Secretary of Health and Humanitarian Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Making a significant commitment at a cabinet meeting on Thursday at the White House, said that the agency would “know what caused the epidemic of autism” in September.
Kennedy said that HHS had launched, at the direction of President Donald Trump, a major research effort involving “hundreds of scientists from all over the world” to see the increase in the diagnosis of autism.
“On your direction, we will know in September,” Kennedy said. “We have launched a large testing and research effort that will involve hundreds of scientists from all over the world.”
“In September, we will know what causes the epidemic of autism and we will be able to eliminate the exposure,” he added.
Trump praised Kennedy on September’s goal, speculating – without scientific support – that the answer to lowering interest rates could be “You stop taking something, you stop eating something or maybe it’s a shot, but something that causes it.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And Domestic Secretary Doug Burgum attended a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, April 10, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Kennedy and Trump both made him priority to understand what caused an increase in the level of autism in the US
Scientists have studied the causes of autism for decades, and have identified genetics and several other factors as possible.
It is true that the estimated level of autism has risen in the last 20 years, but experts say the increase in this number is most likely due to better awareness, a broad definition of autism spectrum disorders, and better access to services, which causes more children to be filtered and diagnosed. It is possible that the unknown factors also contribute to the increase.
In 2000, around 1 in 150 children in the US born in 1992 were diagnosed with autism. In 2020, 1 in 36 children born in 2012 were diagnosed, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
At the cabinet meeting, Kennedy said that he was sure the tariff had gone up, per new data to be released, to 1 in 31 children.
In the next interview at Fox News’ “The Story With Martha Maccallum,” Kennedy said the National Institutes of Health will oversee the research and that it will look into “everything.”
“We will see everything. Everything is on our food systems, our water, our air, we will find out what triggers this epidemic,” Kennedy said. “We know this is an environmental poison that causes this disaster. Through research at here, we will find answers to this question.”
In the confirmation session, Director Nih Jay Bhattacharya said he was “fully” supporting childhood vaccination and did not “generally believe” there was a relationship between vaccines and autism. But he said that finding answers about increasing cases of autism is generally a vital public health goal.
Senator Republic of Bill Cassidy, Chair of the Senate Health Committee, encourages Bhattacharya to see the level of autism, but very persuaded him and Kennedy from “plow[ing] The barren land “investigates the vaccine and autism, because it has been denied” several times. “
“If we pee up the money here, it’s fewer money we have to do after the real reason,” Cassidy, a doctor, told Bhattacharya during the trial. But Kennedy also brought a famous skeptic vaccine, David Geier, to study the relationship between vaccines and autism, the Washington Post and the New York Times have reported.
His concern, said experts, was that while investing more into research could provide answers, Kennedy also often asked questions about the MMR vaccine (measles, goiter and rubella) as a link, regardless of dozens of research that denied the claim.
Increased platforms for vaccine doubts raises certain risks because hundreds of cases of measles are spread throughout West Texas, most of the non-vaccinated communities, and two non-vaccinated school-age children have died.
Apart from Kennedy’s efforts to investigate vaccines and autism, he said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday that he pushed vaccination, a very supportive deviation from several Kennedy’s past comments. “The position of the government, my position, is that people must get the measles vaccine,” he said, even though adding that it should not be mandated.