Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the Department of Health and Human Services has identified “interventions” that it says are behind rising autism rates and will “address them” next month.
“We will have that answer for you,” Kennedy told President Donald Trump. He did not elaborate on what the “interventions” were, or how HHS will address them.
Kennedy’s promise comes after he first pledged in April to find the “environmental toxin” that he says must be behind rising autism rates by September. Scientists dispute the reasons autism rates have rapidly increased in the last few decades, but most believe a combination of factors including better diagnostic criteria, genetics and environmental pollution is likely at play.