1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

The National Institutes of Health's plan to collect and share private medical records from various federal and commercial databases without consent raises serious ethical and privacy concerns. Creating a registry to track individuals with autism by accessing sensitive health information is an overreach that violates patient confidentiality. This endeavor under the guise of Secretary Kennedy's unattainable promise to determine the singular cause of autism by September is misguided. Reputable scientific consensus holds that autism has no single cause but rather arises from a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Expediting research at the expense of patient privacy rights is unacceptable. The proposal grants unprecedented access to Americans' medication histories, genomic data, insurance claims, and even wearable device information - a massive overstepping of boundaries. This sweeping data collection and study design lack transparency and sufficient oversight. I urge you to oppose any efforts enabling the indiscriminate exploitation of private health data for a politically-motivated study of dubious scientific merit. Protecting patient privacy and earning public trust must be prioritized over unrealistic promises. Scientific inquiry demands robust ethical standards - standards this endeavor appears to disregard.