US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr says environmental factors are contributing to autism’s rising prevalence, and that in assessing potential causes of the condition, he will be considering everything from mould to medicine to identify them.
Kennedy has repeatedly contradicted both developing and established science on autism since his appointment to his post, echoing his previously disputed description of it as a preventable epidemic. He has also suggested it must be caused by an “environmental toxin”, in part because he did not know any people his age with autism.
“This is a preventable disease. We know it’s an environmental exposure…it has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics,” he said at a press conference last week, without providing evidence.
Reuters reports that although he did not mention vaccines, the government’s plans include looking at the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism, as Reuters has previously reported. Previous scientific studies have found no link between vaccines and autism.
The causes of autism are unclear, although experts say it probably results from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Many experts largely attribute the autism rate increase to widespread screening and the inclusion of a wider range of behaviours to define the condition.
Kennedy said last week that the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) would determine what causes autism – a question that has eluded scientists for decades – by September. He narrowed that goal on Wednesday, saying that “some of the answers” would be available by then.
Autism has a strong genetic component, said Karen Pierce, co-director of the Autism Centre of Excellence at the University of California San Diego, but it cannot explain all cases of autism. She noted that only about 10% of cases can be explained by a single, specific gene.
She agreed with Kennedy that the way those genes are expressed “can indeed be influenced by environmental factors”, however.
Kennedy repeatedly referred to data released by US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the day before showing that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in the country among eight-year-olds in 2022 had risen to 1 in every 31.
The information was published in the CDC’s weekly report. The study said the increase can reflect screening.
Kennedy said he would move the monitoring of autism rates to the newly created Administration for a Healthy America, which he oversees directly, from the CDC, which has in the past enjoyed a level of independence from its parent agency HHS.
“The way he presented the narrative was that, you know, the scientific community was dismissive of any environmental effects, but that’s simply not true,” said Dr Peter Hotez, co-director of the Centre for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, who is also the author of a book about his daughter’s autism diagnosis.
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Why CDC’s vaccine-autism study is raising eyebrows
Comprehensive study debunks, again, the MMR/autism link
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Brain changes in autism more sweeping than thought – UCLA study