In his first news conference as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that rising rates of autism prevalence in the US reflect a “preventable” crisis-level epidemic that has been caused by an environmental toxin.
Advocates for people with autism have criticized this position as harmful and misleading. Existing research has explained autism as a multifactorial condition that is influenced heavily by genetics.
Experts have largely attributed the steady rise in autism prevalence to better understanding of and screening for the condition, including a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report this week that indicated a rising rate of autism along with “increased access to identification among previously underserved groups.”
But Kennedy amped up his message on Wednesday, saying that people who accept this explanation are “epidemic deniers” who are playing into an “industry canard.”
“One of the things that I think that we need to move away from today is this ideology that the autism prevalence increases – the relentless increases – are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria,” he said.
He also called for “real-time data” on autism prevalence, likening autism to a measles epidemic.
“We don’t wait two years to react to a measles epidemic … or any kind of infectious disease. We shouldn’t have to do that for diabetes or autism,” he said.
Dr. Walter Zahorodny, an associate professor at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and a co-author of the new CDC report, joined Kennedy at Wednesday’s news conference and echoed his claim that the rise in autism prevalence is an “urgent public health crisis” that could not solely be attributed to better awareness.
“I would urge everyone to consider the likelihood that autism – whether we call it an epidemic, a tsunami or a surge of autism – is a real thing that we don’t understand, and it must be triggered or caused by environmental or risk factors,” he said. “We need to address this question seriously because, in my opinion, for the last 20 years, we’ve collected data but not made real progress in understanding what causes autism or how to effectively prevent it or treat it effectively.”
Kennedy said that autism research will fall under the new Administration for Healthy America, in a new chronic disease division. He said that he plans to announce a “series of new studies to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing it” within a few weeks.
The cause of autism isn’t fully understood, but research has indicated that genetics may play a significant role. But Kennedy said that this line of study is a “dead end,” instead pointing to factors including mold, pesticides, medicines and ultrasounds.
“Genes do not cause epidemics. It can provide a vulnerability. You need an environmental toxin,” Kennedy said.
On Tuesday, the CDC published new data showing that autism rates increased among children in the US. About 1 in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020.
Improvements in early identification of autism “have been apparent,” the authors of the CDC report wrote, and “differences in the prevalence of children identified with [autism spectrum disorder] across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.”
The new study is based on surveillance data from 16 areas that participate in the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. The data is not nationally representative and encompasses a different set of sites than the last report with data from 2020, which captured data from only 11 sites.
Kennedy’s comments on autism have faced sharp criticism from advocates for people with autism, including the Autism Society of America, which said it’s “harmful, misleading, and unrealistic” for HHS to pledge that the cause of autism will be quickly identified and exposures eliminated.
“Claiming that Autism is ‘preventable’ is not science based, and places unnecessary blame on people, parents and families,” Christopher Banks, CEO of the society, said in a statement Tuesday. “Autism is not a chronic disease, nor a childhood disease, it is a lifelong developmental condition; it is not an epidemic, nor should it be compared to the Covid-19 pandemic, and using language like that perpetuates falsehoods, stigma and stereotypes. The prevalence rates tell us that there is progress when it relates to improved screening and diagnostics, AND it emphasizes the need for more robust, comprehensive research and data rooted in credible methodologies.”