(L-R) Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) / (R) Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiatve logo – maha.vote/ )
OAN Staff Brooke Mallory 4:57 PM – Thursday, April 10, 2025
According to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), the United States will identify the cause of what he described as the country’s “autism epidemic” by September, he said at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
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Kennedy, who has vowed to “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA), has been working tirelessly to research and speak with other health officials on the links to autism, in addition to “transforming America’s approach to public health, environmental sustainability, and government accountability.”
“The autism rates have gone from—our most recent numbers we think are going to be about 1 in 31, so they are going up again, from 1 in 10,000 when I was a kid,” Kennedy stated.
One in every 36 children has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to their figures from the year 2000, 1 in 150 youngsters had an autistic diagnosis in the past.
Kennedy was born in 1954, an era when diagnostic criteria for autism was limited and formal testing was almost nonexistent.
Autism was still recognized, but the term and its diagnostic criteria were not as well-defined as they are today. The DSM-I included descriptions of what we now understand as autistic behaviors within broader categories like “Schizophrenic reaction, childhood type” and “Schizoid personality.” Formal testing for autism began in 1980 with the publication of DSM-III, which established autism as a separate diagnosis, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Autism diagnoses have risen significantly, particularly since the early 1990s, with a notable increase in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Part of the reason for the rise in autism diagnoses, at least according to Dr. Alex Kolevzon, the clinical director of the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told the press, is “new iteration[s] of the diagnostic manual,” with the diagnostic criteria “steadily” expanding.
“We are also diagnosing autism at younger ages due to effective screening based on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics,” Kolevzon stated. “Finally, there have been major changes in laws and cultural attitudes that have made educational accommodations and behavioral therapies more readily available to affected children, thereby driving diagnostic patterns.”
Additionally, Autism Speaks, a non-profit dedicated to autism awareness and research, stated: “The increase in ASD diagnoses among young adults suggests that people may be going undiagnosed in childhood, only receiving a diagnosis in early adulthood when challenges in daily life become too difficult to manage.”
A representative for the Autism Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) also claimed to Newsweek that: “there is no autism epidemic,” while citing underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis in the past.
“We have come a long way in our understanding of autism, and better understanding has led to higher rates of diagnosis. This is nothing to panic about, and it certainly isn’t proof of an environmental cause of autism,” the spokesperson said.
However, many parents of autistic children have argued that these claims and theories are “oversimplified” at best or underhanded “gaslighting” at the worst.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Kennedy formally informed the Trump administration—and the American people—that, after years of anticipation, the long-standing puzzle is on the verge of being solved.
“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. By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures,” Kennedy maintained.
A brief dialogue then ensued between President Donald Trump and Kennedy, marked by an exchange of perspectives.
President Trump: “That’s a horrible statistic, isn’t it?… There’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this, so you think you’re gonna have a pretty good idea?”
HHS Secretary Kennedy: “We will know by September.”
Trump noted that after the September findings are released, the long-awaited information will be able to inform Americans, should they be concerned, to “stop taking something, [or] stop eating something, or maybe it’s a shot?”
“Something’s causing it,” the president continued.
Elon Musk, a special government employee (SGE) and close advisor to the president, has openly acknowledged that he has Asperger’s Syndrome — an autism spectrum disorder.
“Numerous studies have indicated that a significant proportion of individuals with autism exhibit above-average intelligence. In fact, some studies have suggested that there may be a higher prevalence of individuals with autism who fall into the gifted or high IQ range compared to the general population,” APEX ABA. However, the website also noted that “not all individuals with autism have high IQ scores.”
Additionally, despite being adamantly refuted by mainstream media outlets, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and numerous medical professionals and researchers, several reports published last month indicated that the CDC will soon be initiating research into potential correlations between vaccines and autism.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is initiating expanded research into understanding autism and its potential links with vaccines, a source familiar with the CDC’s planning said,” NBC News reported in March this year.
BREAKING NEWS: RFK JR PROMISES TO FIND THE CAUSE OF AUTISM BY SEPTEMBER In a powerful statement, RFK Jr. calls attention to the skyrocketing autism rates—from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 31—and claims we’ll soon know exactly what’s behind the epidemic. He hints that removing a specific… pic.twitter.com/QbszlpJpI2
