Latest news with #Shih
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Kennedy's autism crusade ignores history, including his own family's
In the telling of President Trump and his Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., autism in the U.S. has exploded in the past decades with seemingly no explanation. These claims skip over a mountain of data and touch on the country's dark history around treating people with neurological and developmental differences, including within Kennedy's own illustrious family. 'We are indeed diagnosing autism more than ever before in history. I mean, that's just a fact,' Andy Shih, chief science officer at the nonprofit Autism Speaks, told The Hill. While Kennedy insists external factors like vaccines must be to blame, experts instead believe the trend is a reflection of an improved understanding of neurodivergence within the medical community. 'We think that the increases are due to the fact that there's greater awareness that there are tools now that allow us to screen systematically with children at certain ages, certain stages of development,' Shih said. Autism, like many diagnoses, does not exist in a vacuum. Its perception and detection have changed drastically within the last century, with much of that change occurring throughout Kennedy's lifetime. The exact cause of autism is unknown, but the current scientific consensus is that it's a complex amalgamation of genetic predispositions and environmental factors. 'We used to compare autism to what we call complex disorders or complex diseases like heart disease and lung disease, where there's certainly a genetic predisposition, but environment influences certainly affect outcome,' Shih said. 'Now we look at autism not as a medical condition, but part of the richness of human variation.' Kennedy vowed to find the cause of autism by September of this year, suggesting that 'environmental toxins' in food and medicine are the likely culprits. Since autism was first diagnosed, numerous causes have been suggested, several of which have been discredited. In the mid-20th century, Austrian American psychologist Bruno Bettelheim proposed that emotionally distant parenting by so-called refrigerator mothers was the cause of autism, and he called for removing diagnosed children from their parents. Kennedy has long put his support behind the theory that vaccines could cause autism, but analyses, including those conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have found no link between immunizations and autism spectrum disorder. Kennedy's stated goal for finding the cause of autism is to prevent it from occurring. During an April press conference, he said children with autism will go on to be burdens on their families and society. 'These are kids who will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem, they'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted,' Kennedy said. 'Autism destroys families,' he added. As to whether autism can be prevented, it's unclear. And some experts question the necessity, and ethics, of such an endeavor. 'Is it environmental exposure? Is it maternal or paternal age? We don't know the answers to that,' said Nicole Clark, CEO and co-founder of the Adult and Pediatric Institute. 'We absolutely should be funding scientific research to try to get to the bottom of that. But the comments that he makes of 'we should prevent autism.' Those comments get very close to eugenics.' Clark is also the mother of children with autism. 'Those comments start to weed into anyone that is different should be prevented,' she added. According to the CDC, 1 in 31 children and 1 in 45 adults in the U.S. have autism. This is a stark difference from just a few decades ago, when roughly 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. But autism as a diagnosis is a historically recent development. The first person considered to be diagnosed with autism, an American banker named Donald Triplett, died in 2023 at the age of 89. He was diagnosed in 1943, 11 years before Kennedy was born. Autism was first added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a psychiatric disorder connected to schizophrenia in 1968. It wasn't until 1980 that the DSM was updated to reflect autism as a developmental diagnosis separate from schizophrenia. The standards and criteria for diagnosing autism have also broadened over the years. But increased diagnoses don't necessarily mean increased occurrence. 'We can see a couple things that indicate that what's going on is that our ability to recognize and diagnose autism is improving, rather than that the actual rate of autism occurring in the population is going up,' said Zoe Gross, director of advocacy at Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Diagnosis substitution is a phenomenon in which the labeling of one condition is replaced by another over time as knowledge and understanding change. Applying our current day understanding of autism spectrum disorder reveals broad areas for potential diagnosis substitution. 'We see that as we learn more about autism, people who clearly show the traits of autism but would in the past have been given just a diagnosis of intellectual disability, now have an autism diagnosis,' Gross explains. Another factor contributing to increased diagnoses is that many people with autism spectrum disorder may appear to have no intellectual disability. 'Rates of autism without intellectual disability, that is increasing faster than diagnoses of autism with intellectual disability, which shows that if that group that would have been missed in the past that is making up the larger portion of the increase in diagnoses,' said Gross. A report from 2023 that reviewed information from 2000 to 2016 found that 26.7 percent of children with autism spectrum disorder had profound autism. But there is nuance within that group, too. 