{"id":27378,"date":"2025-05-07T22:37:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T22:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27378"},"modified":"2025-05-07T23:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T23:27:21","slug":"rfk-jr-announces-new-database-for-research-into-root-causes-of-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27378","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. Announces New Database for Research Into \u2018Root Causes\u2019 of Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The director of the National Institutes of Health previously floated \u2014 then walked back \u2014 the idea of an autism registry, alarming researchers and parents.<\/p>\n

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After weeks of confusion about his plans for autism research, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday that his department would build a \u201creal-world platform\u201d that would allow researchers to hunt for causes of the disorder by examining insurance claims, electronic medical records and wearable devices like smart watches.<\/p>\n

The department will draw the records from Medicare and Medicaid, which together cover around 40 percent of Americans. The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will partner on the project, Mr. Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

But it was unclear whether the announcement would assuage researchers, advocates and parents, who reacted with alarm last month when Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, floated \u2014 and then walked back<\/a> \u2014 the idea of an autism registry for research. Many feared privacy violations.<\/p>\n

In Illinois on Wednesday, Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, issued an executive order<\/a> aimed at protecting the privacy rights of state residents with autism. His office said he made the move in response to \u201crising national concerns about efforts to create federal autism registries or databases without clear legal safeguards or accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Kennedy\u2019s intense focus on autism stems from his insistence, despite evidence otherwise<\/a>, that vaccines are to blame for the rapid rise in autism diagnoses in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported<\/a> that about 1 in 31, or 3.2 percent, of American eight-year-olds have received a diagnosis.<\/p>\n

For the new database, the health department said it would take steps to ensure the privacy of medical data. But it is not clear precisely what kind of research will be conducted. Mr. Kennedy said in the announcement that his department would use the platform \u201cto uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The director of the National Institutes of Health previously floated \u2014 then walked back \u2014 the idea of an autism registry, alarming researchers and parents.After weeks of confusion about his plans for autism research, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday that his department would build a \u201creal-world platform\u201d that would allow researchers to hunt for causes of the disorder by examining insurance claims, electronic medical records and wearable devices like smart watches.The department will draw the records from Medicare and Medicaid, which together cover around 40 percent of Americans. The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will partner on the project, Mr. Kennedy said.But it was unclear whether the announcement would assuage researchers, advocates and parents, who reacted with alarm last month when Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, floated \u2014 and then walked back \u2014 the idea of an autism registry for research. Many feared privacy violations.In Illinois on Wednesday, Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, issued an executive order aimed at protecting the privacy rights of state residents with autism. His office said he made the move in response to \u201crising national concerns about efforts to create federal autism registries or databases without clear legal safeguards or accountability.\u201dMr. Kennedy\u2019s intense focus on autism stems from his insistence, despite evidence otherwise, that vaccines are to blame for the rapid rise in autism diagnoses in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that about 1 in 31, or 3.2 percent, of American eight-year-olds have received a diagnosis.For the new database, the health department said it would take steps to ensure the privacy of medical data. But it is not clear precisely what kind of research will be conducted. Mr. Kennedy said in the announcement that his department would use the platform \u201cto uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27380,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27378"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27381,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27378\/revisions\/27381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}