Last week, Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised that, despite recently laying off hundreds of scientists, his department would determine the “cause” of autism by September. This claim was met with immediate pushback from researchers who have been studying autism for decades, who say that not only is this timeline completely unrealistic, but the notion that there’s a single root cause of autism is wildly misleading. Of course, that hasn’t deterred Kennedy, a man who has spent years spewing lies about autism.
And he’s still going — in a press conference Wednesday, Kennedy claimed that “autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children.” He went on: “These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
His propaganda has been roundly denounced by advocates for people with autism, and his latest comments were met with sharp criticism from Kristyn Roth, the chief marketing officer for the Autism Society of America. “I know plenty of autistic individuals who do all of those things, and I also know autistic individuals who may require 24/7 care,” Roth told NPR. “But to dehumanize people and invalidate their experiences or generalize an entire community is incredibly harmful and offensive.” According to CDC data, less than 40 percent of children with autism are classified as having an intellectual disability.
Experts also take issue with Kennedy’s repeated claims that autism is an “epidemic.” CDC data released this week found that in 2022, one in 31 8-year-olds were identified as having characteristics of autism spectrum disorder. While it’s true that this rate is nearly five times as high as the numbers in 2000, experts say this rise is most likely due to increased awareness and screening. Kennedy has dismissed this, as well as the scientific consensus that genetic factors play a key role in the development of autism. During Wednesday’s news conference, he said HHS will instead prioritize research into “environmental exposures,” including mold and food additives. While autism researchers agree environmental factors may play a role, they emphasize that the causes of autism are complex, and that there’s no evidence to suggest it can be prevented.
Kennedy’s confidence that we’ll soon know “the cause of autism” is particularly alarming given his long history of amplifying the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism. One of his first moves as Health secretary was to appoint another notorious anti-vaxxer, David Geier, to oversee a study “reexamining” the already thoroughly debunked link between vaccines and autism. It’s not hard to see where this is headed. “Their talk of an autism ‘epidemic’ is only in service of their anti-vaccine agenda,” Zoe Gross, the director of advocacy at Autistic Self Advocacy Network, told NPR, adding that it “does nothing to benefit autistic people.”