On February 15th, 2019 anti-vax profiteer Forrest Maready announced his upcoming for-profit book will be called "The Autism Vaccine" with a tagline of "The story of modern medicine's greatest tragedy." The book will be available May 1st & will be sold on Amazon, iTunes & Audible.

This book details what appears to be yet another unscientific conspiracy theory of how vaccines cause autism. While profiting off debunked & disproven conspiracy theories that scare vulnerable parents into not protecting children from infectious diseases is reprehensible this book takes it one step further by promoting hate speech against autistics. By claiming autistics are "tragedies" this book has the potential to hurt those living with autism who are already extremely susceptible to hate speech & bullying.

A major study out of Sweden published in the British Journal of Psychiatry tracked life expectancy for those with autism at 54 years, 16 years less than those without. One of the leading causes of death for those with autism is suicide. And one of the main causes of suicide by autistics is bullying.

Hate speech like this book promotes is the definition of bullying. This book could literally lead to people dying. It is dangerous and while it should not be banned or censored it also shouldn't be promoted or sold by any legitimate retailer.

As expected, the backlash from the autistic community and those who support them was immediate & emotional. Many brave autistics & advocates commented on Forrest's Facebook page and their powerful voices showed us the strength & courage of a community that stands up to hate.

A selection of responses:

"Autistic people are not tragedies!"

"This is disgusting. My children are not tragedies. You should be ashamed."

"The only tragedy are the lies people tell about people with autism and the delay in medical advancement because people need to waste time disputing this same nonsense over and over."

"Autism is not a tragedy. Dying of preventable diseases AND bringing back almost entirely stamped out diseases because you refuse to immunize against them, is."

"How can you live with yourself perpetuating such harmful beliefs while also stigmatizing autism."

"I'm autistic. I'm happy. I'm not tragic, I'm not to be pitied and there's nothing wrong with me that needs fixing.

This is vile, it's a misrepresentation of what autism is, you've undermined and gas lighted every single autistic HUMAN BEING with this book.

It's abusive, ableist and incredibly offensive. You have nothing to be proud of in promoting hate towards us on this way. Start listening to us."

Anti-vaxxer Forrest Maready has long been profiting off selling debunked & discredited books filled with dangerous misinformation & propaganda not based on reputable science.

In recent years he has promoted an idea that using car seats can cause autism & parents should consider not using them, he's sold a book that claims crooked faces are because of a "vaccine injury" (while linking every single disease originating in the last century to vaccines), he's sold a book regurgitating the long discredited & disproven theory that Polio was a man made disease caused by DDT spraying, and more recently he's created a website called "Vaxbaby" that sells subscriptions to watch videos he designed for new mothers filled with more anti-vax lies & copy/pasted propaganda. Even worse, he lies and claims on the website he's not anti-vax in order to come off as unbiased on the subject and sell more subscriptions.

He doesn't even have the courage to stand up for his own beliefs when it could limit his potential profits.

Recently Forrest Maready has helped start a counter petition to this one. That petition calls everyone who has signed this petition, including thousands of people with autism, their families & supporters as "bad guys." Forrest then posted on his Facebook page that he wants to "humiliate" everyone who has signed this petition.

Simply put, Mr. Maready, who has no legitimate qualifications in any field related to science, medicine, autism or vaccines, should not be allowed a respectable forum to sell his dangerous propaganda, especially when his latest book categorizes autistics as tragedies & promotes hate speech. Autistics are NOT tragedies & Amazon & Apple should not profit from a book that claims they are.

Please do the right thing.

For more info:

Amazon Won’t Take a Stand in War Over Anti-Vaxxer Book: https://www.thedailybeast.com/amazon-wont-take-a-stand-in-war-over-forrest-maready-book-the-autism-vaccine

Think Facebook has an anti-vaxxer problem? You should see Amazon: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-anti-vaccine-disinformation

Twitter-Storm Shuts Down The Latest And Craziest Anti-Vaccine Idea: https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/03/21/twitter-storm-shuts-down-latest-and-craziest-anti-vaccine-idea-12727

VAXbaby - Anti-vax website scam EXPOSED! https://youtu.be/eyyUsJp5_jU

Forrest Maready's book "Crooked" debunked: https://falseprophets635728819.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/were-we-crooked/

Anti-Vaxxer Forrest Maready Debunks His Own Book https://falseprophets635728819.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/anti-vaxxer-forrest-maready-debunks-his-own-book/

Anti-Vaxxer Forrest Maready Debunks His Own Book…Again: https://falseprophets635728819.wordpress.com/2018/03/28/anti-vaxxer-forrest-maready-debunks-his-own-book-again/

The Lies Of Crooked: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXa5loTN-NodxMTEZoMdDHrQ0EeeVTy23

A not-so-Thinking Mom loves a crooked antivaccine “theory” by Forrest Maready https://respectfulinsolence.com/2018/04/27/a-not-so-thinking-mom-loves-a-crooked-antivaccine-theory-by-forrest-maready/

Vaccine Post Updates: the Good, the Bad, and the Crooked?https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/vaccine-post-updates-the-good-the-bad-and-the-crooked/

Anti-Vaxxer Forrest Maready’s New Book, Crooked, Crashes & Burns! https://falseprophets635728819.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/anti-vaxxer-forrest-mareadys-new-book-crooked-crashes-burns/