RFK Jr. says HHS will determine the cause of autism by September
[April 11, 2025]
By AMANDA SEITZ
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's top health agency will undertake a
“massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism,
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced
Thursday.
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory
that routine childhood shots cause the developmental disability, said
the effort will be completed by September and involve hundreds of
scientists. He shared the plans with President Donald Trump during a
televised Cabinet meeting.
Trump suggested that vaccines could be to blame for autism rates,
although decades of research have concluded there is no link between the
two.
“There's got to be something artificial out there that's doing this,”
Trump told Kennedy. “If you can come up with that answer, where you stop
taking something, eating something, or maybe it's a shot. But
something's causing it."
Autism is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain.
It presents with a wide range of symptoms that can include delays in
language, learning, and social or emotional skills.
There’s scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism.
Leading autism advocacy groups, including Autism Speaks, agree.
Research, including studies of twins, shows genes play a large role. No
single environmental factor has been deemed a culprit. The National
Institutes of Health, which already spends more than $300 million yearly
researching autism, lists some possible risk factors such as prenatal
exposure to pesticides or air pollution, extreme prematurity or low
birth weight, certain maternal health problems or parents conceiving at
an older age.
Kennedy has offered no details on how his study will be different or
what researchers will be involved. Leading autism organizations, such as
the Autism Society of America, have not been included in discussions
about the research, said ASA spokeswoman Kristyn Roth.
Roth said many agree that more research is needed to determine what
causes autism, but Kennedy’s approach has raised alarms.
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U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tours the Native Health
Mesa Food Distribution Center in Mesa, Ariz., Tuesday, April 8,
2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
"There is a deep concern that we are
going backward and evaluating debunked theories,” Roth said.
Trump and Kennedy have both expressed concerns about rising autism
diagnoses rates.
Some of that increase is due to increased awareness and a change in
how the disability is diagnosed. For decades, the diagnosis was
given only to kids with severe problems communicating or socializing
and those with unusual, repetitive behaviors. But around 30 years
ago, the term became shorthand for a group of milder, related
conditions known as ″autism spectrum disorders.” Milder autism cases
are far more common than severe ones.
With improved screening and autism services, diagnosis is
increasingly happening at younger ages, too. And there’s been more
awareness and advocacy for Black and Hispanic families, leading to
an increase in autism diagnosed among those groups.
Still, anti-vaccine advocates, including Kennedy, have claimed that
vaccines are to blame. The theory largely stems from a 1998 paper
that was later retracted.
Scientists have since ruled out a link between vaccines and autism,
finding no evidence of increased rates of autism among those who are
vaccinated compared to those who are not.
Kennedy has hired David Geier, a man who has repeatedly claimed a
link between vaccines and autism, to lead the autism research
effort. The hiring of Geier, who the state of Maryland found was
practicing medicine on a child without a doctor's license, was first
reported by The Washington Post.
HHS did not immediately response to a request for comment.
___
Associated Press writers Lauran Neergaard in Washington, D.C., and
Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed.
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