Now Reading: RFK Jr. suggests compensating households of some folks with autism
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RFK Jr. suggests compensating households of some folks with autism
RFK Jr. suggests compensating households of some folks with autism
HHS planning research on autism spectrum dysfunction, RFK Jr. says
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the company plans to review attainable environmental hyperlinks to autism spectrum dysfunction.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. − who has lengthy unfold debunked claims surrounding autism and vaccines − instructed compensating households of some Individuals with autism, calling them “injured.”
“Backside line, the greater than 25% of people that have extreme autism won’t ever go on a date, write a poem, dwell independently, or have a job,” Kennedy mentioned in an April 18 social media submit. “We have to determine the exposures which are inflicting this epidemic and compensate the households of the injured.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the Division of Well being and Human Providers for extra info.
The submit comes after Kennedy throughout a speech about rising autism charges that some youngsters identified with autism will “by no means play baseball” or “write a poem.”
“They’ll by no means exit on a date,” he continued. “Lots of them won’t ever use a bathroom unassisted.”
Although some applauded Kennedy’s push for solutions, the feedback drew wide-reaching accusations of ableism from many Individuals with autism, their family members and advocacy teams.
Autism spectrum dysfunction is identified primarily based on challenges with social expertise, communication and repetitive behaviors. It’s a spectrum, which means signs range broadly, with a proportion unable to speak in any respect and others extremely profitable in some areas of life.
Kennedy later clarified in an look on Fox Information that he was referring to a particular quarter of these identified with autism.
“There are numerous youngsters with autism who’re doing properly. They’re holding down jobs, they’re getting pay checks, they’re dwelling independently,” Kennedy mentioned. “However I used to be referring particularly to that 25% – the group that’s nonverbal.”
Some folks with autism spectrum dysfunction have extra extreme behaviors, which may embrace self-harm, equivalent to biting or head-banging, in response to the Mayo Clinic. Others with autism could also be nonverbal. The Nationwide Autism Affiliation estimates that round 40% of youngsters identified with autism don’t converse.
Kennedy has promised to find out the reason for autism, telling President Donald Trump in an April 10 Cupboard assembly the federal government will know the reply by September.
“We’ll announce a sequence of recent research to determine exactly what the environmental toxins are which are inflicting it,” he mentioned throughout his information convention final week. “This has not been performed earlier than.”
“That is coming from an environmental toxin and someone made it and put that environmental toxin into our air or water or medicines or meals,” Kennedy additionally mentioned in the course of the information convention on the Division of Well being and Human Providers’ headquarters in Washington.
Researchers have been wanting into the causes of autism for many years; the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention says that some folks with autism spectrum dysfunction have a genetic situation, however different causes will not be but recognized.
The CDC additionally says many research have checked out whether or not there’s a connection between vaccines and autism and “to this point, the research proceed to indicate that vaccines will not be related to autism.”
In an April 15 report, the CDC discovered that in 2022, 1 in 31 kids had been identified with autism by age 8 in the US, an uptick from 1 in 36 kids in 2020. The prevalence of autism amongst boys was 1 in 20 and the 2022 price is 5 instances larger than it was in 2000.
Many researchers attribute the rise in diagnoses to extra widespread screening and the inclusion of a broader vary of behaviors to explain the situation.
Contributing: Alyssa Goldberg, Clare Mulroy, Leora Arnowitz and Adrianna Rodriguez
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