RFK Jr.’s Quest To Discover Autism Causes Will Help Restore Americans’ Trust In Science

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently announced an effort to investigate the dramatic rise in autism in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 36 children now has autism, an over 300 percent increase since 2000. Kennedy pledged to find the cause of the autism epidemic by September and then to take steps to eliminate it.

Kennedy’s new investigation raises several obvious questions: Why hasn’t it been done earlier? How could something as common sense as investigating the causes of autism be controversial in any way? Are Democrats, such as Elizabeth Warren, who want to make Kennedy swear to a ban on suing big pharmaceutical companies, afraid of what the investigation will find?