'When they did that study, they defined profound autism as having a measured IQ below 50, or being nonspeaking, or being mostly nonspeaking. So, any of those three things, or any combination of those three things, you would get put in that category,' said Gross. Despite being lumped together, many people with autism spectrum disorder who are nonverbal or mostly nonverbal are capable of productive activities, which Gross notes can include writing poetry. Gross noted that when Kennedy was growing up, 'the diagnosis of autism wasn't even in the DSM.' According to Gross, to be diagnosed with autism in the '40s and '50s, when Kennedy was growing up, was 'very rare,' as only a few clinicians would have been able to identify it. Kennedy has claimed that he's never seen someone of his generation with 'full-blown autism,' which could be partly explained by how many of these individuals were hidden away from wider society. Up until the mid-20th century, a large proportion of children perceived to be mentally or neurologically disabled were put in institutions where they were often subjected to extreme neglect. Institutionalization reached its peak in the '50s and '60s. 'If you look at statistics about the disabilities and needs of people who are in institutions around the time when they started to close in the '60s and '70s, you'll see that many of those people had exactly those kinds of disabilities and needs that Secretary Kennedy describes,' said Gross. 'Families would be told … 'You should forget all about them, try to have another child and move on with your life,'' Gross added. 'So, a very kind of coldhearted approach to society's responsibility to care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.' Beginning in the '60s, parents began moving away from institutionalization, choosing instead to keep their children at home. The Kennedys were early adopters of this choice, at least in the beginning. Rosemary Kennedy, born in 1918, was the eldest daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and aunt to the current Health secretary. Developmental delays were observed early on in Rosemary's life; she was slower to walk and speak than her brothers and had difficulty concentrating. She is also remembered as having had a bright personality in her youth. It's unclear if Rosemary had autism or another developmental disorder. But with these traits, the Kennedys would have been advised to institutionalize Rosemary. 'But Rose Kennedy, their mother and that would be Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s grandmother, didn't believe in that, and she thought the best place for Rosemary was at home,' historian Kate Clifford Larson, author of the book 'Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,' told The Hill. 'So, they diverged from what was going on in general in the public at the time.' Joe Kennedy, who Larson describes as 'nervous and afraid,' consented to having Rosemary lobotomized in her early 20s, rendering her incapacitated and institutionalized for the rest of her life. She died in 2005. According to Larson, this choice to raise Rosemary along with her other siblings, and her subsequent disappearance from their lives, had a profound impact on the entire family, including RFK Jr.'s father, the senior Robert F. Kennedy. 'He was 14, 13 when she was lobotomized, so he was cognizant, whereas Ted was a little bit younger. So, they were all affected, and they missed her, because it was a very, very tight family,' said Larson. 'Bobby missed her, too, and like his brother, Jack, once they got power in the government, they started making changes.' Rosemary's sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver went on to found the Special Olympics, the largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Eunice's son, Anthony Shriver, founded the group Best Buddies International, which connects people with intellectual and developmental disabilities with friends and mentors. 'Bobby Jr., he was part of that. He saw his family do all these things all those years,' said Larson. 'He visited those horrific institutions as a teenager and young man. He saw how horrible they were. And so, for him today to say that those things didn't exist, that autism and these other illnesses did not exist before vaccines, is crazy.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
02-06-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Kennedy's autism crusade ignores history, including his own family's
In the telling of President Trump and his Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., autism in the U.S. has exploded in the past decades with seemingly no explanation. These claims skip over a mountain of data and touch on the country's dark history around treating people with neurological and developmental differences, including within Kennedy's own illustrious family. 'We are indeed diagnosing autism more than ever before in history. I mean, that's just a fact,' Andy Shih, chief science officer at the nonprofit Autism Speaks, told The Hill. While Kennedy insists external factors like vaccines must be to blame, experts instead believe the trend is a reflection of an improved understanding of neurodivergence within the medical community. 'We think that the increases are due to the fact that there's greater awareness that there are tools now that allow us to screen systematically with children at certain ages, certain stages of development,' Shih said. Autism, like many diagnoses, does not exist in a vacuum. Its perception and detection have changed drastically within the last century, with much of that change occurring throughout Kennedy's lifetime. The exact cause of autism is unknown, but the current scientific consensus is that it's a complex amalgamation of genetic predispositions and environmental factors. 