RFK Jr. Launches New Federal Autism Research Program

The Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says his department is launching a major new autism research program to transform how the disorder is understood, diagnosed, and supported.Mr. Kennedy on Thursday launched the Systems for Phenotypic Evaluation, Clinical Trajectories, Response, and Agency program. Calling the new initiative SPECTRA, Mr. Kennedy made the announcement as the keynote speaker at the Children’s Health Defense conference at Washington. Mr. Kennedy founded the group that promotes vaccine skepticism and has repeated what mainstream medical groups have called debunked claims about a link between vaccines and autism.Mr. Kennedy said the new program will bring together biological, clinical, behavioral, and advanced computer tools to enable earlier and more accurate diagnosis of autism. He says the research will help identify and develop more precise care tailored to each person’s needs.“Autism is not one-size-fits-all, and our science and care cannot be either,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Millions of American families are impacted by autism, and they need better answers about why it presents so differently from one person to another and which approaches can best meet each person’s needs.”Autism encompasses widely varying needs and abilities, and it is often associated with sleep disorders, gastrointestinal problems, intellectual disability, and behavioral crises. The new program will seek to create individual care delivered in critical developmental windows for autistic children as they grow.Mr. Kennedy announced a proposed $57 million initiative to investigate why some children with autism suddenly lose skills they previously had saying they could be linked to “environmental triggers.”The health secretary says 1 in 31 8-year-olds in the country have been identified with autism spectrum disorder. President Trump has tasked Mr. Kennedy to find concrete answers on why reported cases of autism have exploded in America over the past few decades.Scientists have been working for decades to determine what factors might contribute to autism but the cause or causes remain unclear. Mr. Kennedy on Thursday again referred to vaccines as a potential factor in autism. He previously claimed there was a link between the disorder and a preservative that is used in vaccines. He has also claimed that MMR vaccine shots were a source of the spike in autism cases. More recently, Mr. Kennedy claimed that Tylenol use during pregnancy is potentially linked to autism.The United Kingdom based National Autistic Society on Tuesday stated that it had “definitively” for the first time found that autism is genetic. The charity said it used a robust and comprehensive review of 83 high-quality research papers to come up with the conclusion. “You’re born autistic and you’re autistic for life. Most autistic people are autistic because of genes they got from their parents. This is why autism often runs in families,” the group said in a release.

RFK Jr. Launches New Federal Autism Research Program

RFK Jr. Launches New Federal Autism Research Program

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