US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has rejected claims that rising autism rates are simply due to better diagnosis.
He accused the media of pushing a false narrative and pledging to fund research into environmental causes.
At his first press conference as HHS Secretary, Kennedy said the CDC’s new data show autism rates have climbed 17% in just two years – from 1 in 36 in 2020 to 1 in 31 children in 2022.
“These increases are real,” he said, calling it a “steady, relentless” trend that cannot be dismissed as a diagnostic artefact.
Kennedy slammed the National Institutes of Health for spending 10 to 20 times more on genetics research than on environmental causes.
“This is a preventable disease,” Kennedy said. “We know it’s an environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics.”
Under his leadership, he said HHS will make new grants available for scientists willing to study environmental risk factors for autism – free of censorship or professional backlash.
He cited historical comparisons to illustrate the scale of the increase, noting a 1987 study in North Dakota found 330 autism cases per million children – compared to nearly 28,000 per million today.
He challenged the idea that doctors in the past missed 98% of cases, calling that theory absurd and insulting.
Centrist Ltd.