The CDC's Autism Study

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A few minutes here with Jeff Bonasso, Fox News Radio

(00:03):
here on the Autism Awareness Month, and the CDC is
out whether it's twenty twenty five report on this condition. Jeff,
good morning. What did we learn here?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, good morning. So we've learned that that autism rates
have absolutely exploded here in the US, according to the CDC,
from one in ten thousand in nineteen sixty to now
one in thirty one children. I've even higher among boys,
to one in twenty children, and that's even higher in
California at one in twelve point five boys. Robert F. Kennedy,

(00:38):
the Health Secretary yesterday, I was saying that these are
kids who were fully functional and regressed because of some
form of environmental exposure. He went on to say that
we have to recognize that we are doing this to
our children and that we need to put an end
to it. Back then earlier report you just aired. You know,

(00:59):
while many researchers say that autism the trend can likely
be attributed to better screening and awareness, Kennedy says that
only accounts for ten, maybe twenty percent of cases, and
he's also dismissing the idea that autism rates are being
fueled by genetic factors. He says that genes do not

(01:20):
cause epidemics. I mean, they're going to look at obesity
rates of parents, the age of parents, and things like that.
But he goes on to say that you know, the
genetic you know, studying the genetic causes of autism is
and has been a dead end. Instead, he's calling autism preventable.
He says it it's spurned by environmental exposures. And so

(01:42):
he's commissioning me never done before series of studies to
look at those environmental exposures, mold, pesticides, medicines, even food chemicals.
Look no further than red dye Number Five's the petroleum
based food ingredient that's in our cereals, in our sodas,
it's in our gummy snacks that we feed our kids,

(02:04):
in all sorts of a myriad of other products. That's
just one chemical that's, by the way, banned in other countries,
is in our food FDA approved. Yes, and he's also
looking at a fifth tox and potentially causing autism. Ultrasound technology,
as rates began spanking in the nineteen seventies and eighties.
That's around the time that ultrasounds became more mainstream, so

(02:27):
they're looking at all that, and he is promising to
identify the root cause of autism by September.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's ambitious, let's hope, Jeff. Thank you. Jeff Bonasso, Fox
News Radio. Here with the latest from the CDC on that.
Here on kfab's Morning News. Here's a report on what
our FKA junior said, some audio with him and some
alternative voices.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Year by year, there is a steady, relentless in Greece.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
The Health and Human Services Secretary pointed to the cd
sees own data showing autism prevalence increased from one in
one hundred and fifty eight year olds in two thousand
to one in thirty one in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
This is a preventable disease. We know it's an environmental exposure.
It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
We have data that a certain percentage of some types
of autism can be clearly explained by genetic differences. We
have other evidence suggesting that actually it's the complex interplay
of environmental factors and all of those things that can
influence brain development that we'll need to understand as well.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, so it's not universally accepted that genetics plays no role.
I know this in the autism advocacy community. There's a pushback,
and I think this is valid. There's a pushback against
calling this a disease, as our r FK Junior did there.

(04:02):
It's it's it's a condition. It's a I got to
tell you, it's a fascinating condition. These are some cool kids.
But again there's a reason it's called the spectrum. There
are some instances where it's very pronounced and very severe.

(04:23):
But I hope, I hope that RFK Junior and the
CDC and HHS can do an honest study. Is probably
going to have to be long term. I don't know.
He said by September. That seems a little ambitious to
me to find out some environmental causes, but it is.
You can't ignore the number from one in one hundred

(04:43):
and fifty to one in thirty one today. You can't
ignore that. I mean, there's there's obviously something happening, and
they can identify even one or two instances or substances
that may may affect neurodiversity and cause a kid to
have this condition. I think that's good well, and possibly treatment.

Speaker 6 (05:06):
Yeah, and certainly we can stop doing it if we
find out what it is. You can say we're not
going to do that anymore. We're not going to put
this on food anymore. We're not going to include this
and ingredients, and we're going to give you know, expectant
mothers different information on how to care for themselves during
the pregnancy. I mean, there are lots of great opportunities.

(05:27):
But we finally have somebody who really doesn't care about
the politics and he's just out there.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
He's looking for the answer.

Speaker 6 (05:35):
He wants an answer and.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
That.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
But we have to say this too. This man has
and he's got a lot of good, interesting stuff, but
he does have a history of just making assumptions too.
And I don't want the head of the HHS to
bring his biases and assumptions into this study. If it's
an actual, honest, long term study, I think it's all
of the good that we do it.