Kennedy says Health and Human Services will determine the cause of autism by September

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's top health agency will undertake a “massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced.

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood shots cause the developmental disability, said Thursday that the effort will be completed by September and involve hundreds of scientists. He shared the plans with President Donald Trump during a televised Cabinet meeting.

Trump suggested that vaccines could be to blame for autism rates, although decades of research have concluded there is no link between the two.

“There's got to be something artificial out there that's doing this,” Trump told Kennedy. “If you can come up with that answer, where you stop taking something, eating something, or maybe it's a shot. But something's causing it."

Autism is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. It presents with a wide range of symptoms that can include delays in language, learning, and social or emotional skills.

There’s scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism. Leading autism advocacy groups, including Autism Speaks, agree.

Research, including studies of twins, shows genes play a large role. No single environmental factor has been deemed a culprit. The National Institutes of Health, which already spends more than $300 million yearly researching autism, lists some possible risk factors such as prenatal exposure to pesticides or air pollution, extreme prematurity or low birth weight, certain maternal health problems or parents conceiving at an older age.

Kennedy has offered no details on how his study will be different or what researchers will be involved. Leading autism organizations, such as the Autism Society of America, have not been included in discussions about the research, said ASA spokeswoman Kristyn Roth.

Roth said many agree that more research is needed to determine what causes autism, but Kennedy’s approach has raised alarms.

"There is a deep concern that we are going backward and evaluating debunked theories,” Roth said.

Trump and Kennedy have both expressed concerns about rising autism diagnoses rates.

Some of that increase is due to increased awareness and a change in how the disability is diagnosed. For decades, the diagnosis was given only to kids with severe problems communicating or socializing and those with unusual, repetitive behaviors. But around 30 years ago, the term became shorthand for a group of milder, related conditions known as ″autism spectrum disorders.” Milder autism cases are far more common than severe ones.

With improved screening and autism services, diagnosis is increasingly happening at younger ages, too. And there’s been more awareness and advocacy for Black and Hispanic families, leading to an increase in autism diagnosed among those groups.

Still, anti-vaccine advocates, including Kennedy, have claimed that vaccines are to blame. The theory largely stems from a 1998 paper that was later retracted.

Scientists have since ruled out a link between vaccines and autism, finding no evidence of increased rates of autism among those who are vaccinated compared to those who are not.

Kennedy has hired David Geier, a man who has repeatedly claimed a link between vaccines and autism, to lead the autism research effort. The hiring of Geier, who the state of Maryland found was practicing medicine on a child without a doctor's license, was first reported by The Washington Post.

HHS did not immediately response to a request for comment.

Associated Press writers Lauran Neergaard in Washington, D.C., and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tours the Native Health Mesa Food Distribution Center in Mesa, Ariz., Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tours the Native Health Mesa Food Distribution Center in Mesa, Ariz., Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, is accompanied by Susan Levy, Native Health Communications and Community Relations director, during a tour of the Native Health Mesa Food Distribution Center, in Mesa, Ariz., Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from left, speaks as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought and White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz listen during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Washington. (Pool via AP)

President Donald Trump, from right, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., attend a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Yaxzodara Lozada woke up Monday freezing after sleeping on the sidewalk outside a prison in Venezuela’s capital, hoping her husband, a police officer who was detained on Nov. 17, will walk free as part of a goodwill effort the government announced last week.

While Venezuelan commerce and daily life have begun to resume — with malls, schools and gyms reopening a week after a stunning U.S. attack led to the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro — the promised release of imprisoned opposition figures, civil society leaders and journalists has materialized only in a trickle, prompting criticism.

Relatives of many of the more than 800 people that human rights organizations say are imprisoned in Venezuela for political reasons began gathering outside prisons Thursday, when the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez pledged to free a significant number of prisoners in what it described as a gesture to “seek peace.” Officials have not identified or given a number of prisoners being considered for release, leaving rights groups scouring for hints of information and families to wait anxiously.

As of Monday afternoon, the Venezuelan advocacy group Foro Penal had verified the release of 49 prisoners. Among those confirmed freed were several foreign nationals holding Italian, Spanish, Argentine, Israeli and Colombian citizenship.

Also on Monday, the White House confirmed that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.

Over the weekend, Trump said the releases came at Washington’s request.

“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners,” Trump wrote Saturday on his Truth Social platform.

Others criticized the government for not fulfilling its promise of releasing a significant number of people.

On Monday, the U.N.-backed fact-finding mission on Venezuela welcomed the release of prisoners, but said in a statement that the amount of people released in recent days “falls far short” of the wider demand for the “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.”

Lozada said she had not seen her husband since he was detained on Nov. 17 — an arrest for which she says no reason was ever given.

Next to her, relatives of other detainees stretched and looked for water after spending the night on the ground, using old couch cushions and pieces of foam. In front of them, cars kept going by to drop off students at a school adjacent to the prison.

“These are two realities. They want the world to see that everything is normal, that nothing happened here,” said Jenny Quiroz, whose husband was detained Nov. 26 at his pharmacy in Caracas for allegedly criticizing the government in a WhatsApp group. “But it’s a mixture of anguish, despair…. You know what it’s like to have 48 days without knowing if he eats, if they have him isolated, if they are psychologically or physically torturing him?”

Quiroz said she wanted Trump to know that the information he is receiving regarding prison releases “is not 100% true.”

As relatives awaited news of their loved ones at prisons, the government deployed security forces to public schools around the country for the first day of classes since the holiday break. Uniformed students walked the streets of Caracas some alone and others accompanied by adults.

The Venezuelan government has tried to push forward a message of normalcy after the U.S. military operation that rocked the nation.

During a school tour broadcast on state television, acting President Rodríguez — surrounded by children — railed against the Trump administration while simultaneously striking an optimistic tone about the country’s future. She said her country is “actively resisting” the U.S. while “we’re writing a new page in Venezuelan history."

While teachers braced for questions from students about the Jan. 3 attack, preschool teacher Ángela Ramírez said the topic did not come up in her classroom.

“I didn’t address it because I didn’t notice the interest and a need in them to know what’s going on,” she said. “They are happy to be back at school."

Associated Press writer Megan Janetsky contributed from Mexico City.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A man sits on steps decorated with a mural representing the eyes of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Children return to school after the holiday break in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Flor Zambrano, whose son, Rene Chourio, she says is detained at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police for political reasons, embraces relatives of other detainees outside the facility in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Relatives of political detainees wait outside Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police after spending the night there in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Relatives wait outside Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police, where political detainees are held, after spending the night there in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)