The Autism Diagnosis Problem

Once primarily limited to severely disabled people, autism began
to be viewed as a spectrum that included children and adults far
less impaired. Along the way, the disorder also became an
identity, embraced by college graduates and even by some of the
world’s most successful people, like Elon Musk and Bill Gates.


Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called the steep rise
in autism cases “an epidemic.” He blames theories of causality
that mainstream scientists reject — like vaccines and, more
recently, Tylenol — and has instructed the C.D.C. to abandon its
longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.


Today, Azeen Ghorayshi explains what’s really driving the
increase in diagnoses.


Guest: Azeen Ghorayshi, a science reporter for
The New York Times.


Background reading: 


Should the autism spectrum be split apart?

There are no easy answers for parents of children with
autism.



Photo: Eric Gay/Associated Press


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