On April 16, 2025, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK) spoke publicly about recently released, CDC data revealing 1 in 31 American children are now identified as having autism by the age of eight (8).
RFK committed to an immediate, broad, scientific inquiry to determine the cause/s behind the “relentless increases” in autism and called out ongoing “epidemic denial”.
“This is a preventable disease. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics. They can provide a vulnerability but you need an environmental toxin,” states HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr.
Oklahoma Among Hardest Hit by Autism: 1 in 25 Children
According to the latest National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Oklahoma rose from 12.3 to 39.5 per 1,000 children in just 15 years (2007 to 2022), an increase of 221%.
CDC/NSCH data for Oklahoma, ASD prevalence (2007-2022)
As of 2022, 1 in 25 Oklahoma children suffer from autism.
National mapping of the same data shows the warning signs for Oklahoma came early. NSCH data collected in 2007 (reported 2008) identifies Oklahoma as one of a dozen states with accelerating ASD prevalence rates.
2007 Prevalence of ASD by State:
By 2021, with all states then reporting data, Oklahoma had one of the highest ASD rates in the country.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) website provides no data about autism prevalence or potential causes. The agency describes the symptoms of autism and advises initial screening but has done no observable work concerning prevention or slowing this disproportionately Oklahoma epidemic in any way.
The OSDH is currently receiving $116 million from the CDC to promote “immunization and vaccines for children” and another $44 million to address “health equity”. Despite the impact of autism on Oklahomans, the agency’s priorities continue to be guided by decades of CDC funding and directives.
Current CDC grants to OSDH for childhood vaccines & health inequity.
Similarly, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) website acknowledges the previous national statistic of then “1 in 36 children in the U.S. being on the autism spectrum" while highlighting significantly higher rates of suicide among autism sufferers but provides no information on potential causes or prevention strategies.
Due to ideological priorities or funding restrictions, Oklahoma’s health leaders either won’t or can’t ask the most obvious question. What is causing Oklahoma’s children to develop this life-altering condition at an alarmingly accelerating rate?
What the ODMHSAS does, in conjunction with NGO’s like the Autism Foundation of Oklahoma (AFO), is use public dollars to provide services to those damaged by ASD. Everyone in this taxpayer funded circle seems to project a unison wave of shame to silence those seeking to identify causes and slow the autism epidemic.
Truth seekers are suggestively deemed as non-accepting, non-affirming and unhelpful. According to AFO’s website, our collective goal should be “not to fix them, but to champion their right to live authentically”.
According to this narrative, ASD children are “neurodivergent”, meaning their brains just work differently, and must be accepted. Seeking a cause to the autism epidemic is somehow framed as insulting and non-inclusive of those individuals.
In response to the CDC’s most recent and shocking data, AFO Marketing & Community Engagement Specialist Carley Dummitt called for vigilance in “pushing back against rhetoric that treats autistic lives as less than”. Dummitt further states, “Being autistic is not a tragedy.”
For the record, RFK and parents demanding honest studies about the cause of rising autism rates haven’t labeled anyone “less than”. They are seeking long overdue paths to prevention and viable treatment options.
Financially speaking, non-profit AFO derived 64% of its $541K annual revenue (2023) from taxpayer funded grants and received additional funding from Expand Energy (merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy companies) to provide “neurodivergent programming”.
In 2023, AFO spent more than half of revenues on salaries (2023 IRS filing).
The divided, national, online discourse involving the autism epidemic has some pushing National Autism Acceptance Month as others push for answers.
For Decades, Parents Have Linked Autism to Vaccines
According to RFK, “These are children who should not be suffering like this. These are kids who many of them were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they were two (2) years old.”
For more than 25 years, thousands of parents have expressed their strong belief that their developmentally healthy child became autistic after receiving one or a combination of vaccines given simultaneously.
The 2014 Hear This Well campaign came in response to the mainstream media and CDC’s combined messaging in contrast to the experiences of such families.
Despite the CDC having only conducted limited studies on a few, select vaccines and one formerly common vaccine ingredient (mercury containing Thimerosal) while never scientifically considering the cumulative effects of the agency’s rapidly growing, recommended Childhood Vaccination Schedule, health agencies and providers have continued to assure American parents vaccines do not cause autism.
Aluminum (also a neurotoxin) replaced Thimerosal in many vaccines as ASD prevalence rates continued to skyrocket and the CDC and medical industry continued to assure parents of vaccine safety.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and its HealthyChildren.org website have continued to lead the messaging that all childhood vaccinations are safe and any link to autism has been “debunked” for years though they provide little direct proof or data associated with their conclusions.
Posted in 2022 by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and HeathyChildren.org:
The AAP was quick to release another video in response to RFK’s April 16th announcement of an in-depth study concerning the cause/s of autism:
Far removed from its origins as a trusted, independent source of medical information for parents, the AAP has become a highly political, CDC funded doctor’s union with busy lobbying and propaganda arms that focus on keeping providers and bureaucrats safe.
Current $64 million CDC grant to American Academy of Pediatrics.
An Oklahoma ASD Mom Tells Her Story
Claudia Todd’s son Evan was born in 1998 and officially diagnosed with ASD after starting elementary school though the family’s journey with autism began much earlier.
When asked when she first observed symptoms in Evan, she stated, “I'm gonna be a little controversial here but I know as a parent he had words and was doing well until he got his 18 months shots and he stopped talking so we knew something at about 18 months.”
Todd reports discussing her concerns with Evan’s pediatrician and described the challenges of getting medical providers to see what parents see when a toddler’s progression of developmental shifts.