'We used to compare autism to what we call complex disorders or complex diseases like heart disease and lung disease, where there's certainly a genetic predisposition, but environment influences certainly affect outcome,' Shih said. 'Now we look at autism not as a medical condition, but part of the richness of human variation.' Kennedy vowed to find the cause of autism by September of this year, suggesting that 'environmental toxins' in food and medicine are the likely culprits. Since autism was first diagnosed, numerous causes have been suggested, several of which have been discredited. In the mid-20th century, Austrian American psychologist Bruno Bettelheim proposed that emotionally distant parenting by so-called refrigerator mothers was the cause of autism, and he called for removing diagnosed children from their parents. Kennedy has long put his support behind the theory that vaccines could cause autism, but analyses, including those conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have found no link between immunizations and autism spectrum disorder. Kennedy's stated goal for finding the cause of autism is to prevent it from occurring. During an April press conference, he said children with autism will go on to be burdens on their families and society. 'These are kids who will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball, they'll never write a poem, they'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted,' Kennedy said. 'Autism destroys families,' he added. As to whether autism can be prevented, it's unclear. And some experts question the necessity, and ethics, of such an endeavor. 'Is it environmental exposure? Is it maternal or paternal age? We don't know the answers to that,' said Nicole Clark, CEO and co-founder of the Adult and Pediatric Institute. 'We absolutely should be funding scientific research to try to get to the bottom of that. But the comments that he makes of 'we should prevent autism.' Those comments get very close to eugenics.' Clark is also the mother of children with autism. 'Those comments start to weed into anyone that is different should be prevented,' she added. According to the CDC, 1 in 31 children and 1 in 45 adults in the U.S. have autism. This is a stark difference from just a few decades ago, when roughly 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. But autism as a diagnosis is a historically recent development. The first person considered to be diagnosed with autism, an American banker named Donald Triplett, died in 2023 at the age of 89. He was diagnosed in 1943, 11 years before Kennedy was born. Autism was first added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a psychiatric disorder connected to schizophrenia in 1968. It wasn't until 1980 that the DSM was updated to reflect autism as a developmental diagnosis separate from schizophrenia. The standards and criteria for diagnosing autism have also broadened over the years. But increased diagnoses don't necessarily mean increased occurrence. 'We can see a couple things that indicate that what's going on is that our ability to recognize and diagnose autism is improving, rather than that the actual rate of autism occurring in the population is going up,' said Zoe Gross, director of advocacy at Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Diagnosis substitution is a phenomenon in which the labeling of one condition is replaced by another over time as knowledge and understanding change. Applying our current day understanding of autism spectrum disorder reveals broad areas for potential diagnosis substitution. 'We see that as we learn more about autism, people who clearly show the traits of autism but would in the past have been given just a diagnosis of intellectual disability, now have an autism diagnosis,' Gross explains. Another factor contributing to increased diagnoses is that many people with autism spectrum disorder may appear to have no intellectual disability. 'Rates of autism without intellectual disability, that is increasing faster than diagnoses of autism with intellectual disability, which shows that if that group that would have been missed in the past that is making up the larger portion of the increase in diagnoses,' said Gross. A report from 2023 that reviewed information from 2000 to 2016 found that 26.7 percent of children with autism spectrum disorder had profound autism. But there is nuance within that group, too. 'When they did that study, they defined profound autism as having a measured IQ below 50, or being nonspeaking, or being mostly nonspeaking. So, any of those three things, or any combination of those three things, you would get put in that category,' said Gross. Despite being lumped together, many people with autism spectrum disorder who are nonverbal or mostly nonverbal are capable of productive activities, which Gross notes can include writing poetry. Gross noted that when Kennedy was growing up, 'the diagnosis of autism wasn't even in the DSM.' According to Gross, to be diagnosed with autism in the '40s and '50s, when Kennedy was growing up, was 'very rare,' as only a few clinicians would have been able to identify it. Kennedy has claimed that he's never seen someone of his generation with 'full-blown autism,' which could be partly explained by how many of these individuals were hidden away from wider society. Up until the mid-20th century, a large proportion of children perceived to be mentally or neurologically disabled were put in institutions where they were often subjected to extreme neglect. Institutionalization reached its peak in the '50s and '60s. 