Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, waffled on his self-imposed deadline to determine the cause of autism.
Kennedy sat down for a half-hour interview with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Thursday, during which she asked the prominent conspiracy theorist about his pledge to produce a report in September in which he wants to determine the cause of autism
"Is that still the timeline that you are sticking with?" Collins asked.
"We will have some studies completed by September. And those studies will mainly be replication studies of studies that have already been done. But we’re also deploying new teams of scientists — 15 groups of scientists. We’re going to send those grants out to bid within three weeks," he replied.
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When Collins asked Kennedy why he would have his team replicate studies that have been done, Kennedy insisted it was the "only way you can get good science."
"If you don’t have replication, you don’t know whether other scientists, looking at the same data, will arrive at the same conclusion. Good science always includes replication," he said. "In fact, we’re changing the procedures at NIH so that up to 20% of the funding at NIH is for replication. If you don’t have replication, you have incentives to cheat. And there’s a lot of cheating that goes on in science."
Collins returned to the deadline, however, noting that just a month ago, he vowed that by September, "we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and will be able to eliminate those exposures.”
This time, Kennedy deflected.
"We’ll have some of the information. To get the most solid information, it will probably take us another six months," he conceded.
But Collins didn't let him off the hook.
"Okay. So parents should not expect to know what causes autism by September?" she pressed.
"We’ll—like I said, we’re going to replicate some of the studies that have already been done, that look like sound studies. And we’ll know a lot from those. And then we’ll know a lot more afterward," he said, still not completely answering her question.
And Collins continued to nail down the HHS head.
"But not the definitive answer by September? Just to be clear?" she asked.
"It depends what those replicable studies show," Kennedy replied.
"Okay. And then what do you expect to happen six months after that? You mentioned something—" she began.
"I expect we will know the answers of the etiology of autism," he insisted.
"Okay. So that timeline is moving from September to six months?" she questioned.
"As I said, we’re going to begin to have a lot of information by September. We’re not going to stop the studies in September. We’re going to be definitive. And the more definitive you are, the more it drives public policy," Kennedy said.
Collins tried to nail him down one last time.
"Okay. So that would put us at, what, March next year? You say you’ll know the cause of it?" she pressed.
"As I said, it’s about six months after September. A lot of these studies will begin coming back," Kennedy repeated.
Federal health officials recently released new data showing that 1 in 31 children in the United States is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, an increase from the previous estimate of 1 in 36.
