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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says autism is a rapidly growing epidemic in the United States. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has more on what Kennedy is planning in response.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Kennedy is pointing to new statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that he says clearly documents that an epidemic of autism among U.S. kids is getting worse every year.
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ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: This is part of an unrelenting upward trend. Overall, autism is increasing in prevalence at an alarming rate.
STEIN: The new CDC data found that 1 out of 31 kids were diagnosed by the time they turned 8, up from 1 out of 36 just two years earlier.
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KENNEDY: The epidemic is real.
STEIN: In response, Kennedy says he's launching an aggressive new research project to identify the cause of autism, which he argues is preventable. And he's convinced the culprit is some kind of toxin in the environment.
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KENNEDY: This is coming from an environmental toxin. And somebody made a profit by putting that environmental toxin into our air, our water, our medicines, our food.
STEIN: Independent scientists and patient advocates challenge Kennedy's assertion that autism is a quickly expanding epidemic. They say the increase in autism diagnoses is more likely due to better screening and understanding of the disorder, not some big new rise in cases. Kristyn Roth is with the Autism Society of America.
KRISTYN ROTH: Claiming something is an epidemic when there are factors that have contributed to better identifying something as part of the increase in prevalence is inaccurate.
STEIN: Roth and others also dispute the claim that some kind of environmental toxin is clearly to blame. Instead, they say, autism is likely caused by a complex interaction of many factors, including genetic predisposition.
ROTH: To definitively state that it is caused by something without having true science or research to back it up is irresponsible.
STEIN: Kennedy says the outlines of the new research will be determined within weeks, and the results will hopefully start coming in by the fall. Many scientists are dubious a good quality research project can be designed and executed so quickly. They fear the real goal is to produce support for Kennedy's long-held assertion that vaccines can cause autism, a claim that's been debunked by previous research.
Rob Stein, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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