Kennedy sets September deadline to identify cause of rising US autism rates

By Ahmed Aboulenein and Julie Steenhuysen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States will identify the cause of autism by September, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday, setting a deadline for an answer that has eluded scientists for decades.

Autism diagnoses in the United States have increased significantly since 2000, intensifying public concern. By 2020, the U.S. autism rate in 8-year-olds was 1 in 36, or 2.77%, up from 2.27% in 2018 and 0.66% in 2000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"At your direction, we are going to know by September. We've launched a massive testing and research effort that's going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world," Kennedy said at a meeting of President Donald Trump's cabinet.

"By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures," Kennedy said.

While the government has not released details of its plans, Kristyn Roth, chief marketing officer for advocacy group the Autism Society of America, questioned whether September would be an achievable target.

Calling rising rates of autism an epidemic is "incredibly irresponsible and deeply concerning," Roth said, adding that it "encourages fear, paranoia" and stigmatizes the autism community.

"Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects people in many different ways," Roth said.

Trump in February ordered the creation of a "Make America Healthy Again" Commission made up of Kennedy and other secretaries to look at everything from the rates of autism and asthma in children to how much medicine is being prescribed to them for ADHD or other conditions.

"There's got to be something artificial out there that's doing this," Trump told Kennedy at the meeting. "There will be no bigger news conference than when you come up with that answer."

Scientists have been researching for decades what genetic or environmental factors might contribute to autism, but the causes of most cases remain unclear.

They say the major drivers of the increase in U.S. autism rates are an expanded definition that includes more types of behaviors as well as more widespread awareness and diagnosis.

A large new study this week added to evidence that diabetes during pregnancy is linked with an increased risk of brain and nervous system problems in children, including autism.

Kennedy has long promoted a debunked link between vaccines and autism despite scientific evidence to the contrary.

"We're going to look at vaccines, but we're going to look at everything. Everything is on the table, our food system, our water, our air, different ways of parenting, all the kind of changes that may have triggered this epidemic," Kennedy later told Fox News.

'RUSHING OUT MISINFORMATION'

There may be multiple studies already underway on autism, a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person's brain functions.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, Reuters reported last month.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives sent Kennedy a letter on Thursday criticizing the hiring of discredited vaccine skeptic David Geier to examine the links. Geier was fined by Maryland for practicing medicine without a license and prescribing dangerous treatments to autistic children.

The National Institutes of Health is preparing a multimillion-dollar research program examining the causes of autism that would also look into the link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, the Washington Post reported last week.

The CDC and NIH are both overseen by Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services. A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy has a long history of promoting falsehoods on autism, especially in relation to vaccines, said Colin Killick, executive director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

"With this latest announcement, it seems that he is forging ahead with rushing out misinformation to the public about the supposed causes of autism that cannot possibly be backed by actual science," said Killick.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Additional reporting by Nancy Lapid in New York and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Bill Berkrot)