Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday that his department will know what is causing the autism epidemic by September.
A CDC study from 2020 found that 1 in 36 children in the United States have been diagnosed with autism. Kennedy, while speaking to President Donald Trump about the announcement, said that now 1 in 31 children are diagnosed with the disorder.
“The latest rates, the autism rates have gone from 1 in 31 from 1 in 10,000 when I was a kid,” RFK said to Trump. “At your direction, 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,” he added.
Trump applauded Kennedy’s work and said “there will be no bigger news conference” when RFK reveals what’s behind the epidemic.
🚨 BREAKING: HHS Secretary @RobertKennedyJr declares that by September, the United States will uncover the cause of the autism epidemic and eliminate exposures:@POTUS: “Think of that, so it was 1 in 10,000 children had autism, and now it’s 1 in 31.” pic.twitter.com/Y81wxzOfF1
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 10, 2025
Just last month, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the department will leave “no stone unturned” while studying the rise in autism.
“As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed,” he said. “CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening. The American people expect high quality research and transparency and that is what CDC is delivering.”
Numerous reports indicated that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was specifically studying if there is any link between vaccinations and the rise in autism.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has said he doesn’t believe there is a link between vaccines and the rise in autism, but would back “a broad scientific agenda” looking into the matter.
“I don’t generally believe there is a link, based on my reading of the literature. But we do have a sharp rise in autism rates, and I don’t think any scientist really knows the cause of it,” Bhattacharya said during a confirmation hearing. “I would support a broad scientific agenda based on data to get an answer to that.”
Related: Kennedy’s CDC To Reportedly Study Potential Link Between Vaccines And Autism
