The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a “massive testing and research effort” that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said will determine the cause of rising childhood autism rates in the country.
During a meeting of President Trump’s Cabinet on Thursday, Kennedy said the process will involve “hundreds of scientists around the world” and answers will come this fall.
“By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic,” Kennedy said. “And we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who helped found one of the most prominent anti-vaccine organizations, has spent decades religiously promoting the theory that childhood vaccines have led to an increase in autism and chronic illnesses, despite studies repeatedly showing otherwise.
The federal government spent more than $300 million on autism research in 2023, according to the most recent figure available. Former President Biden in January signed a five-year extension of the Autism CARES Act to authorize nearly $2 billion for autism research.
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