“As a parent you know your kid, you know what they do and what they're doing. And when you see a definite whoa, wait a minute, he's not talking anymore…Trying to get your pediatrician who's seeing thousands of children to understand that your kid’s a one-off here. I get it. ‘She's just one of those, she thinks her son's not doing well and is gonna blame it on the vaccines’. It was like well, ‘let's just kind of wait and see’, but we knew we only had one chance to do this and we couldn't let time get away.”
Todd also describes the developmental timelines for boys as potentially complicating and delaying diagnosis and access to interventions.
“He was too young to really do a lot of the testing, he still wasn't talking very much but she (pediatrician) also wanted us to give it some time because boys typically develop later…boys are more delayed in their development which they are with a lot of the verbal and things so there's this gap,” explains Todd. “By the time he reached two we were aged out of SoonerStart so we had to start going through the Cleveland County Health Department and some other sources for assistance.”
She described the process as frustrating for parents saying, “You get one chance to do it (early interventions) and time disappears very quickly.”
From there, the family sought answers and assistance from medical providers, county services and the Scottish Rite for Children (TX). Evan’s family, like many others, took a self-forged path, fueled with love, tenacity and the firm belief that something was not right with their child.
“I jumped through hoops, if somebody would say ‘no’ we went somewhere else. I just kept trying and pushing and asking questions and pushing and I didn't care if I had to bully my way, I was going to do whatever it took to get what he needed.”
Long before an official diagnosis of ASD, Evan started speech, occupational and other therapies through the local school system at age three (3), services many families miss out on. Todd recognizes ASD parental struggles by saying, “Kids go a long time not being diagnosed appropriately.”
Evan is higher-functioning and never suffered from the common gastrointestinal and seizure disorders that often accompany ASD. His mother suggests diagnosis for kids like Evan, with no obvious physical manifestations of ASD, can be even more elusive.
“We don't know what this is so we're going to throw this under the developmental disability umbrella or just Asperger's and call it good because they need a label.”
Todd revealed she wasn’t able to have a full conversation with a doctor about how Evan came to have autism until the family left pediatricians behind and “began taking him to more of an adult doctor.”
In discussing the high rates of autism across America, potential causes and RFK’s pledge to find answers, Todd’s thoughts identify points of both agreement and divide reflected in the national conversation about autism as well as the real effect of information silos generated by the media.
She has not been a fan of RFK’s appointment as head of HHS or the current presidential administration and states, “I think putting RFK in this position, it just blows my mind.”
Until our interview, this intelligent, highly motivated, informed, amazingly strong parental advocate for a now grown son with autism was not aware of any of RFK’s decades of work involving toxins and chronic childhood illnesses through Children’s Health Defense.
“I am not familiar with that, I just hear what I hear, you know, about him (RFK) on the news and using social media,” states Todd.
Todd has long appreciated Eunice Kennedy-Shriver’s efforts on behalf of the intellectually disabled through Special Olympics, a program Evan has benefitted from for years. Her opinion of RFK seems to match the Kennedy clan’s recent media messaging.
On potential contributors to the autism epidemic, Todd and RFK agree on much of what needs to be studied.
“One of those things that I questioned…did he (Evan) have something in him that those shots triggered. Maybe that's the deal is that it's in our children and that immunization triggers it. Maybe it's not specifically the immunization that did it but it was very hard to rule that out knowing that you know your child, you know their progression and you knew where they were developmentally, and to see that go away. Then a pediatrician saying ‘well typically this doesn't happen’. That's what we kept getting was ‘typically this doesn't happen’.”
RFK specifically mentioned possible genetic factors and the need to explore all potential toxins, like food, air quality, vaccines and others, as ASD triggers, .
Both Todd and RFK contribute a portion of rising cases to more frequent diagnosis of the condition but recognize much more is happening to cause the unprecedented levels of autism in America’s children.
“I think it's a combination of two things. I think more people are pursuing a diagnosis and more people are actively trying to find out what's going on here with my child… where in the past some just kind of let it go,” explains Todd. “I do think we probably have some environmental factors, the things we eat, how we process our food, all these things that may be adding or contributing.”
As for RFK’s commitment to fully studying autism rates, with preliminary answers coming in as little as six (6) months, Todd is skeptical and hopes politics are not involved.
According to Todd, “It’s nice to see people pay attention to it. I just hope that they're paying attention to it for the right reasons and doing it in a scientific and very processed way.”
Todd’s advice to families who observe regression in their infant or toddler’s development is direct.
“If you think something might be wrong, go check it out. Do the testing, test their hearing, do all those things. If the doctor says no, all those things check out, you've done your due diligence. If you still feel like something's wrong, pursue it, don't take no for an answer, because you only have one time to do this right. One chance, that's it and after the time disappears, you can't go back and start again.”
Perhaps because Todd diligently followed her own advice, Evan is thriving. At 27, he works 12 hours each week through a special opportunity at the YMCA, trains each year for Special Olympics, cheers on his favorite teams (currently OU Softball) and has a rich social life through family and The Sparrow Project, an organization that provides classes and social events for intellectually disabled adults.
Perhaps dedicated Oklahoma families like the Todds will soon have answers to apply to their lived experiences.
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Again, this is fantastic! Just tried to share it & somehow hit the “unsubscribe” button 🤦♀️. Immediately corrected that! But am sharing this w/ many. Love your work.
Wow. Only a week or so ago I read one in twelve California boys are getting autism and also that white boys were faring better than other ethnics there. The "acceptance" crowd was well-represented in that article. It's mind-bending.
Again, this is fantastic! Just tried to share it & somehow hit the “unsubscribe” button 🤦♀️. Immediately corrected that! But am sharing this w/ many. Love your work.
Wow. Only a week or so ago I read one in twelve California boys are getting autism and also that white boys were faring better than other ethnics there. The "acceptance" crowd was well-represented in that article. It's mind-bending.