The root causes of autism may be known as early as March of next year, says Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is leading a massive new research project into the condition.
Secretary Kennedy told Kaitlan Collins that a number of studies into the causes of autism are already underway, and that some will report their findings by September. Others will continue into the new year, to ensure their findings are “definitive.”
“And those studies will mainly be replication studies of studies that have already been done,” Kennedy told Collins.
“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, adding that other studies will be completed by 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.”
Kennedy has promised to get to the bottom of what is causing skyrocketing rates of autism among America’s children, as part of his Make America Healthy Again agenda. New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a stunning increase in autism rates to 1 in 31 children.
A few days ago, the Make American Healthy Again Commission released a new detailed report outlining its priorities to address the crisis of chronic-health diseases among children, which include new clinical trials for nutrition and measures to improve the safety of vaccines and medication for children.
The new report says chronic disease is being driven by increasing consumption of ultra-processed food, exposure to toxic chemicals, sedentary lifestyles and overprescription of medications.
The report states the Commission’s goal to be “reversing the childhood chronic disease crisis… by getting to the truth of why we are getting sick and spurring pro-growth policies and innovations to reverse these trends.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that more than four out of 10 children in the United States have at least one chronic health condition, such as asthma. About 75 percent of American youth are not eligible for military service, primarily due to obesity and poor fitness, according to the Department of Defense.
The report concludes with ten recommendations, which include new long-term nutritional trials comparing the effects of whole-food and ultra-processed-food diets, and new systems to monitor the safety of vaccines and medication.
Other recommendations include calls to investigate the safety of food additives deemed “Generally Recognized as Safe” by the Food and Drug Administration, the creation of a task force to investigate patterns of chronic disease using AI, and increased investment in non-animal testing models for drugs and food additives.
President Trump established the Make America Healthy Again Commission in February, with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as its chair.
The President directed the commission to “study the scope of the childhood chronic disease crisis and any potential contributing causes, including the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, Government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.”