President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have pledged that the department would release a report explaining the rise in diagnoses for autism spectrum disorder in September – but the scientists research the cause and treatment say Trump’s policies are hampering their efforts.
Kennedy and Trump have long espoused the idea that an artificial external factor, such as vaccines or the environment, has played a role in the increase in autism diagnoses since the 1990s. The two repeated the idea during the most recent cabinet meeting.
