In his first news conference as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that rising rates of autism prevalence in the US reflect a \u201cpreventable\u201d crisis-level epidemic that has been caused by an environmental toxin. <\/p>\n
Advocates for people with autism have criticized this position as harmful and misleading. Existing research has explained autism as a multifactorial condition that is influenced heavily by genetics. <\/p>\n
Experts have largely attributed the steady rise in autism prevalence to better understanding of and screening for the condition, including a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report this week that indicated a rising rate of autism along with \u201cincreased access to identification among previously underserved groups.\u201d <\/p>\n
But Kennedy amped up his message on Wednesday, saying that people who accept this explanation are \u201cepidemic deniers\u201d who are playing into an \u201cindustry canard.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that I think that we need to move away from today is this ideology that the autism prevalence increases \u2013 the relentless increases \u2013 are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He also called for \u201creal-time data\u201d on autism prevalence, likening autism to a measles epidemic. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t wait two years to react to a measles epidemic \u2026 or any kind of infectious disease. We shouldn\u2019t have to do that for diabetes or autism,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Dr. Walter Zahorodny, an associate professor at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and a co-author of the new CDC report, joined Kennedy at Wednesday\u2019s news conference and echoed his claim that the rise in autism prevalence is an \u201curgent public health crisis\u201d that could not solely be attributed to better awareness. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would urge everyone to consider the likelihood that autism \u2013 whether we call it an epidemic, a tsunami or a surge of autism \u2013 is a real thing that we don\u2019t understand, and it must be triggered or caused by environmental or risk factors,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to address this question seriously because, in my opinion, for the last 20 years, we\u2019ve collected data but not made real progress in understanding what causes autism or how to effectively prevent it or treat it effectively.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kennedy said that autism research will fall under the new Administration for Healthy America, in a new chronic disease division. He said that he plans to announce a \u201cseries of new studies to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing it\u201d within a few weeks. <\/p>\n
The cause of autism isn\u2019t fully understood, but research has indicated that genetics may play a significant role. But Kennedy said that this line of study is a \u201cdead end,\u201d instead pointing to factors including mold, pesticides, medicines and ultrasounds. <\/p>\n
\u201cGenes do not cause epidemics. It can provide a vulnerability. You need an environmental toxin,\u201d Kennedy said. <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the CDC published new data showing that autism rates increased among children in the US. About 1 in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020. <\/p>\n
Improvements in early identification of autism \u201chave been apparent,\u201d the authors of the CDC report wrote, and \u201cdifferences in the prevalence of children identified with [autism spectrum disorder] across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.\u201d <\/p>\n
The new study is based on surveillance data from 16 areas that participate in the CDC\u2019s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. The data is not nationally representative and encompasses a different set of sites than the last report with data from 2020, which captured data from only 11 sites. <\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s comments on autism have faced sharp criticism from advocates for people with autism, including the Autism Society of America, which said it\u2019s \u201charmful, misleading, and unrealistic\u201d for HHS to pledge that the cause of autism will be quickly identified and exposures eliminated. <\/p>\n
\u201cClaiming that Autism is \u2018preventable\u2019 is not science based, and places unnecessary blame on people, parents and families,\u201d Christopher Banks, CEO of the society, said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cAutism is not a chronic disease, nor a childhood disease, it is a lifelong developmental condition; it is not an epidemic, nor should it be compared to the Covid-19 pandemic, and using language like that perpetuates falsehoods, stigma and stereotypes. The prevalence rates tell us that there is progress when it relates to improved screening and diagnostics, AND it emphasizes the need for more robust, comprehensive research and data rooted in credible methodologies.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In his first news conference as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that rising rates of autism prevalence in the US reflect a \u201cpreventable\u201d crisis-level epidemic that has been caused by an environmental toxin. Advocates for people with autism have criticized this position as harmful …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"loftocean_post_primary_category":0,"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":519,"tinysalt_single_post_intro_label":"","tinysalt_single_post_intro_description":"","tinysalt_hide_post_featured_image":"","tinysalt_post_featured_media_position":"","tinysalt_single_site_header_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header_style":"sticky-scroll-up","tinysalt_single_site_footer_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_footer":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}