'If you look at statistics about the disabilities and needs of people who are in institutions around the time when they started to close in the '60s and '70s, you'll see that many of those people had exactly those kinds of disabilities and needs that Secretary Kennedy describes,' said Gross. 'Families would be told … 'You should forget all about them, try to have another child and move on with your life,'' Gross added. 'So, a very kind of coldhearted approach to society's responsibility to care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.' Beginning in the '60s, parents began moving away from institutionalization, choosing instead to keep their children at home. The Kennedys were early adopters of this choice, at least in the beginning. Rosemary Kennedy, born in 1918, was the eldest daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and aunt to the current Health secretary. Developmental delays were observed early on in Rosemary's life; she was slower to walk and speak than her brothers and had difficulty concentrating. She is also remembered as having had a bright personality in her youth. It's unclear if Rosemary had autism or another developmental disorder. But with these traits, the Kennedys would have been advised to institutionalize Rosemary. 'But Rose Kennedy, their mother and that would be Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s grandmother, didn't believe in that, and she thought the best place for Rosemary was at home,' historian Kate Clifford Larson, author of the book 'Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,' told The Hill. 'So, they diverged from what was going on in general in the public at the time.' Joe Kennedy, who Larson describes as 'nervous and afraid,' consented to having Rosemary lobotomized in her early 20s, rendering her incapacitated and institutionalized for the rest of her life. She died in 2005. According to Larson, this choice to raise Rosemary along with her other siblings, and her subsequent disappearance from their lives, had a profound impact on the entire family, including RFK Jr.'s father, the senior Robert F. Kennedy. 'He was 14, 13 when she was lobotomized, so he was cognizant, whereas Ted was a little bit younger. So, they were all affected, and they missed her, because it was a very, very tight family,' said Larson. 'Bobby missed her, too, and like his brother, Jack, once they got power in the government, they started making changes.' Rosemary's sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver went on to found the Special Olympics, the largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Eunice's son, Anthony Shriver, founded the group Best Buddies International, which connects people with intellectual and developmental disabilities with friends and mentors. 'Bobby Jr., he was part of that. He saw his family do all these things all those years,' said Larson. 'He visited those horrific institutions as a teenager and young man. He saw how horrible they were. And so, for him today to say that those things didn't exist, that autism and these other illnesses did not exist before vaccines, is crazy.'
Forbes
30-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Surviving The Next Shock: How To Fortify Your Supply Chain Now
A cargo ship loads and unloads cargo at the fully automated terminal of Qingdao Port in Qingdao, ... More China, on December 3, 2024. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Global supply chains have driven decades of economic growth but are under unprecedented strain. Recent events exposed vulnerabilities created during a long period of stability ensured by a single superpower, the United States. These include Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, pandemic-induced factory shutdowns, and a new era of unpredictable tariffs. Executives need to rethink long-held assumptions about effective supply chain strategies. For decades, companies prioritized efficiency in their supply chains. The economics were compelling, but each efficiency increase created a silent loss in resilience. In an interview, Willy Shih, Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School, told me, "We've had trade in this country since colonial times, and in the world all the way back to the Romans. Trade has always been driven by advancements in technology and communications." A technological revolution in shipping enabled the modern era of globalized supply chains. "What we've seen, especially since the late 1990s, is a vast expansion of the tradable sector enabled by container shipping," Shih said. "People tend to underestimate the importance of container shipping and the resultant expansion of the tradable sector because it is almost invisible." The business case for global trade after reduced shipping costs was compelling. Shih recalled his experience when China opened up: "I was in manufacturing in upstate New York, and it would cost me $80 to assemble a product that I could have assembled in Japan for $37, but I also could assemble it in China for $2.32. With labor costs 1/20th or less of those in the United States, I could throw 10 times as many people at a job and still be better off economically." The relentless pursuit of efficiency through offshoring relied on outdated assumptions about global stability and free benefits were undeniable: lower consumer prices, expanded product variety, and higher corporate profits. But these extended supply chains sacrificed resilience for efficiency, creating vulnerabilities that have become painfully apparent. Peter Zeihan, geopolitical strategist and author of The End of the World is Just the Beginning, argues