(NewsNation) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday will discuss the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest numbers on rising autism rates among American children.
The CDC report looked at geographic location, race and gender of those diagnosed with autism as of 2022 and found that a record one in 31 children are diagnosed with autism by the age of 8 in the United States.
Boys continue to be diagnosed more than girls, according to the report, and the highest rates are among Asian American, Pacific Islander, American Indian, Alaska Native and Black children.
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The CDC’s data from 14 states and Puerto Rico was taken in 2022, which saw the latest increase in diagnoses. Data from 2020 showed that one in 36 children had autism, while that number was one in 150 in the early aughts.
Health and school records for children aged 4 and 8 across the nation showed that more kids are being diagnosed earlier.
Some health officials and autism advocacy groups have attributed these growing diagnoses to a better understanding of the autism spectrum and broadened screening and criteria.
But the Department of Health and Human Services has said this cannot be the sole reason for the increase, calling the new CDC numbers “deeply troubling.”
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Kennedy has routinely called autism an epidemic and has vowed to launch a “massive testing and research effort” to discover the causes of underlying autism in the coming months.
“By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we will be able to eliminate those exposures,” Kennedy said last week.
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Nonprofit advocacy group Autism Speaks refuted the idea that more diagnoses make autism an “epidemic” and has called the latest data a reflection of “diagnostic progress,” NewsNation partner The Hill reported.
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While the cause of autism spectrum disorder isn’t fully understood, the CDC and other agencies have long ruled out childhood vaccines.
Some research has looked at genetics, the age of the father or biological predisposition as some possible sources.
Despite multiple studies disproving a causal link between vaccines and autism, Kennedy and President Donald Trump continue to tout anti-vaccine sentiment.
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During a Cabinet meeting last week, Trump posited that autism could be caused by “something artificial,” adding, “maybe it’s a shot.”
Trump and Kennedy referred to the one-in-31 estimate the CDC released Tuesday during last week’s White House meeting, and Kennedy repeated the statistic at a meeting with FDA officials Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
