Dr. Poinsett aka Godmother Doc and @yayayarndiva [image: photo of a Black woman with short silver-and-black hair.] Dr. Pierrette Mimi Poinsett Over the last year, the Nation of Islam — which does not represent mainstream Islam — has resurrected the fallacious “CDC Whistleblower” argument that vaccines, and the MMR vaccine in particular, is causing autism in Black males. That autism is something to be feared, eradicated. At times the rhetoric has gone so far as to accuse vaccines of killing black and brown children. As both a Black pediatrician and mother of a son with severe mental health and learning disorders, I know that vaccines prevent diseases, save lives, and do not cause autism. Many studies unequivocally show that there is no connection between vaccine components and the development of autism. Autism manifests independently of the vaccine schedule. The reality is that autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that likely…