several orders of magnitude, a staggering increase that could not possibly be explained away as “better diagnoses.”

Indeed, future historians of the autism epidemic will wonder how anyone could have possibly believed that it wasn’t an epidemic.

No one denies that some autistic individuals are impressively talented. Our daughter Jennifer Rose is a successful author who published her first book (It’s Not a Perfect World But I’ll Take It) when she was in college. But autism can be oppressive even for “high-functioning” individuals like Jennifer, and terribly debilitating for those who are lower-functioning.

As Jennifer put it, handicapped individuals can achieve great things: one of them became President of the United States. But, she writes, “When we celebrate the achievements of Franklin D. Roosevelt, we celebrate the great things he did despite having polio. We don’t celebrate polio itself. After all, when we celebrate a disability, we forget the burdens it imposes on people.”

Various studies have estimated that autism will, on average, reduce your life expectancy by one-quarter to one-half. Then why aren’t we fighting autism the way we fought polio?

As for “acceptance,” yes, you often lose friends when your children receive an autism diagnosis, and finding playdates for your kids can be difficult. But there are many behaviors that we cannot accept in autistic individuals because they are destructive to themselves or others—wandering into a pond and drowning, walking heedlessly into traffic, disrupting a class, self-abuse, violence, and potentially deadly seizures.

Love in the Age of Autism unflinchingly explores a taboo subject, the fact that two out of three autistic young people are violent toward family members or caretakers. This book drags out into the open a painful reality that many in the autism community don’t want to talk about. We also argue, contrary to the medical consensus, that adverse reaction to vaccination is a major cause of autism, though not necessarily the only cause.

In two other important departments, Love in the Age of Autism proposes a radical paradigm shift. When a mother discovers that her child is autistic, she is likely to be overwhelmed by a sense of guilt and maternal devotion, and devote all her energies to caring for that child. Often she gives up her career, and often she gives up sex (even Jenny McCarthy, for a while).

Gayle, however, was a dedicated professional woman, and she was determined to enjoy her husband to the hilt. So we divvied up parenting duties while we both continued to work, and we figured out ways of indulging in passionate monogamy almost to the very end.

Gayle’s diary shows that the COVID lockdowns were disastrous for autism families, shutting down schools and other essential services for special needs children. As arbitrary restrictions were ramped up day by day, Gayle immediately recognized that they would not stop the spread of the virus, but they would almost overnight transform America into a totalitarian society based on mass surveillance and censorship. The hysteria would divide families, turn neighbor against neighbor, and persecute the unvaccinated. There would be a giant transfer of wealth from the middle and working classes to a tiny multibillionaire elite. Governors and bureaucrats who really did not know how to handle the crisis would assume “emergency” powers and issue pointless, contradictory diktats.

The first academic histories of the pandemic are just now being published—notably In Covid’s Wake by Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee—and they confirm after the fact what Gayle recorded as it was happening. As a historian, I am proud to say that Gayle was, from the start, on the right side of history.

Gayle’s diary emphasizes her relentless efforts to ensure that her family’s diet was organic and detoxifying. She even washed the red dye off Advil. She did not live to see RFK, Jr. in a position of real political power, but his victory vindicates her nonetheless.

It’s time to change the public discourse around autism. Brain damage is not a gift. Neither is uncontrollable rage, an inability to speak, wearing diapers at age 25, or dying very young. No child deserves that. Love in the Age of Autism  may give us the final push that gets us over the tipping point to a new and real understanding of autism.

Gayle DeLong was an associate professor of International Business and Finance at Baruch College CUNY, which awarded her the Abraham J. Briloff Prize in Ethics for her article “Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Safety Research.”

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