Autism is extremely heterogeneous. It is shaped by a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, which have been studied for decades, making RFK Jr’s pledge to determine “what has caused the autism epidemic” by September highly questionable. Some worry that the effort will be biased towards vaccine-autism theories, which have been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked. The strongest known contributors to autism risk are genetic, but there is reasonable evidence that environmental factors during pregnancy can affect autism risk in offspring (and,…
