On Monday, President Donald Trump presented a major announcement on the administration's plan to combat, treat, and prevent autism.
Flanked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, and acting Assistant Secretary of HHS Dr. Dorothy Fink, Trump thanked Kennedy for bringing this health crisis "to the forefront of American politics." He also thanked Bhattacharya, Oz, and Makary for their assistance in producing this new direction on public health.
Trump said:
The meteoric rise in autism is among the most alarming public health developments in history. There's never been anything like this. [...] Since 2000, autism rates have surged by much more than 400 percent. Instead of attacking those who ask questions, everyone should be grateful for those who are trying to get the answers to this complex situation.
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Trump mentioned that among the Amish community, where they do not take vaccines, there are little-to-no instances of autism. Kennedy confirmed there were studies that documented this. Trump also discussed how the use of acetaminophen, aka Tylenol, during pregnancy has been associated with an increased risk of autism. Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, wrote a statement detailing the connection between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism/ADHD development in children.
HHS will now be recommending that pregnant women take acetaminophen only when extremely necessary, and giving it to children should be avoided entirely or limited in its administration.
Trump also spoke to the changes in the childhood vaccine schedule, which the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) debated last week.
When you go for the shot, you do it over a five-time period. Take it in smaller doses and spread it over a period of years. They pump so much into those beautiful little babies, it's a disgrace. I don't see it, I think it's bad. It looks like they're pumping it into a horse.
Read More: The Monarez Senate Testimony and the Ploy to Derail Changes to the Childhood Vaccine Schedule
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Trump also addressed mercury and aluminum in the vaccines, as well as the separation of MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) vaccines.
"It seems when you mix them, that's when things get really bad. Individually, they're okay," Trump said. "There's no downside in doing this, and it may not have that much of an impact, or it may have a big impact."
Trump also discussed the Hepatitis B vaccine, alluding to the fact that Hepatitis B is spread primarily through sexual contact or intravenous drug use, so recommendations will change for the vaccine not to be administered at birth.
Trump asked HHS Secretary Kennedy to say a few words. Kennedy pointed out that this is an ALL agency effort (HHS, NIH, CMS, FDA). In the past, the work of research, studies, and guidance was siloed and even politicized to a degree where one hand did not know what the other hand was doing. Kennedy mentioned two action items that will be implemented immediately: the first is the release of the research and FDA instructions and label changes on the use of acetaminophen. HHS will also launch a public health campaign surrounding this, encouraging caution in acetaminophen use, along with new research to study the correlations and causations that connect the use of this drug to autism. The second action item is that CMS and NIH will assist doctors on how to counsel and treat patients appropriately in terms of acetaminophen use, and especially in the area of administering vaccines and preventing vaccine injury.
At the end of his remarks, Kennedy made this promise:
I want to reassure the people in the autism community that we will be uncompromising and relentless in our search for answers. We will perform the studies that should have been performed 25 years ago. Whatever the answer is, we will tell you what we find.
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We expect this to be the first of MANY announcements over the coming years that deliver actionable information to parents on underlying causes of autism and the potential paths for prevention and reversal.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Marty Makary, and Dr. Dorothy Fink spoke to their role in the Autism Plan and how their agencies will partner with HHS on research and implementation of the plans to discover the roots of this disease. Bhattacharya gave more detail on the NIH $50 million award in support of 13 research projects geared toward isolating autism, unlocking root causes, and improving autism outcomes.
The NIH press release announced:
The National Institutes of Health has launched the Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI), a landmark research effort that will harness large-scale data resources to explore contributors to the causes and rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorder. More than $50 million in awards will support 13 pioneering projects that draw on genomic, epigenomic, metabolomic, proteomic, clinical, behavioral and autism services data. These projects will integrate, aggregate and analyze existing data resources, generate targeted new data and validate findings through independent replication hubs.
“Our Autism Data Science Initiative will unite powerful datasets in ways never before possible,” said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D. “By bringing together genetics, biology, and environmental exposures, we are opening the door to breakthroughs that will deepen our understanding of autism and improve lives.”
The White House ended the announcements with the testimony of two mothers affected by children with autism.
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