The grandchild of late President John F. Kennedy, Jack Schlossberg, issued a bizarre challenge to his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services.
“RFK Jr … I have got a challenge for you,” Schlossberg said in an Instagram video Wednesday. “Me and you, one-on-one, locked in a room, we hash this out. Nobody comes out until one of us has autism. What do you say?”
The video appears to be mocking Kennedy’s recent statements in which he said “toxins” or ultrasound scans could be behind a “tsunami” of autism diagnoses in the U.S.
Kennedy held a press conference last week during which he suggested that industries were profiting from autism-causing environmental toxins, seemingly a reference to his decades of anti-vaccine activism and work against artificial food ingredients.
The health secretary called the press conference after a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that the number of children with autism in the U.S. rose from one in 56 in 2016 to one in 36 in 2020 and one in 31 in 2022.
However, Kennedy has faced criticism from scientists and advocates who have slammed his views as misleading and downright harmful.
The secretary went against mainstream research during his press conference, which states that autism is a complicated condition, formed mainly by genetics.
“We need to move away from the ideology that the relentless autism prevalence increase is simply an artifact of better recognition and better diagnostic criteria,” he argued. “Doctors and therapists in the past weren’t stupid. They weren’t missing all these cases.”
He went on to say that “only a small percentage” of autism cases can be attributed “to better recognition or better diagnostic criteria.”
“The answer is very clear, and this is catastrophic for our country,” said Kennedy, adding that he would push for a number of studies to find “precisely what the environmental toxins are,” which may be a part of the rise in cases.
“External factors, environmental exposures, that’s where we’re going to find the answer,” he claimed.
“We will have some answers by September … there will be an answer for the American people very, very quickly,” said Kennedy.
However, Kennedy’s claim that the rising number isn’t because of better screening efforts goes against the researchers who put together the CDC report, who said that the rise in cases “might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.”
They also noted insurance coverage as a possible factor.
Schlossberg has slammed Kennedy on repeated occasions following the start of his presidential campaign in 2023.
“He’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories, and conflict for personal gain and fame,” Schlossberg said at the time.
“I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president. What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment,” he added.
Schlossberg also pushed senators to reject his nomination to be health secretary during his Senate confirmation hearing.
