Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that autism is a rapidly growing “epidemic” in the U.S. on Wednesday. He says that the alarming rate is partially due to an “environmental toxin” that he has vowed to work to identify.
One piece of evidence that Kennedy pointed out is that autism in the U.S. has increased from 1 in 36 children to 1 in 31 children in just 2 years. “This is part of an unrelenting upward trend. Overall, autism is increasing at an alarming rate.” Kennedy told reporters at a conference held on Wednesday. He also denied that idea that the increases are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, recognition or changing diagnosis criteria.
Within two to three weeks, the agency will announce a series of new studies “to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing” autism, he said, adding “we’re going to get back to it with an answer to the American people very, very quickly.” On Tuesday HHS announced it expects to begin to have answers by September. Some experts and advocates say that that is not nearly enough time.
In the past, Kennedy had made statements relating autism to vaccines.
Speaking of kids with autism, he said that they could never pay taxes, hold down jobs, never play baseball, and never write a poem.Roth said this is stigmatizing and inaccurate. “I know plenty of autistic individuals that do all of those things, and I also know autistic individuals who may require 24/7 care,” she said. “But to dehumanize people and invalidate their experiences or generalize an entire community is incredibly harmful and offensive.
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5366676/autism-cdc-rates-rfk-research
