BREAKING: HHS Secretary Kennedy Details Alarming New Data on Rapidly Rising Childhood Autism Rates

In his first press conference since his confirmation as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presented alarming new statistics on the nation’s growing autism epidemic.

As reported Tuesday by my Kennedy Beacon colleague Louis Conte, the CDC revealed staggering details on autism rates: 1 in 31 children in the United States, ages 4 - 8 years old, are diagnosed with autism, with boys affected at a rate of 1 in 20.

In California, which Kennedy noted has the best data collection on autism cases, 1 in 12.5 boys are diagnosed with the condition.

In Washington, DC on Wednesday, in front of an over-flow crowd that included press and supporters of the MAHA movement, Secretary Kennedy reviewed the findings of the CDC’s new Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network report. In citing its findings, Kennedy emphasized how alarming the new autism figures are. Just two years ago, the national prevalence of autism was 1 in 36 children. Two decades ago, the prevalence was 1 in 150 children, reflecting a 480% increase since then.

“Autism destroys families but, more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children,” Kennedy said.

A portion of the press conference can be viewed below.

Kennedy criticized what he called “epidemic denialism” regarding rising autism rates. Some claim the increase stems from improved diagnostic criteria, but Kennedy cited major studies, including one of 900,000 children in Wisconsin carefully observed for both obvious and subtle autism symptoms, that disprove this claim.

These studies, along with others from North Dakota and California, confirm that the same criteria used to diagnose autism today were employed in those evaluations, Kennedy explained.

He added that while modern medicine accurately identifies genetic markers linked to autism, that does not explain rapidly rising rates. Kennedy said the data clearly show that rising rates result from exposure to environmental toxins.

As part of the CDC’s ongoing examination of the autism epidemic, Kennedy announced that the CDC and HHS will now analyze autism data in real time, a method he said is far better than relying on two-year-old datasets.

The HHS Secretary also stated that his department and the CDC will investigate possible environmental factors causing autism, agnostically – in other words, without taking a strong opinion but rather just looking at the data He said potential factors include unhealthy food additives, air and water pollution, reactions to medicines, pesticides, toxic mold exposure, and, potentially, ultrasound. All have increased since the EPA first called autism an “epidemic” in 1989.

Addressing questions about genetic markers, Kennedy noted that adults exhibit autism symptoms at far lower rates than children. Therefore, unique environmental factors must affect younger generations at an exponentially higher rate than people born before the late 1980s.

Kennedy promised that AI can and will be used to expedite ongoing research. As he previously announced, the first results of a “massive” new study will be published by September of this year.

“Secretary Kennedy’s announcement about the dramatic increase in autism,” said Louis Conte, Health Freedom Editor of The Kennedy Beacon, “was a courageous step toward telling Americans the truth about the autism epidemic. Kennedy confronted the autism epidemic denialism and explained the tragic increase in autism in both personal and societal terms.”

Continued Conte, “He pointed out the devastating financial burden of autism but emphasized also that the autism epidemic is stealing the nation’s most precious resource – our children.”

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