that we've reached the end of this era. He contends that demographic decline, deglobalization, and geopolitical realignment are driving a fundamental restructuring of global supply chains. The global order enabling extended supply chains is fragmenting, and companies must adjust to this new reality. Recent disruptions have shattered the assumptions underlying global supply chains. Shih pointed to several examples: "When Houthi attacks shut down the Red Sea and we couldn't bring things through the Suez Canal; or for people living on the East Coast, when there wasn't enough rain in Panama so shippers couldn't bring as much through the Panama Canal; or during the pandemic, which took out 50 percent of global air cargo capacity because passenger flights were grounded." These disruptions exposed the fragility of a system optimized for cost and efficiency rather than resilience. The pandemic was particularly revealing. As factories shut down and shipping lanes became congested, companies discovered how little they knew about their supply networks. Many were shocked to find critical components from single sources they hadn't identified as vulnerabilities. Growing geopolitical tensions and rising protectionist policies are adding to these physical disruptions. Trade wars, tariffs, and export controls are creating new barriers to the free movement of goods. China's recent restrictions on critical minerals like gallium, germanium, and rare earths signal a world where access to strategic materials may be constrainedby political considerations. In this changed landscape, companies need to invest in resilience. What does that mean in practice? Here are five key strategies based on insights from Shih and Zeihan: "Number one, you have to understand where your vulnerabilities are. The scary thing is that people haven't learned their lessons from the pandemic," Shih said. This mapping isn't as straightforward as it sounds. Shih explained that our supply chains are built on a tiering system,exposing them to 'surprise dependencies.' "You need to know where there are sole source components, and a lot of that is just doing some research and figuring it out... You need to focus on the things that would really shut you down if you couldn't get access to them." Both Shih and Zeihan advocate for regionalization as a key resilience strategy. Shih stated, "It's time to think about how to regionalize production. The basic idea is to make things closer to principal markets: make in the Americas for consumption in the Americas; make in Europe for consumption in Europe; make in Asia, including China, for consumption in Asia." This doesn't mean complete reshoring to high-cost countries. Rather, it involves building regional supply networks that reduce exposure to global shipping disruptions while maintaining cost advantages. Zeihan argues that regionalization isn't just a choice but an inevitability as the global order fragments. Companies that build regional supply networks early will have an advantage as transportation costs rise and trade barriers increase. Traditionally, efficiency has been tied to scale, but resilience may require different thinking. Shih observed, "Our mentality has been to have efficient plants driven by scale, but this may no longer make sense. I think we need to figure out how to decrease the scale required for efficient production." This means investing in manufacturing processes that can operate efficiently at smaller scales. Advanced technologies like AI, IoT, 3D printing, and software-defined manufacturing can enable this transformation, making smaller-scale production more economically viable while providing enhanced visibility and control. Small-scale manufacturing has emerged in industries like shoes and tires. Resilience starts with product design. Shih explained, "Designing for resilience means understanding how we tend to spec things. Do we spec parts that come from a sole source? We need to ask whether we can spec parts that allow for more substitution." Sometimes this means paying more for flexibility. Shih points to Tesla's approach: "Tesla chose to use FPGAs [field-programmable gate array chips] instead of ASICs [application-specific integrated circuit chips], which are less expensive. If you choose an ASIC or custom chip, you have to have exactly the right one to plug in. With an FPGA, you get more flexibility, but each one costs more." He recommends companies "pay for resilience" in their designs. "Where it makes sense, spec more expensive or more general-purpose parts to give you more flexibility. That should be a design consideration." Disruptions rarely happen without warning. Companies need systems to track potential trigger events and identify early signals of supply chain threats. To detect changes, monitor transportation routes, political developments, and supplier health indicators. Technology creates visibility around these potential threats, allowing companies to act before disruptions escalate. It also means having contingency plans ready. 'Know your alternatives, and identify trigger points to activate these alternatives.' The era of global supply chains optimized solely for efficiency is ending. A new model is emerging - one that balances efficiency with resilience, recognizing that the lowest-cost supply chain may not be the most profitable when disruptions are factored in. In this new reality, supply chain strategy is no longer just an operational concern but a core strategic issue that deserves attention at the highest organizational levels. Those who prioritize resilience in their thinking will gain a competitive advantage in an age of increasing uncertainty.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
