Factchecking the Trump administration’s Autism claims
Picking Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known vaccine sceptic, as the Secretary for Public Health might not be the most ‘out there’ thing the Trump administration has done but it certainly raised some eyebrows.
Since his appointment Kennedy has been on a mission to ‘Make America Healthy again’ and has set his sights on finding ‘the cure’ for Autism.
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurological and developmental disorder that can affect how someone communicates, socialises, learns and behaves. In the 1980’s one study estimated that 4 in 10,000 (1 in 2500) children in Wisconsin had an Autism diagnosis. Recent data from the Centres for Disease control states that 1 in 31 eight year olds in the US have the condition.
Why have the numbers gone up? Is it due to environmental toxins as Robert Kennedy suggests or does the answer lie in the counting?
Presenter/Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Studio Manager: Andrew Mills
Editor: Richard Vadon
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9:14
Is the UN underestimating the global fall in fertility?
Every two years, the UN release their predictions for the future population of humanity – currently expected to peak in the 2080s at around 10.3 billion people.One of the things they use to work this out is the fertility rate, the number of children the average woman is expected to have in her lifetime. When this number falls below 2, the overall population eventually falls.
In this episode of More or Less, we look at the fertility estimates for one country – Argentina. The graph of the real and predicted fertility rate for that country looks quite strange.The collected data – that covers up to the present day – shows a fertility rate that’s falling fast. But the predicted rate for the future immediately levels out.
The strangeness has led some people to think that the UN might be underestimating the current fall in global fertility. To explain what’s going on we speak to Patrick Gerland, who runs the population estimates team in the United Nations Population Division.Presenter / producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Sue Maillot
Editor: Richard Vadon
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8:58
How dead is the internet?
In the early 2020s, a conspiracy theory started circulating online known as the “dead internet theory”. This suggested that, instead of a vibrant digital super-community where people freely share things like cat videos and conspiracy theories, the internet was instead basically dead - an AI dystopia controlled by the deep state, where almost everything you see and interact with is generated by computers.
The theory that the internet is 100% dead can be easily disproven, but the theory does hint at something real. The internet certainly is full of “bots”, autonomous bits of software that are definitely not alive.In this episode, we investigate one specific claim about the number of these bots on the internet - the idea that more than half of internet traffic is bots. Where does this claim come from, and is it true?Presenter/producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Giles Aspen
Editor: Richard Vadon
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8:59
Warren Buffett’s brilliant bets
Warren Buffett has announced he is stepping down as CEO of his company, Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett is one of the richest people in the world, and is widely held up as the greatest investor who ever lived. He’s also been remarkably critical of other masters of the financial universe. Tim Harford talks to Financial Times journalist Robin Wigglesworth, author of the book Trillions, about Buffett’s money making method, and how he used a massive bet to make a point about hedge funds. Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: Giles Aspen
Editor: Richard Vadon
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8:58
Bonus episode: The Autism Curve
An interruption to your regular podcast feed: the first episode of a new BBC Radio 4 series investigating the steep rise in autism diagnoses. The Autism Curve looks into the data that has prompted arguments - and conspiracy theories - about what’s behind the rapid rise. It goes on to explore changes in what autism is, who gets to define it, and whose experience counts.In this first episode, Ginny Russell discusses her 20-year study that showed an astonishing eightfold rise in new autism diagnoses in the UK on an exponential curve. And Professor Joshua Stott explains how a surprising discovery at a dementia clinic led him to calculate that that enormous rise in diagnoses may still undercount the country’s autistic population by as much as 1.2 million.Listen to the rest of The Autism Curve here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002bszlArchive: BBC; CSPAN; Fox News; CNN.Presenter: Michael Blastland
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
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