Halt these tech eugenics plans.
We need to put the brakes on proposed intrusions into our medical records.
It's bad enough that Peter Thiel apparently has a lot of contracts to manage all our data and is happy to go along with the dubious doge people projects. Now they're proposing getting all American's private health data and sticking it into a database where they can sort us all by health issue… for the reason that RFKJr seems to want to root out who to blame for disabled people existing. This just doesn't make sense, is bad within itself, but also can lead to some really scary places, and people with power need to stand up, hold up hands and say, WAIT A JUST A DAMN MINUTE.
RFK Jr.'s autism study to amass medical records of many Americans healthwatch By Alexander Tin Edited By Paula Cohen April 21, 2025 / 5:54 PM EDT / CBS News Medication records from pharmacy chains, lab testing and genomics data from patients treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, claims from private insurers and data from smartwatches and fitness trackers will all be linked together, he said. The NIH is also now in talks with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to broaden agreements governing access to their data, Bhattacharya said. In addition, a new disease registry is being launched to track Americans with autism, which will be integrated into the data. (emphasis added)
My letter to reps (including state level - states could potentially restrict use of some health data):
We need to put the brakes on proposed intrusions into our medical records. Jay Bhattacharya and RFKJr don't need to have us in registries sorted by health conditions. I thought Republicans were AGAINST this sort of CENTRAL GOVERNMENT scheme? Pass a law or something to put a stop to this now.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
RFKJr characterized autism as a threat that "dwarfs covid" because autism affects productivity and he thinks covid just killed old people.
The Hill - RFK Jr. calls autism an epidemic: It ‘dwarfs COVID’ - Ashleigh Fields - Sun, April 20, 2025 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a new interview, said autism was an epidemic with an impact that surpasses the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is an epidemic. It dwarfs the COVID epidemic and the impacts on our country because COVID killed old people. Autism affects children and affects them at the beginning of their lives, the beginning of their productivity,” Kennedy said during a Sunday interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
I don't know who's going to tell RFKJr that covid sure has affected a lot of productivity and has brought substantial disability. But this is an obviously grossly inappropriate characterization that sure invokes eugenics, and focus around disability that sure sounds ominous considering a lot of the other things he's said he believes.. and a lot of the stuff that we know is part of right-wing ideology.
We already have a problem with our data being all over the place, including mental health data which can be purchased from brokers, seemingly legally, even if it was gained illegally. We don't need the government helping with this. Because we know that whatever operation they're proposing will likely involve a privatized boondoggle outsourced contract with one of these data brokering tech behemoths that want ever more of our data to feed their AI because they have these grandiose and unscientific claims about what AI can do, or even should do. We know they want AI to replace doctors. And we know that these AI operations didn't ask for permission to use other people's property like art or copyrighted materials.
Who knows what's going to happen to our data.
I was recently personally named a recipient of $34.49 in a class action settlement against a healthcare company that was breached, and the lawsuit came about because cancer patients who had nude medical photos of themselves wind up on the dark web posted by a Russian cybergang. I have no idea not only what data went out there, but not even how my data even wound up with this healthcare system in the first place, as I can't remember ever being a patient with providers with Lehigh Valley Health Network or received services from any of their facilities. None have been in-network for me at least not in the past few decades. But as it happens, I've gotten at least half a dozen health data breach notices over the years across multiple healthcare companies, and even in two different countries, because a number of years ago I unfortunately had a medical emergency while traveling.
So I don’t know why anyone would want to get every American’s health records in one big file and then trust some pal of RFKJr with it for example. Sounds bad even from a data security angle, even before you get to the real dark stuff being floated across the Trump administration.