Immediately after a new report that shows that autism diagnoses rates have increased again, the Secretary of Human Health and Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was determined to find the “environmental exhibitions” behind the ascent and aimed at the National Institute of Health to launch new studies over “all”, from mold to obesity, that could be a factor.
Kennedy, who prioritizes autism as one of chronic diseases that is determined to address in his objective of “making the United States again healthy,” was ardently delayed against the explanation that an extensive definition of autistic spectrum disorder is a significant taxsence to more autism diagnoses.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a press conference at the Department of Health and Human Services, April 16, 2025, in Washington, DC.
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Kennedy said he wanted to “move away” from the idea that “the prevalence of autism increases, increases increases, are simply devastic devices, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria.”
“This denial of the epidemic has become a characteristic in the main media, and is based on a canard of the industry. And obviously there are people who do not want us to see environmental exhibitions,” Kennedy said, speaking at a press conference at the department’s headquarters on Wednesday in Washington, DC, DC.
The report that Kennedy mentioned, published on Tuesday by the centers for disease control and prevention, estimated that the prevalence of autism has increased to 1 in 31 children, which Kennedy called “shocking.”
In 2020, the same report found a prevalence of 1 in 36, and more than two decades ago in 2000, the rate was 1 in 150.
The experts in the field agree that diagnostic rates are increasing and that environmental factors could be at stake, but also say that most of the increase can be attributed to the expanding definition of autism, which extended dramatically in recent decades to include more characteristics of the disease, including new descriptions as recently as 2013.
“It is a fair question” to ask why the prevalence of autism has increased, said Dr. Catherine Lord, psychologist and autism researcher at the David Geffen Medicine Faculty of UCLA, told ABC News, but said it is also important to recognize how much it has changed.
“There has been a great change in terms of consciousness of autism, particularly the consciousness of autism without severe intellectual disability, which really changed even since I entered this field,” Lord said.
Studies also suggest that the risk of autism is deeply rooted in genetics, up to 80%.
Dr. Walter Zahorodny, a clinical psychologist and professor who studies autism at Rutgers University, joined Kennedy at Tuesday’s press conference to emphasize that there has been a “true increase” in cases, something that said he has seen throughout his career in New Jersey.
“It is a real increase. There is a better consciousness of autism, but a better consciousness of autism cannot boost disability such as autism to increase by 300% in 20 years,” said Zahorody, referring to New Jersey studies and the CDC report.
Zahorodny said that finding the cause was crucial and lamented a lack of progress to “address this question seriously” about his career.
“I would urge everyone to consider the probability that autism, whether we call it epidemic, tsunami or a wave of autism, is something real that we do not understand, and must be caused or caused by environmental or risk factors,” he said.
Kennedy acknowledged on Tuesday that the increase in autism diagnoses could be caused in part by greater awareness, but said he still left a large part of the jump in non -accounted for diagnoses.
He called “indefensible” to accept consciousness as the main reason, describing high bets of families in ruins and “individual tragedy.”
“Autism destroys families and, more importantly, destroys our greatest resource, which are our children. These are children who should not suffer like that,” Kennedy said. “These are children who will never pay taxes, they will never have a job, they will never play baseball, they will never write a poem, they will never go to an appointment. Many of them will never use a toilet without help.”
“We have to admit that we are doing this to our children, and we must end him,” he added.
However, not all cases are as severe as Kennedy described; Many people diagnosed with autism live lives of highly functional adults. The recent CDC report found that less than 40% of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder classified as an intellectual disability, which means an intellectual coefficient of less than 70.
Dr. Barry Prizant, an attached professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders at Rhode Island University and director of the childhood communication services of private practice, told ABC News that Kennedy’s comments misrepresent how autism is for families.
“I am not downloading the challenges. There are considerable challenges and many of them are barriers to services,” he said. “We have been doing a weekend to retire from parents for 27 years, where we spend a weekend with 60 parents and relatives, and we do not meet with relatives and parents who say: ‘Autism is just a tragedy and it is hell in our lives.’ They talk about positive aspects and negatives, joys and challenges.”
Autism Speaks also issued a statement on Wednesday, calling Kennedy “extremely disappointing and harmful” comments.
“Autism is not a preventable condition,” said the non -profit autism organization. “The suggestion that it is, especially when it is linked to environmental toxins without scientific evidence, contraction to the wrong information of decades and distracts the real needs of autistic people and their families.”
Kennedy said that NIH, led by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, former professor at Stanford University, will soon announce a series of new studies aimed at accurately identifying what environmental toxins are to blame. Kennedy cited mold, food, pesticides, medications, ultrasound and the age and health of parents as possible guilty.
Kennedy described that the study would provide “some of the answers” for September, which is a variation, welcome by experts, of his claim to President Donald Trump last week that “for September, we will know what the autism epidemic has caused.”
However, he also said Tuesday: “We know it is an environmental exposure.”
Asked by ABC News if he undertook to follow the science revealed by the studies, regardless of his current expectations about what the increase in diagnosis is causing, said the secretary that yes.
“We are going to follow science regardless of what you say,” he said.
Medical experts have been studying the possible causes of autism for decades. Research to date suggests that autism is driven by genetics, and risk can increase when combined with certain external factors, such as having children at a more advanced age or exposure to pollutants.
“It’s not simple,” Lord said. “If you observe high quality publications, the findings are small and, in terms of different causes of genetics, they have been quite difficult to replicate. It does not mean that they are wrong, but only that we have not discovered what they should be.”
The HHS or the NIH have not provided details on how the new studies will be carried out within the given term, but Kennedy promised transparency, saying that the studies would be carried out in the traditional way of financing academic institutions through the NIH.
