U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference at the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Alex Wong/Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has spent years spreading doubt about the safety of vaccines and linking them to autism.
Dozens of studies have debunked the theory, but it has nevertheless persisted for years. Part of the reason why may be that autism diagnoses have soared over the last few decades.
Dr. Allen Frances is psychiatrist who led the task force that created the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which expanded the definition of Autism, which he says might have played a factor in that uptick.
Rates of autism have exploded in recent decades. Could the clinical definition of autism itself be partly to blame?
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This episode was produced by Michael Levitt and Connor Donevan. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Nadia Lancy. Additional reporting from NPR’s Throughline podcast.
