Source: Reuters
“Federal health agencies will create a database of autism patients enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid that researchers will use to study the causes of autism spectrum disorder, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said on Wednesday. ‘We’re pulling back the curtain, with full transparency and accountability, to deliver the honest answers families have waited far too long to hear,’ Kennedy, who has long promoted a debunked link between vaccines and autism, said in a statement. The department said the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will partner to build a real-world data platform enabling advanced research across claims data, electronic medical records, and wearable health-monitoring devices. The project is part of a wider $50 million research effort Kennedy is launching to identify the causes of autism, which he characterizes as an epidemic that can be prevented.” (05/07/25)