Posted on 08/27/2026 9:00:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A panel of advisors to HHS is meeting Thursday to discuss a draft plan that would significantly increase funding for medical care and other support for those with autism.
Earlier this year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee came up with a draft of a more than 300-page strategic plan. It calls for a boost of federal funding to agencies such as the NIH and CDC to $747.4M annually from $390.4M, according to Reuters.
The document notes that present federal spending for autism is significantly less than other diseases, such as Alzheimer's, despite the economic impact autism has.
While the plan doesn't directly mention vaccines and autism—something that has interested HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for decades—it notes that federal research on supporting those with autism has been lacking.
"Adult and later-life health, co-occurring medical and mental health conditions, communication, caregiver supports, implementation research, and outcomes for people with complex or high support needs remain underdeveloped or disconnected from practice," the executive summary states.
However, the plan does seem to express concern that autism research is focused much more on genetic factors rather than environmental ones. A review found that 38.5% of autism research at the NIH examined genetics, while 5.8% focused on environmental factors.
This supports "a more diversified discovery portfolio that preserves genetic research while deliberately broadening the focus to include emerging biological domains such as immune function, the microbiome, mitochondrial and cellular metabolism, and their relevance to both core autism features and co-occurring conditions."
Comments on the draft have drawn mixed reactions. The Autism Science Foundation expressed concern that the plan focuses federal funds on "scientifically questionable priorities," Bloomberg Law reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...
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Starve the Beast...
[One among many...]
Yeah.
I have compassion for the people and families who suffer through it, but I don’t see why this has to be paid for by taxpayers at the point of a gun.
bump
There shouldn’t even be an HHS.
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