Kennedy to move autism study to newly-created administrative office
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday that he would move the surveillance of U.S. autism rates to the newly created Administration for a Healthy America.
Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in the U.S. among 8-year-olds in 2022 was 32.2 per 1,000, or 1 in every 31, up from 1 in 36 in 2020 and 1 in 44 in 2018, according to data published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on Tuesday.
At Kennedy’s first national press conference since he became health secretary, he said that study was two years late in being published. “One of the things that we’re going to do is we move this function to the Administration for a Healthy American,” he said.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Sarah Morland in Washington, Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
