RFK Jr. Shares Autism Research Findings, “The Epidemic Is Real”
on Apr 17, 2025
“This Is Catastrophic For Our Country,” RFK Jr. Says Of Autism Research Findings
“Autism is increasing in prevalence at an alarming rate,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said at a Wednesday, April 16, press conference regarding the findings from a survey on autism.
The survey, which was released on the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on April 15, looks at the rates of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children ages four to eight.
Data for the survey was collected in 2022 by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM).
Every two years, the CDC conducts this survey, and it estimated in the year 2000 that 1 in every 150 eight-year-olds had ASD. In 2020, the CDC reported that figure was estimated to be 1 in every 36 eight-year-olds.
The newest survey, from 2022 data, estimates 1 in 31 eight-year-olds have ASD.
“This is part of an unrelenting upward trend,” RFK Jr. said. “Most cases, now, are severe … About 25% of the kids who are diagnosed with autism are non-verbal, non-toilet trained, and have other stereotypical features.”
Continuing, RFK Jr. said:
“One of the things that I think we need to move away from today is this ideology that the … autism prevalence increases are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition, or changing diagnostic criteria.”
Adding that “the epidemic is real,” RFK Jr. directed attendees of the press conference to a study called the National Collaborative Perinatal Project, which was conducted between 1959 and 1965. That study found only 14 cases of ASD, which amounted to 4.7 cases in every 10,000 children, he said.
“Instead of listening to this canard of epidemic denial, all you have to do is start reading a little science,” RFK Jr. said. “This is catastrophic for our country.”
He went on to describe ASD as a “preventable disease,” saying, “We know it’s environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics. They can provide a vulnerability, but you need an environmental toxin.”
Finding A Solution
Coupled with the results of the CDC’s report on ASD, RFK Jr. made an announcement of his own.
Within the next two to three weeks, RFK Jr. said that HHS will “announce a series of new studies to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing [ASD].”
He expects to have some answers by September, but there will be a longer research period. HHS, he said, will issue research grants, and it’s his hope that this effort will “remove the taboo” of researching this subject.
“People will know they can research and they can follow the science, no matter what it says, without any kind of fear that they’re going to be censored, that they’re going to be gaslighted, that they’re going to be silenced, that they’re going to be defunded.”
He clarified, “We will follow the science, no matter what it says.”
Part of this move to initiate new studies is a reaction to the present pace of research.
“We don’t wait two years to react to a measles epidemic, or any kind of infectious disease,” RFK Jr. said. “We shouldn’t have to do that for diabetes or autism.”
The latest CDC report was looking at ASD in eight-year-olds who were born in 2014. However, that 2022 study, RFK Jr. said, is already too out of date.
“One of the things that we’re going to do is move this function to … the Chronic Disease Division [of the Administration For A Healthy America],” he shared. “We are going to have updated, realtime data so that people can look at this and Americans can understand what is happening with chronic disease in this country in realtime.”
On March 27, HHS announced the formation of the Administration For A Healthy America, which restructured the department in compliance with the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE.
According to an HHS press release on the restructuring, “The overhaul will implement the new HHS priority of ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”
Before taking questions, RFK Jr. said, “You have to ask yourself, ‘Why is [ASD] so pervasive?’ … This is coming from an environmental toxin, and somebody made a profit by putting that environmental toxin into our air, our water, our medicines, our food.”
Watch RFK Jr.’s full press conference here:
The Make America Healthy Again Movement
During RFK Jr.’s 2024 run for president, first as a Democrat and then as an Independent, his running mate was attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan, whose daughter was diagnosed with autism.
The subject of chronic disease and illness, particularly among the nation’s youth, was frequently brought up throughout their presidential campaign.
When RFK Jr. failed to meet the criteria to participate in the first presidential debate, he suspended his campaign and endorsed then-former President Donald Trump.
As a movement, Make America Healthy Again continued on, with Trump adopting the messaging at his campaign rallies and announcing his hope for RFK Jr. to serve as HHS secretary.
Following Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential race, RFK Jr. was confirmed as HHS secretary on February 13. That same day, Trump established the Make America Healthy Commission in an executive order.
On April 16, RFK Jr. concluded the HHS press conference with a few words about Trump, saying, “I’m very grateful to President Trump because he tasked me on day one of this job with making this a priority — of finding out out what’s causing the autism epidemic, and we are going to do it for him.”
