General Discussion

He has been convinced for years that childhood vaccinations cause autism in some children, and that this is a major public health issue. His theories have been thoroughly debunked and discredited, but he seems to be unshakably convinced of this.

Now that he's Secretary of HHS, i think he is determined to find a way to "prove" that vaccines cause autism. I'm not sure what his end goal is, but I don't think it's about euthanasia. He wants to find a "cure" for autism, which to him seems to mean the most extreme levels of severity. I doubt that he's kept up with the correct definition of autism as a spectrum; when he uses the term, he describes only the most severe cases.

He is a hero to a certain subset of parents in the autism community who believe that their children were born "normal" and became autistic due to being "damaged" by vaccines. He validates their belief, and I think he gets off on the adulation he gets from them in return. Those parents believe that he wants to help their children and protect others from vaccine "damage." I think he believes that, too.