Mega Doctor News
Mega Doctor News
On February 13, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order establishing the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, chaired by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The order directs the commission to study “the childhood chronic disease crisis,” explicitly citing autism spectrum disorder. According to the executive order, “ASD now affects 1 in 36 children.” The order tasks the commission with producing a Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment within 100 days, followed by a Strategy within 180 days. It emphasizes examining “any potential contributing causes, including diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.” [White House, Feb. 13, 2025]
In his March 4, 2025, address to a joint session of Congress, President Trump emphasized the urgency of the issue. He told lawmakers, “Not long ago … one in 10,000 children had autism … Now it’s one in 36. There’s something wrong … So, we’re going to find out what it is.” [C-SPAN transcript, Mar. 4, 2025]
The White House reinforced this message on April 2, 2025, issuing a proclamation for World Autism Awareness Day. It stated that the MAHA Commission “will investigate and address the root causes of childhood disorders like autism” and pledged that the administration would “prioritize gold-standard research.” [White House, Apr. 2, 2025]
Secretary Kennedy has also highlighted autism as a central concern. In HHS communications, he referred to autism as part of a larger “epidemic of childhood chronic disease,” pointing to CDC’s latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network data. Those figures indicate a prevalence of one in 36 children, a dramatic increase compared to previous decades. Kennedy announced that the commission would integrate data across agencies and explore environmental, dietary, and medical contributors. [HHS press materials, Apr. 2025]
On May 16, 2025, the White House released the commission’s first report, the Assessment, which identified four key drivers of childhood chronic disease: “an ultra-processed diet, aggregated chemical exposures, lack of physical activity/chronic stress, and over-medicalization.” While not limited to autism, the report placed neurodevelopmental disorders within this framework and called for enhanced data transparency and stronger protections against conflicts of interest in research. [White House MAHA Report, May 16, 2025]
By September 2025, the commission issued its Strategy roadmap. According to the coverage of the document, the plan includes calls for closer scrutiny of vaccine injury claims, the development of new integrated datasets for autism research, restrictions on advertising unhealthy foods and pharmaceuticals to children, and reevaluations of food additives and environmental chemicals, such as dyes and fluoride. [Politico, Sept. 2025; The Hill, Sept. 2025]
The administration’s actions mark the first time autism has been named so directly in an executive order creating a federal health commission. With prevalence estimates climbing from 1 in 10,000 in past decades to 1 in 36 today, officials say the MAHA Commission’s findings could reshape the nation’s approach to childhood health. As President Trump told Congress, “There’s something wrong … So, we’re going to find out what it is.”
