Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Wednesday that Jay Bhattacharya’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Dr. Mehmet Oz’s the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will partner on a joint project seeking out the “root causes” of autism. But the scope of the project is even wider than at first glance—something you’d be unlikely to know if you only picked up legacy media’s biased version. More on that in a minute.
In a statement released jointly by the NIH and CMS, they explain that while “[t]his partnership will focus first on enabling research around the root causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)[, over] the long term, the partnership will link real-world data, in a manner consistent with applicable privacy laws to protect Americans’ sensitive health information, for research on chronic conditions—a core priority of President Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.”
NIH head Jay Bhattacharya said that teaming up with the other agency “will unlock landmark research into the complex factors that drive autism and chronic disease – ultimately delivering superior health outcomes to the Americans we serve.”
NIH & @CMSGov are partnering to advance understanding of autism. This partnership will enable NIH to build a secure real-world data platform enabling advanced research across claims data, electronic medical records, & consumer wearables. https://t.co/QkoPmDnngR
— NIH (@NIH) May 7, 2025 “This joint effort aligns with our shared goal of fostering innovation to improve Americans’ lives while safeguarding patient privacy,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz chimed in about the project. “I look forward to working with Dr. Bhattacharya on this critical project.”
Kennedy said this could “uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases,” adding that the ultimate goal is “to deliver the honest answers families have waited far too long to hear.”
The HHS announcement comes the same day that President Trump announced that MAGA-aligned, holistic health advocate/author and practitioner, Dr. Casey Means, will be his new nominee for surgeon general, after the president pulled the nomination for Dr. Janette Nesheiwat.
READ MORE: Breaking: Pres. Trump Announces New Nominee for Surgeon General Post
Okay, now, here was how the mainstream folks twisted things. The AP’s lede read:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan Wednesday to use medical data and records from people on Medicaid and Medicare to help study autism although experts say it’s unlikely to help reveal the condition’s root causes.
The story goes on to act as a wet blanket, quoting the leader of the anti-RFK Jr. group, Coalition of Autism Scientists, Helen Tager-Flusberg, who is a professor emerita at Boston University:
“Enough research has been done at this point to know there is no simple magic bullet,” she said, cautioning that this type of dataset won’t help with the type of research most needed — into genetics and other prenatal, preconception and early infancy factors.
The Associated Press also made sure readers were aware of “autism researchers and [advocates’]” alarm over RFK Jr.’s prior comments about more research being needed on some vaccines.
Although later, the article admits the positive fact that HHS included in its announcement that the agency is only beginning to build out a platform to “study chronic conditions and treatments.” The work on autism is the cold open, in other words.
Science is supposed to be about being open to scientists willing to try surprising and different avenues to find answers. There’s no harm in asking questions in science. That’s kind of Kennedy’s point about conventional medicine, and people’s distrust of Big Pharma, when academia and the old guard push back with such ferocity–while Americans are screaming at them that what they’re doing isn’t working.
The results of the partnership, in fact, could be fascinating, with an impressive number of cases at their fingertips to investigate. According to a 2024 study by Drexel University, “there were 846,350 autistic Medicaid enrollees in 2016.”
No matter what nonsense the naysayers are trying to push, we’ll keep you up to speed on the people on Team Trump forging ahead to advance science.
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