United States: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) initiated a “massive testing and research effort” to identify reasons behind increasing autism cases among children in America, as reported by The Hills.
Kennedy declared during President Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Thursday that hundreds of scientists worldwide would oversee the investigation while the results were expected during the fall.
“By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic,” Kennedy said. “And we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
Kennedy invested his time into denouncing childhood vaccines through his role in establishing a major anti-vaccine organization while promulgating untrue claims that vaccines trigger autism together with enduring medical conditions despite scientific evidence refuting those allegations.
Ongoing Federal Support for Autism Research
Federal government expenditure for autism research exceeded $300 million in 2023 based on the records from the latest period. In January Former President Biden authorized through the Autism CARES Act a five-year extension of funding for autism research which amounted to nearly $2 billion.
Scientists continue investigating multiple environmental and hereditary together with biological factors which potentially trigger autism spectrum disorder while exploring viral infections and chemical exposures and brain network irregularities and hormone dysregulation.
Scientific evidence shows there exists no relationship between autism spectrum disorder and any vaccinations yet Trump made this claim without any foundation during his speech on Thursday.
“There will be no bigger news conference than that,” Trump said. “If you can come up with that answer where you stop taking something, you stop eating something, or maybe it’s a shot. But something’s causing it.”
Controversial Leadership Raises Concerns
According to reports, David Geier leads Kennedy’s autism research and is the chosen director. Geier spent decades advocating against vaccines while trying to prove the supposed link between autism and mercury in vaccines.
The authorities in Maryland charged Geier with practicing medicine illegally in 2012.
Why Autism Diagnoses Are Rising
Both Trump and Kennedy share concerns over increased autism prevalence yet experts connect this development mainly to two factors: enhanced parental understanding of child symptoms and modified diagnostic protocols for autism spectrum disorder among children, as reported by The Hills.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 1 in 36 children currently carry a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder while rates in 2000 showed 1 in 150 children having it.