RFK Jr. says HHS will determine the cause of autism by September

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/autism-kennedy-trump-vaccines-rfk-jr-cdc-b66251888f039c80b15beda23c279d5b

RFK Jr. says HHS will determine the cause of autism by September
By AMANDA SEITZ
Updated 5:31 PM CDT, April 10, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top health agency will undertake a “massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday.

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood shots cause the developmental disability, said the effort will be completed by September and involve hundreds of scientists. He shared the plans with President Donald Trump during a televised Cabinet meeting.

Trump suggested that vaccines could be to blame for autism rates, although decades of research have concluded there is no link between the two.

“There’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this,” Trump told Kennedy. “If you can come up with that answer, where you stop taking something, eating something, or maybe it’s a shot. But something’s causing it.”

Autism is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. It presents with a wide range of symptoms that can include delays in language, learning, and social or emotional skills.

There’s scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism. Leading autism advocacy groups, including Autism Speaks, agree.

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COMING SOON: Kennedy says that autism is caused by vaccine; Trump suggests bleach treatment

[SheltieLover]

1. Translation: dig deep so your product is not implicated?

Moran.

[dutch777]

2. They will rename or shift blame for the cause, as one might suspect the decades of research had made a determination.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I'd almost be willing to wager the answer will be vaccines.

[brush]

4. Medical researchers have said for years it's not vacines, but we just know...

That what RFK jr will come up with.

[Initech]

5. Calling autism an epidemic is incredibly fucked up.

It's a genetic disorder with thousands of variations ranging from mild to moderate to severe. This fucking clown thinks he can solve a centuries old problem in a couple of months is insane.

[question everything]

6. And in 1971 Nixon was going to cure cancer

[Hekate]

7. BobK has the answer all predetermined, damn his mendacious hide

[Karasu]

8. He's literally doing this on behalf of the conspiracy theorists and even appointed them to conduct this

"investigation." It's a complete farce in service of a predetermined outcome, to push more anti-science bullshit on an already scientifically illiterate public.

[Skittles]

9. hey DOGE

*HERE* IS YOUR WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE

[BurnDoubt]

10. One thing is pretty certain...

If they really do find a cause(s) for Autism and it/they are related to fossil-fuel use, or microplastics, or some other tech-reliant Corporate concern, we won't be told lest it besmirch the Bottom Line. And the quality of life of whistle-blowers under the Junta pretty much ensures an understandable lack of fortitude there. Everyone knows it's caused by Beef-Tallow Insufficiency Syndrome anyway. And a lot of people are saying there's a co-relation to the declining number of tobacco smokers... just sayin'....--- Nothing funny here. We're adrift on a Sea of Absurdity... "White Rabbit" plays softly in the background... Nice Paisley Pony............. We're hoping the surviving scientists can be equal to this task and find out more about causation and possible remediation or ways to navigate the challenges presented by their various needs. I fear, though, this will be another demonstration of Governments inefficiency, brought to you by people who are so abysmally bad at governing while claiming to be geniuses in business. I weep for the Children.

[NewEnglandAutumn]

11. As a parent with more than one child on the spectrum

-100% NOT vaccines. I delayed vaccinating 2 of my kids and they were diagnosed before they were ever vaccinated
-there is probably a genetic component (not thrilled about them exploring this because there will be blame attached)
-for severely autistic people autism can be awful but most on the spectrum are just people they don't have super powers, are not 'broken' in any way, and are not objects to be treated as a curiosity
-they are people who don't always fit into what society judges as 'normal' but they are as amazing as most human beings are

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. By Sept, he will only have toads, not scientists. . . . .nt

[yellowcanine]

13. Seems RFK's brain worm is acting up again.

The only way they can find the cause of autism by September is if they have already decided what it is and all that is needed is to “find” the “data” to “prove” it.

[Mountainguy]

14. Or.....Autism has been around at these levels for thousands of years

And only recently are we recognizing and diagnosing it.

Before that we just called it something else.

[Solly Mack]

15. What he is doing is downright criminal and, frankly, should one day be adjudicated as such.

[milestogo]

16. So does that mean he is going to announce a cure too?

Because blaming vaccines has only done harm.

[Passages]

17. Our side has to do something about this Predator, as his cousin correctly refers to him.

I will end up protesting if I have to by myself in front of the Capitol. I despise charlatans, and when you join these two together, it spells disaster for America's children.

[alarimer]

19. No, you won't, actually

Whatever they actually determine will be bullshit. These are not real scientists; they have an agenda to discredit modern medicine.

[dsc]

20. One big frustration for me as a math teacher

is that this is in large part based on bogus math that never gets challenged. The rate of autism has increased over the years in 2000 it was about 1 in 150, now about 1 in 36. That is a non trivial increase but it isn't the 100 or more fold increase that Trump has repeatedly stated without challenge. (It is about a bit over a 4 fold increase). In short, he is off by a factor of about 25.

[Raine1967]

21. The AP filed to mention on very imoprtant thing:

RFK Jr. called autism an epidemic. I cannot tell you how much this pisses me off. It's not a disease ffs.

RFK Jr: "By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures."

Aaron Rupar on Bsky got the video https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lmhzzlotzb2e

It is not an epidemic. I have a nephew on the spectrum; he is not the problem. Blaming parents for giving their children vaccines is disgusting, truly. If vaccines caused autism, then all children would have autism.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with being neurodivergent. FU2K RFK Jr.

[dalton99a]

22. +1

[SupportSanity]

23. It's the "V" word. How could it not be.

It's got to be vaccines as the cause. But that's not going to be the problem.

The real problem:
Trump/RFKJr will start mandating against one vaccine after another, based upon this study's (false) conclusion.

If you have noticed, that's what they do.

Find one (wrong) fault and accuse and punish exponentially from there.

Get your vaccinations now while you still can.

Oh, and get N95 masks.

[MineralMan]

24. More likely, they'll do a poll on it on Fox News.