For years, the Food and Drug Administration provided an informational webpage for parents warning them of the dangers of bogus autism treatments, some promoted by anti-vaccine activists and “wellness” companies. The page cited specifics scams and the “significant health risks” they pose.
But, under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has numerous ties to the wellness industry—that FDA information webpage is now gone. It was quietly deleted at the end of last year, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to Ars Technica.
The defunct webpage, titled “Be Aware of Potentially Dangerous Products and Therapies that Claim to Treat Autism,” provided parents and other consumers with an overview of the problem. It began with a short description of autism and some evidence-based, FDA-approved medications that can help manage autism symptoms. Then, the regulatory agency provided a list of some false claims and unproven, potentially dangerous treatments it had been working to combat. “Some of these so-called therapies carry significant health risks,” the FDA wrote.
The list included chelation and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, treatments that those in the anti-vaccine and wellness spheres have championed.
Dangerous detoxes
Chelation is a real treatment for heavy metal poisoning, such as lead poisoning. But it has been co-opted by anti-vaccine activists and wellness gurus, who falsely claim it can treat autism, among other things. These sham treatments can come in a variety of forms, including sprays, suppositories, capsules, and liquid drops. Actual FDA-approved chelation therapy products are prescription only, the agency noted, and chelating certain minerals from the body “can lead to serious and life-threatening outcomes.”
Many anti-vaccine activists promote the false and thoroughly debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, and more specifically, that trace metal components in some vaccines cause the neurological disorder. For years, anti-vaccine activists like Kennedy focused on thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that contains ethylmercury. Thimerosal was largely removed from childhood vaccines by 2001 amid unfounded concerns. The removal made no impact on autism rates, and many studies have continued to show that it is safe and not a cause of autism. Anti-vaccine activists moved on to blame other vaccine components for autism, including aluminum, which is used in some vaccines to help spur protective immune responses. It too has been found to be safe and not linked to autism.
To address this nonexistent problem, anti-vaccine activists have touted chelation as a way to remove metals delivered via vaccines and treat autism. One of the most notorious of these activists is David Geier, whom Kennedy hired to the US health department last year to study the debunked connection between vaccines and autism. David Geier, along with his late father, Mark Geier, faced discipline from the Maryland State Board of Physicians in 2011 for, among other things, putting the health of autistic children at risk by treating them with unproven and dangerous hormone and chelation therapies. Mark Geier was stripped of his medical license. David Geier, who is not a scientist or doctor, was issued a civil fine for practicing medicine without a license.
Concerning chambers
The FDA’s now-deleted webpage also warned of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is basically a treatment in which a patient breathes oxygen inside a pressurized chamber. This, again, is a real treatment for some specific conditions, including decompression sickness experienced by scuba divers. But it has been embraced by the wellness industry as a treatment for a wide variety of conditions, including autism, and it is now being offered in settings without trained staff or proper equipment—sometimes with tragic outcomes.
In January 2025, a 5-year-old boy was killed in a hyperbaric chamber in a wellness center in Michigan after static electricity sparked a flash fire inside the chamber. The wellness center claimed to use the chambers to treat a variety of conditions, including autism.
Kennedy has continued to promote the therapy. In May, Kennedy joined Gary Brecka—a wellness influencer and supplement seller—for a hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment, as well as intravenous nutrient drips. They then recorded a podcast in which Kennedy lambasted the financial influence of Big Pharma.
Lucrative claims
In July, KFF Health News reported that Kennedy and his wellness allies have made millions promoting unproven wellness products and treatments. Likewise, a story last week from The Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy has surrounded himself with wellness moguls, including Brecka, who are profiting from the administration’s unambiguous embrace of unproven treatments.
Beyond chelation and hyperbaric chambers as bogus autism treatments, the FDA also warned of “detoxifying clay baths,” which are another way wellness companies falsely claim to draw out metals, toxins, or pollutants they claim are behind autism. The agency ended by noting that there’s a wide variety of other bogus products and claims, including raw camel milk, MMS (chlorine dioxide), and essential oils. Without an exhaustive list, the agency provided general advice to be skeptical of treatments that are said to treat a wide variety of conditions, are termed “miracle cures” or a “quick fix,” and those supported by anecdotes rather than scientific evidence.
When Ars Technica reached out to the US health department about the webpage’s disappearance, the agency claimed that it was “retired” during a “routine cleanup” last month, during which other old articles were also removed. The removed webpage on bogus autism treatments was dated 2019.
In lieu of that warning page, the health department pointed Ars to another page about health fraud, titled “Medication Health Fraud for Specific Diseases and Conditions.” The page includes brief information on nearly a dozen health topics, from cancer drug fraud to anti-aging scams. Some of the topics include links to more specific information, including a link to illegal cancer treatments from 2017, which had not been retired.
The webpage has a section on autism, but it has no links and is two sentences long. It states:
“Unproven drug products for sale that claim to cure or treat autism are misleading and deceptive. They can lead to serious health problems while offering false hope for a condition that currently has no cure.”
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