Autism is an “epidemic” that “dwarfs COVID,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy has said.

In an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis, RFK Jr. said autism is a “debilitating” condition that should be taken more seriously than COVID because of its effects on the young.

“This is an epidemic. It dwarfs the COVID epidemic and the impacts on our country because COVID killed old people. Autism affects children and affects them at the beginning of their lives, the beginning of their productivity.”

“And it’s absolutely debilitating for them, their families, their communities,” he added.

RFK Jr. went on to talk about the massive economic cost of autism, in addition to its emotional toll.

“For our country, just the pure economic cost of autism is, will be by 2035, $1 trillion a year. That’s just the beginning because many of these kids are aging out and their parents worry every day. And I’m talking about people with severe autism, what’s called profound autism, which is about, which is about 26 percent of the total people who are diagnosed with autism,” he said. 

“Those families, those children are nonverbal, they’re non-toilet trained. They have all the stereotypical features of autism, head-banging, toe-walking, stimming, agonizing gut pain and head-banging. Those kids are kids that will not hold jobs. And many kids with autism, many of the higher functioning autism actually can, have tremendous potential to live independently, to get jobs, take care of themselves,” he continued. 

Secretary Kennedy also spoke about new research he has commissioned to identify the real causes of autism. He said he believes the focus on genetic causes is misguided, and that environmental factors need to be addressed.

“The problem is that NIH and CDC have blocked all the studies that would determine the environmental exposure. So we don’t know. And instead they’ve studied genes and genes contribute to autism, but they, you know, like I said, you need an environmental toxin. And that’s what we’re, that’s what we are now going to look for,” Kennedy said.

“And we’re going to identify it and using AI [artificial intelligence] and the best scientific protocols, all of it, very transparent. We’re deploying 15 teams to look at all the potential exposures and that could be mold. It could be food additives. It could be pesticides. It could be vaccines. It could be ultrasound.” 

Earlier last week, RFK Jr. was on the receiving end of sharp criticism for comments he made at a press conference, when he said “autism destroys families.”

Among those winging blows at Secretary Kennedy was Gwen Walz, wife of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

​​“This is deeply upsetting, especially coming from our nation’s highest-ranking health official,” Gwen Walz said in a post Thursday on X.

“Individuals with autism are family, neighbors, students, and coworkers and they contribute more to this nation than this man ever will.”

Others said that his comments were “disrespectful” and that his aim of identifying environmental causes of the condition was “unrealistic and misleading.”