US autism rate continues to rise, CDC says, pointing to greater awareness and better screening
A new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the autism diagnosis rate has increased among US children, continuing a long-term trend that experts have largely attributed to better understanding of and screening for the condition. About 1 in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020, according to the CDC report that published Tuesday. Rates varied widely by gender, race and geographic area. The US Department of Health and Human Services launched what it called a 'massive testing and research effort' last week with a goal to identify 'what has caused the autism epidemic' by September, but the new CDC report says that better diagnostic practices can help explain many of the recent findings. Improvements in early identification of autism 'have been apparent,' the authors of the CDC report wrote, and 'differences in the prevalence of children identified with [autism spectrum disorder] across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.' Boys have consistently had higher rates of autism diagnosis than girls – in 2022, there was a 3.4-fold difference in rates among 8-year-olds, according to the new CDC report. While that ratio has started to narrow in recent years, the new report notes that it's not simply because of improvements in identification in girls. Autism diagnosis was also more common among Asian, Black and Hispanic children than it was among White children, a shift that was first identified in the most recent past report that captured trends for 8-year-olds in 2020. In recent years, diagnoses have also shifted to become less prevalent in wealthy neighborhoods than in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. The reversal of these patterns is 'consistent with increased access to and provision of identification services among previously underserved groups,' CDC researchers said in the new report. But disparities persist in identifying autism in children who also have an intellectual disability. More than half of Black children diagnosed with autism at age 8 also had an intellectual disability, compared with less than a third of White children, the new report found. Experts say that the rise in autism rates reflects a positive trend. 'A lot has changed over the years, and this continued rise in prevalence reflects, in part, real progress: increased awareness, broader diagnostic criteria, and more consistent, standardized screening tools have all contributed to more children being identified earlier and more accurately – underscored the need for continued support and investment in the autism community,' Dr. Andy Shih, chief science officer for Autism Speaks, a nonprofit advocacy and research group, said in a statement. Shih and Autism Speaks were not involved in the new report. Dr. Kristin Sohl, who chairs of the autism subcommittee of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Children with Disabilities, called the findings in the new report 'encouraging.' 'When children are identified early, appropriate supports and services can be tailored to help them, and their families thrive,' she said in a statement. 'Autistic children add value to our communities. Advocating for resources and funding to support autistic people across the lifespan is essential for a productive and healthy America.' The new study is based on surveillance data from 16 areas that participate in the CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. The data are not nationally representative and encompass a different set of sites than the last report with data from 2020, which only captured data from 11 sites. The CDC has also said that the Covid-19 pandemic led to 'sustained lower levels' of evaluations and identification of autism across most of the surveillance network. Prevalence has also been found to vary widely by location; In 2022, rates ranged from about 1 in every 19 children in California to 1 in every 103 children in Laredo, Texas. 'Research has not demonstrated that living in certain communities puts children at greater risk for developing (autism spectrum disorder),' CDC researchers wrote. Instead, the difference in prevalence is more likely due to differences in the services available and practices used for evaluation and detection. In California, where autism rates have consistently been highest, a local initiative has trained hundreds of pediatricians to 'screen and refer children for assessment as early as possible,' the new report notes. Insurance coverage can help improve early detection and diagnosis, the researchers say. In Pennsylvania, the site with the second highest autism prevalence, the state Medicaid policy covers children with disabilities regardless of their parents' income. CDC researchers say in the new report that there are additional limitations on tracking autism prevalence, including varying levels of data quality and completeness and differences in identifying intellectual disability in a child and clinically diagnosing it. 'While there are many factors driving these numbers, research shows that 60–90% of autism risk is rooted in genetics. Still, one thing is clear—this steady increase in prevalence calls for deeper, sustained investment in autism research, not only to understand its causes, but also to support the growing number of people diagnosed today,' Shih said in his statement. 'We must ensure that policies and budgets evolve to reflect this new reality. That means expanding access to early intervention, strengthening educational and healthcare systems, and providing supports that span a lifetime. This data is not just a number—it's a call to action.' CNN's Sarah Owermohle contributed to this report.
