Composer William Barnett started his YouTube channel as an outlet for his music -- but today he also uses it to debunk the steady stream of White House rhetoric on autism while sharing his own experience living with it.

US President Donald Trump and his health secretary, anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, have made autism their talking point, calling it a "horror show" and "a crisis" while making unproven claims that it's caused by vaccines or acetaminophen.

"I just wonder if he sees us all as pawns," the 29-year-old told AFP from his apartment in Queens, New York.

Barnett -- in a view that mirrors the medical community at large -- sees the White House language as misinformation that only serves to drum up fear among parents and stigmatize people like himself.

"It's caused a lot of autistic people to believe that there's something wrong with them, and that they don't really have a place in our society," Barnett told AFP.

Autism spectrum disorder is a broad neurodevelopmental diagnosis that encompasses challenges related to........

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