According to new CDC report, the number of autism in the United States increases in 2022

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the continued rise in the U.S. autism diagnosis rate in the U.S. has sparked inflammatory rhetoric from government officials, while experts have largely attributed the trend to improved screening and a better understanding of the condition.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Tuesday that an estimated one in eight people aged 14 in the U.S. have autism, using data from 14 states and data from Puerto Rico in 2022. Starting in 2020, the previous estimate was one in 36.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examines the health and school records of eight-year-old children, as most cases are diagnosed by that age group.

Boys continue to be diagnosed more than girls, while the rate among Asian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous and Black children is the highest.

CDC acknowledges that its report does not cover the entire country or produces “national representatives” [autism spectrum disorder] Prevalence estimate. ”

These numbers also vary widely by location – from one in 103 in Laredo, Texas to one in 19 in California.

Researchers at the CDC said this could be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation. For example, an initiative in California saw hundreds of local pediatricians screening and refer children for early assessments, and the state also has many regional centers that provide assessments.

In response to the report, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., claimed in a statement that “the autism epidemic is rampant” and that “the risks and costs…threat to our country a thousand times higher than the Common-19.”

Why are the numbers rising?

The American Autism Association said the growth from 2020 may reflect several factors, including higher awareness and improved screening and diagnosis.

“This rise in prevalence does not indicate the ‘epidemic’ that the narrative claims,” ​​it reflects advances in diagnosis, and urgently requires policy decisions rooted in the direct needs of science and autistic communities,” the organization said in a statement.

The recent figures in Canada began in 2019, when Public Health Canada said 50 children aged 1-17 were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and men were diagnosed about four times more frequently in women.

Remi Yergeau, president of Canadian research on key disability research and communications, said the CDC report is just a “snapshot” and does not give the full story behind the numbers.

Jergo said clinicians have become more satisfied with the various ways in which autism and autism characteristics show in people.

“People like to make comparisons and say things like, as a kid, there were no autistic people,” Yeerg said. “They forgot things like institutionalization and changes in diagnosis, so people who may have been diagnosed with another condition are now diagnosed with autism.”

Diagnosis has been rare for decades, giving only serious problems in communication or social interaction and children with unusual, repetitive behaviors.

Until the early 1990s, only 10,000 children were diagnosed with autism. Around that time, the term became a shorthand for a group of related conditions called ASD and was marked as having some form of autism and started to stir up.

In the first decade of this century, the U.S. estimates increased to 150 years. In 2018, that was one in 44. In 2020, it will be only one in 36 at most.

“Dehumanized” rhetoric

Yeerg said the “Panish Language” tends to follow these reports and is concerned about the harm of Kennedy’s “dehumanized” remarks.

“There is a very real way to translate this panic into a huge outcome for people with autism, for example, seeing people with disabilities and people with disabilities as something worth fearing,” they said.

“When people create panic remarks, they create a accompanying remark, and we have to do everything we can to solve it. When you take this particular approach from this conscious despair, there can be real bad things happening.”

Kennedy vowed last week that the country’s top health agencies will identify the cause of autism in September and promised to “eliminate these exposures”, which attracted the attention of medical experts and advocates in the announcement.

Kennedy and anti-vaccine advocates have long pushed for a reputable theory about childhood vaccines, pointing to a preservative called Thimerosal, which is no longer the majority of childhood vaccines, or theorizing autism may be the cumulative effect of multiple vaccines.

Decades of research have found no link to vaccines and suggest that genetics plays a big role in autism, but there is no specific “autism gene.” Autism is not diagnosed without blood or biological examination, and it can be diagnosed by making a judgment on a person’s behavior.

The National Institutes of Health spends more than $300 million a year in the U.S. research on autism, listing some possible risk factors such as prenatal exposure to pesticides or air pollution, extreme premature birth or low birth weight, certain maternal health problems or parents in their old age.

Kennedy hired David Geier, who has repeatedly claimed a link between vaccines and autism and was fined by Maryland for engaging in medicine in children without a doctor’s license to lead autism research efforts.