In a press conference this week, President-elect Donald J. Trump announced plans to investigate potential links between autism and childhood vaccinations in the U.S.
Trump’s comments come after his appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known vaccine skeptic, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“If you look at autism, so 30 years ago we had I heard numbers like 1 in 200,000, 1 in 100,000. Now I’m hearing numbers like 1 in 100,” Trump said. “So something’s wrong. There’s something wrong. And we’re going to find out about it.”
Autism diagnoses have risen dramatically in recent decades; however, “experts” attribute this increase to better awareness of symptoms in children, as well as shifting criteria for diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). About 1 in 36 American children have a diagnosis of ASD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared to approximately 1 in 150 in 2000.