US Health Secretary vows to determine cause of autism by September

Sunday, April 20, 2025

U.S. Department Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Thursday a new initiative to determine the cause of autism by September 2025. The announcement was made during a televised Cabinet meeting with United States President Donald Trump, where Kennedy detailed a “massive testing and research effort” that would involve hundreds of scientists worldwide. The stated goal was to uncover potential environmental, dietary, or medical causes of autism, including the controversial and widely discredited theory linking vaccines to the developmental disorder.

Trump responded by suggesting that a supposedly artificial cause exists, saying “There’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this. 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.”

Kennedy, when interviewed by Fox News, alleged the initiative would involve comprehensive studies, “We’re going to look at vaccines, but we’re going to look at everything. Everything is on the table, our food system, our water, our air, different ways of parenting, all the kind of changes that may have triggered this epidemic.”

The plan has drawn criticism from leading autism advocacy groups and scientific experts, who argue that the timeline is unrealistic and the research premise flawed. Critics point to Kennedy’s appointment of David Geier — an anti-vaccine activist previously fined for practicing medicine without a license — as a troubling sign of the project’s direction. Furthermore, the initiative has proceeded without input from established autism organizations, such as the Autism Society of America, whose president labeled the plan “harmful, misleading, and unrealistic.”

Reports indicated there was no budget or otherwise transparent document published about how the research into the cause of autism would be conducted.

Scientific consensus rejects the theory that vaccines cause autism — a notion that originated from a 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield, later retracted due to falsified data and ethical violations. Autism is understood as a complex neurodevelopmental condition influenced by genetic and environmental factors, with possible links to prenatal exposures, maternal health, and parental age. While diagnoses have risen in recent decades, some of the increase was reportedly attributed to broader diagnostic criteria and improved awareness, not only an increase in incidence.

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