Studies to help determine the root cause of autism are expected to be completed around March, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a recent interview as his federal agency leads the effort in Making America Healthy Again (MAHA).
During an interview on The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Kennedy explained that some studies will be totally completed by September.
“And those studies will mainly be replication studies of studies that have already been done. We’re also deploying new teams of scientists, 15 groups of scientists. We’re going to send those grants out to bid within three weeks,” he explained, noting that other studies will be completed six months after September, which would be March.
“As I said, we’re going to begin to have a lot of information by September. We’re not going to stop the studies in September. We’re going to be definitive. And the more definitive you are, the more it drives public policy,” he continued.
In April Kennedy promised to get to the root of the autism epidemic, citing the stunning data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing that 1 in 31 children in the United States have autism. That reflects yet another rise in what Kennedy has described as an “epidemic.”
The CDC published the following statistics:
Results: Among children aged 8 years in 2022, ASD prevalence was 32.2 per 1,000 children (one in 31) across the 16 sites, ranging from 9.7 in Texas (Laredo) to 53.1 in California. The overall observed prevalence estimate was similar to estimates calculated using Bayesian hierarchical and random effects models. ASD was 3.4 times as prevalent among boys (49.2) than girls (14.3). Overall, ASD prevalence was lower among non-Hispanic White (White) children (27.7) than among Asian or Pacific Islander (A/PI) (38.2), American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) (37.5), non-Hispanic Black or African American (Black) (36.6), Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) (33.0), and multiracial children (31.9). No association was observed between ASD prevalence and neighborhood median household income (MHI) at 11 sites; higher ASD prevalence was associated with lower neighborhood MHI at five sites.
“Instead of listening to this canard of epidemic denial, all you have to do is start reading a little science, because the answer is very clear, and this is catastrophic for our country,” Kennedy stated.
The recently released MAHA Commission Report also touches on the issue of autism, citing the CDC statistic that 1 in 31 children are diagnosed with it by the age of eight. It includes a section on what could be contributing to this dramatic spike, including environmental exposures:
Since 2000, the EPA has been tracking indicators of children’s environmental well-being through America’s Children and the Environment (ACE). ACE tracks chronic childhood disease in children (e.g., asthma, ADHD, autism, childhood cancers, and obesity) and summarizes trends over time for specific environmental exposures (e.g., air pollutants, drinking water contaminants, and chemicals in food). Many ACE indicators show significant improvements over time—such as exposure to lead which has been reduced over 90% since the 1970s and >70% reduction in key pollutants such as carbon monoxide, ozone, particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide.
However, in 2025—28 years after EO 13045 was signed—childhood health has largely worsened, and there is a growing concern about the link between environmental health risks, particularly cumulative risks, and chronic disease. Furthermore, in the past nearly 30 years, the chemicals children are exposed to have grown – and no country fully understands how the cumulative impact of this growth impacts health.
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