RFK Jr. Holds Presser on Autism: "The Epidemic is Real."

And it's time we stopped denying it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. held a press conference today to discuss the new data on autism, and what he plans to do about it. According to the latest CDC study released just yesterday, one in 31 children are diagnosed with autism by their eighth birthday. That’s up from one in 54 in 2016, and one in 150 in 2000. Kennedy stated last week that the number was about one in 10,000 when he was growing up. In today’s press conference, he stated the obvious: this can’t be driven by genetics, or explained away by “better diagnosis.”

Why is that obvious? Well, if you know anything at all about genetics, you know that genes don’t “evolve” that quickly, over the course of one or two generations - at least not without the impact of an environmental factor. If this was something that kids today were simply inheriting from their parents and grandparents, why do none of their parents or grandparents have it? And that same observation is also the clearest explanation as to why “better diagnosis” cannot possibly be the reason for such a dramatic increase in the autism numbers. If all of these diagnoses were simply “missed,” where are all the people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s with profound autism?

“Doctors and therapists in the past weren’t stupid, they weren’t missing all these cases,” Kennedy said in today’s press conference. “The epidemic is real.”

As the parent of one of those children living with autism, I couldn’t agree more. I have personally witnessed the throngs of children living with this condition in the schools - both public and private - that my son has attended over the last several years. When I was growing up four decades ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find just one or two children in an entire school with the symptoms of autism. Today, special education programs are overflowing with these children, so much so that their budgets are stretched beyond their limits, leading administrators and staff to search for ways to deny services to children in IEP meetings (or, “Individualized Education Plan” meetings, where programming and services for special education students are discussed and determined). And that’s not mere conjecture. I have sat in numerous IEP meetings, in varying roles: as a parent, as legal counsel for another parent, and as staff (in my former career as an educator). But I’ve also had a special education director and a special education teacher confirm to me that their school districts pressured them to find ways to deny services as a cost-saving measure. That same special education teacher also confided in me that when she first began working as a special education teacher some 30 years ago, nearly all of her students were children with Down’s Syndrome, and now, they are virtually all children with autism.

Today Kennedy doubled down on his commitment to find the true causes of the autism epidemic: “It’s time for everyone to stop attributing this rise to epidemic denial. External factors, environmental exposures, that’s where we’re going to find the answer.” Kennedy didn’t limit the range of “environmental exposures” that could be driving the epidemic to any single source. He cited food, air, water, medicines, ultrasounds, and even maternal risk factors like age, obesity, and diabetes as possible culprits. In short, he’s going to leave no stone unturned.

But he has a steep hill to climb in terms of opposition, which is perhaps the strangest - and saddest - facet of this story. I can’t think of any other disease or disorder that carries with the same degree of denial and opposition as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There are literally millions of people shouting Kennedy down, denying that an epidemic even exists, and resisting his efforts to find a cause, or a cure. Instead, they push for ASD “acceptance” above all else, clinging with white knuckles to their assertion that ASD is just another shade of normal, and celebrating it as a kind of “neurodiversity”. It’s this movement that was responsible for changing April from Autism “Awareness” Month to Autism “Acceptance” Month in 2021.

It’s hogwash, of course, but it’s also disgusting. Do we advocate for “acceptance” of cancer and diabetes? Do we “celebrate” heart disease? Of course not, and we don’t normalize them either, despite the fact that their prevalence has also skyrocketed in recent decades. And the reason we don’t is because these are debilitating diseases that can ruin and even completely destroy lives. And the same is true for ASD. While there are certainly some cases that are mild, allowing people to live independently or with few supports, there are also millions of people with profound, or severe, autism, left unable to care for themselves, or even speak. Some need to wear helmets to protect against self-harm, as they continually bang their heads into walls. Others cannot sit still for more than a few moments, continually pacing, which might also be accompanied by persistent toe-walking and arm-flapping. Still others erupt into violent outbursts without warning, requiring their care-takers (usually family members) to live 24 hours, seven days a week on high alert. The truth is, even for individuals with profound autism who are not prone to violence, their caretakers must remain on high alert, to guard against dangerous behaviors like walking into traffic or elopement. Suicide and accidents are leading causes of death in persons with autism. Earlier this week, I reported on the tragic police shooting of Victor Perez, a 17-year-old living with ASD in Idaho, who died last weekend as a result.

The list goes on and on, but suffice it to say that, for a large percentage of people living with ASD and their families, autism is not “fun”, and it’s certainly not something to be celebrated. It’s a serious health condition, one that destroys lives. And we have to do something about it - and fast - because society cannot possibly handle the fallout. There is a scarcity of facilities or homes that are available to care for these individuals when their parents pass away, or can no longer care for them. What then? How are we as a nation, as a society, going to support them and care for them? If we can’t, where will all of them go?

This is why I said that the “acceptance” of ASD as another shade of normal is disgusting, as is the denial of the epidemic itself. That kind of attitude and worldview is an insult to the millions of families living with the disorder, searching for answers and living every day in fear of what the future holds for them and their loved ones. It is irresponsible, and quite frankly it’s a form of neglect. When we deny someone the ability to speak, or the ability to live independently, we are denying them the most basic of human rights. And I’ll have no part in it.