As RFKJr is now our newly confirmed HHS Secretary perhaps we as a country can start to look into the life-changing scourge of autism.
For those not familiar with autism and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) perhaps the following will help.
From AI Overview:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of ASD in children aged 8 years in the United States is estimated to be:
* 1 in 36: children (2.8%)
(This estimate is based on data from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, which includes 11 sites across the country.)
Other Statistics:
* Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ASD than girls, with a ratio of about 4:1.
* The prevalence of ASD varies by race and ethnicity, with non-Hispanic white children having a slightly lower rate than other racial groups.
* The prevalence of ASD has increased over time, from 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 children in 2020
To me it’s infeasible to assume that an incidence going from 0.67% to 2.8% over the course of twenty years is happenstance. While some attribute this increased incidence to better diagnoses, the marked increased incidence in males as opposed to females would argue against this. In addition the geographic differences across the U.S. would argue against the supposition that the increased incidence is due to better diagnostic acumen in different states. (Prevalence estimates also differed across the 11 data collection sites, ranging from 1 in 43 children (2.3%) in Maryland, to 1 in 22 (4.5%) in California.
Among 4-year-olds, ASD prevalence in 2020 ranged from 1.2 percent of children in Utah to 4.6 percent in California.)
To further complicate the situation the incidence of ASD across the different continents seems significantly different. (Subgroup analyses have indicated that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in Asia is 0.4%, in America is 1%, in Europe is 0.5%, and in Africa is 1%.) Unlike the differences from state to state, these continent to continent differences could well be due to differences in diagnostic acumen.
If any of you know of an autistic child, you are certainly familiar with the dramatic effect that this child has on the involved family.
While neither I nor RFKJr profess to be epidemiologists, is there a way to “follow the science” when it comes to what causes autism? Is it possible the one of the childhood vaccines could be a causal factor? Is it possible the fluoride in our water supply could be contributing?
The answer to each of these questions is “we do not know.” If we were to revert to “follow the science” perhaps population studies could be designed to look at individual variables. Would it be possible to randomly remove fluoride from the water in a certain area and see if the rate of autism changes over the ensuing ten years. Would it be possible to stop a certain childhood vaccine, e.g. the measles vaccine, for a subsegment of the population and see if the rate of autism in that area changes?
Would there be a downside to doing either of these? … Yes. But would it be worth it?
2/22/25