Anti-vaxxer and former My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans has compared flattening the curve of COVID-19 to ‘flattening the curve of autism’.
The 47-year-old celebrity chef reposted a meme from the anti-vaccine Facebook page Truth is Terrorism to his Instagram account over the weekend that suggested the two conditions were comparable.
The post, a variant of the Dr Evil Air Quotes meme, shows the Austin Powers villain telling his minions they should flatten the curve for coronavirus but not for ‘obesity, diabetes, cancer, autism and chronic illness’.
‘The curve we’ll flatten is the one that involves their freedom,’ it concludes.
Unscientific: Anti-vaxxer and former My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans (pictured) has compared flattening the curve of COVID-19 to ‘flattening the curve of autism’
Evans captioned the post with the hashtag #justsaying.
The meme falsely implies that lawmakers have an ulterior motive for enforcing lockdowns and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has so far killed more than 370,000 people.
The post also suggests that governments should focus instead on trying to limit the number of autism cases in children.
Autism is a developmental disorder the spread of which cannot be limited by measures such as social distancing because, unlike coronavirus, it is not contagious.
Conspiracy theory: The meme falsely implies that lawmakers have an ulterior motive for enforcing lockdowns and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic
False equivalent: Pete suggested governments should focus instead on limiting the number of autism cases in children. Autism is a developmental disorder the spread of which cannot be limited by measures like social distancing because, unlike COVID-19, it is not contagious
To suggest it’s possible to flatten the curve of autism makes no sense because autism is caused by genetic factors in the majority of cases.
Research suggests that some environmental factors may cause autism in children, including advanced parental age at conception and a mother’s mental and physical health. (A peer-reviewed scientific article on the subject is available here.)
But it’s more likely that Evans was implying, as he has done before, that behavioural changes in children are caused by vaccinations.
Last month, he was given a platform on The Kyle and Jackie O Show to peddle a disproved theory linking vaccinations with behavioural changes in children.
Evans, who has no medical training and is seeking to profit from alternative health treatments, said: ‘I’ve met so many mothers and their children and they tell me, “Hey Pete, my boy or girl was a healthy, functioning beautiful child – and they’re still a beautiful child – but something happened when they got a shot one day.”
‘And within two hours, 12 hours, 24, 48 hours, that little boy or girl completely changed their behaviour. And certainly changed their nature.’
Dangerous: Last month, Evans (pictured with his wife, Nicola Robinson) was given a platform on The Kyle and Jackie O Show to peddle a disproved theory linking vaccinations with behavioural changes in children
There is no evidence that vaccines can cause such changes in children.
The supposed link between the MMR vaccine and autism, which was first proposed by discredited ex-physician Andrew Wakefield in 1998, was exposed as a fraud years later.
It comes after Evans threw his support behind a controversial protest against 5G and mandatory vaccination on Saturday morning.
He shared a poster for the ‘peaceful protest walk’ to Facebook and said he wished he could join his fellow conspiracy theorists at the demonstration.
Evans signed off with the hashtags #UnitedWeStand and ‘IDoNotConsent.
Evans was recently released from his contract with Channel Seven after making a series of unscientific and dangerous claims relating to COVID-19 and vaccines.
The chef insists, however, that he is not an ‘anti-vaxxer’ but ‘pro-choice’.
Many anti-vaccination campaigners are beginning to use the term ‘pro-choice’ – which is most commonly associated with abortion rights – instead of ‘anti-vaxxer’ in order to make their views seem more socially acceptable.
Vaccinations are a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases before they come into contact with them.
The jabs protect individuals and others in the community by reducing the spread of preventable diseases.