CNN
15-04-2025
- Health
- CNN
Autism rates in US rose in 2022, CDC data shows
A new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the autism diagnosis rate has increased among US children, continuing a long-term trend that experts have largely attributed to better understanding of and screening for the condition. About 1 in every 31 children was diagnosed with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020, according to the CDC report that published Tuesday. Rates varied widely by gender, race and geographic area. The US Department of Health and Human Services launched what it called a 'massive testing and research effort' last week with a goal to identify 'what has caused the autism epidemic' by September, but the new CDC report says that better diagnostic practices can help explain many of the recent findings. Improvements in early identification of autism 'have been apparent,' the authors of the CDC report wrote, and 'differences in the prevalence of children identified with [autism spectrum disorder] across communities might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.' Boys have consistently had higher rates of autism diagnosis than girls – in 2022, there was a 3.4-fold difference in rates among 8-year-olds, according to the new CDC report. While that ratio has started to narrow in recent years, the new report notes that it's not simply because of improvements in identification in girls. Autism diagnosis was also more common among Asian, Black and Hispanic children than it was among White children, a shift that was first identified in the most recent past report that captured trends for 8-year-olds in 2020. In recent years, diagnoses have also shifted to become less prevalent in wealthy neighborhoods than in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. The reversal of these patterns is 'consistent with increased access to and provision of identification services among previously underserved groups,' CDC researchers said in the new report. But disparities persist in identifying autism in children who also have an intellectual disability. More than half of Black children diagnosed with autism at age 8 also had an intellectual disability, compared with less than a third of White children, the new report found. Experts say that the rise in autism rates reflects a positive trend. 'A lot has changed over the years, and this continued rise in prevalence reflects, in part, real progress: increased awareness, broader diagnostic criteria, and more consistent, standardized screening tools have all contributed to more children being identified earlier and more accurately – underscored the need for continued support and investment in the autism community,' Dr. Andy Shih, chief science officer for Autism Speaks, a nonprofit advocacy and research group, said in a statement. Shih and Autism Speaks were not involved in the new report. Dr. Kristin Sohl, who chairs of the autism subcommittee of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Children with Disabilities, called the findings in the new report 'encouraging.' 'When children are identified early, appropriate supports and services can be tailored to help them, and their families thrive,' she said in a statement. 'Autistic children add value to our communities. Advocating for resources and funding to support autistic people across the lifespan is essential for a productive and healthy America.' The new study is based on surveillance data from 16 areas that participate in the CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. The data are not nationally representative and encompass a different set of sites than the last report with data from 2020, which only captured data from 11 sites. The CDC has also said that the Covid-19 pandemic led to 'sustained lower levels' of evaluations and identification of autism across most of the surveillance network. Prevalence has also been found to vary widely by location; In 2022, rates ranged from about 1 in every 19 children in California to 1 in every 103 children in Laredo, Texas. 'Research has not demonstrated that living in certain communities puts children at greater risk for developing (autism spectrum disorder),' CDC researchers wrote. Instead, the difference in prevalence is more likely due to differences in the services available and practices used for evaluation and detection. In California, where autism rates have consistently been highest, a local initiative has trained hundreds of pediatricians to 'screen and refer children for assessment as early as possible,' the new report notes. Insurance coverage can help improve early detection and diagnosis, the researchers say. In Pennsylvania, the site with the second highest autism prevalence, the state Medicaid policy covers children with disabilities regardless of their parents' income. CDC researchers say in the new report that there are additional limitations on tracking autism prevalence, including varying levels of data quality and completeness and differences in identifying intellectual disability in a child and clinically diagnosing it. 'While there are many factors driving these numbers, research shows that 60–90% of autism risk is rooted in genetics. Still, one thing is clear—this steady increase in prevalence calls for deeper, sustained investment in autism research, not only to understand its causes, but also to support the growing number of people diagnosed today,' Shih said in his statement. 'We must ensure that policies and budgets evolve to reflect this new reality. That means expanding access to early intervention, strengthening educational and healthcare systems, and providing supports that span a lifetime. This data is not just a number—it's a call to action.' CNN's Sarah Owermohle contributed to this report.
