Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made yet another bizarre and outlandish claim about autism in his latest rant on the subject.
Last week (10 April), RFK Jr. - who is known for his staunch anti-vaccine views and has spread debunked claims that vaccines cause autism - pledged to 'eliminate' the cause of what he has called an 'autism epidemic' in just a few months' time.
And now, in more recent comments made at a press conference earlier this week on Wednesday (16 April), the 71-year-old Health and Human Services Secretary has sparked major outrage after claiming people with autism will 'never hold a job or date' in a disgusting rant.
"One of the things that I think that we need to move away from today is this ideology that… the autism prevalence increase, the relentless increases, are simply artefacts of better diagnoses, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria," he said. "This epidemic denial has become a feature in mainstream media."
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RFK Jr. went on to make a number of other completely false claims about autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is a neurodevelopmental condition which is characterised by an individual's challenges with social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviours or interests.
It's a spectrum which means the severity and presentation of symptoms vary greatly from person to person.
"Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children," RFK Jr. declared. "These are children who should not be suffering like this."
He continued to falsely claim: "These are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date.
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"Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted."
Understandably, RFK Jr.'s baseless remarks have sparked major backlash online with one X user writing: "What is this?Autism is a SPECTRUM.
"Plenty of kids on the spectrum can and do play sports, can hold a basic job, write poetry, make art, and perfectly able to use the bathroom. This commentary is insulting to people who have family members with autism."
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A second penned: "As an autistic person I find these statements disgusting."
"I'm autistic and have done all of these things," a third added. "One of my poems won some awards. I'm in a 10-year relationship, and we still go on dates. I did kinda suck at baseball, but it wasn't the autism."
"At your direction, we are going to know by September," RFK Jr. previously said during a meeting of President Donald Trump's Cabinet last week. "We've launched a massive testing and research effort that's going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world."
RFK continued: "In September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures."
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Following RFK's remarks last week, Trump congratulated him on his goal and said, without citing any scientific backing, that autism could be caused by 'something artificial' and 'maybe it's a shot'.
"There will be no bigger news conference than that [...]," Trump said. "If you can come up with that answer where you stop taking something, you stop eating something, or maybe it's a shot.
"But something's causing it."
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According to the CDC, some people with autism spectrum disorder have 'a known difference, such as a genetic condition. Other causes are not yet known'.
"Scientists believe there are multiple causes of ASD that act together to change the most common ways people develop," the official agency adds.
Later speaking to Fox News, RFK Jr. said the National Institute of Health (NIH) would oversee the study and that it would look into 'everything'.
"We're going to look at everything. Everything is on the table - our food system, our water, our air, we will find out what’s triggering this epidemic," he claimed.
"We know it is an environmental toxin that is causing this cataclysm. Through research at NIH, we will find an answer to this question."
For decades now, scientists have been researching what genetic or environmental factors might contribute to autism which has seen diagnoses in the States increase significantly since the year 2000.
Such experts have said that some of the major drivers behind the recent increase in autism rates in the US are an expanded definition of the condition that includes more types of behaviours as well as more widespread awareness and diagnoses.
The CDC has previously explained that several studies have investigated whether there is a connection between vaccines and autism and 'to date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with' autism.
Topics: Politics, US News, Donald Trump, Mental Health
Rhiannon Ingle