On February 13, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order establishing the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, chaired by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The order directs the commission to study “the childhood chronic disease crisis,” explicitly citing autism spectrum disorder. According to the executive order, “ASD…
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that the use of Tylenol by pregnant women may be linked to autism in children, according to a report Friday in the Wall Street Journal — which the Department of Health and Human Services said was “speculation.” This comes after Kennedy said in April that HHS…
How a father’s persistence unlocked his son’s brilliance – CBS News Watch CBS News Viraj Dhanda, a nonspeaking Massachusetts teen with autism, spent the first 14 years of his life trying to learn the basics, until his father suddenly unlocked his brilliance with the help of Viraj’s right thumb. Now, he’s headed to MIT, one…
A Department of Health and Human Services official said Friday that the health department is not creating an autism registry, contradicting an announcement made days ago by the director of the National Institutes of Health describing his plans to study causes of autism. “We are not creating an autism registry. The real-world data platform will…
One out of 31 children — more than 3% of kids — have been identified with autism, according to the latest results published Tuesday from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that tracks trends of autism’s prevalence across some communities in the U.S. “They’ve again gone up dramatically, just in two years. We…
Face the Nation: Salvanto, Khanna, Marks – CBS News Watch CBS News Missed the second half of the show? The latest on…As the tariff standoff continues, a CBS News poll conducted from April 8-11 found that 75% of Americans are concerned tariffs will raise prices, at least in the short term, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna…
Idaho teen with autism dies after controversial police shooting – CBS News Watch CBS News Last week, Idaho police shot 17-year-old Victor Perez who had autism and cerebral palsy and was holding a knife in his grandfather’s yard. On Saturday, Perez was taken off life support. Andres Gutierrez reports. Be the first to know Get…
Idaho police officers opened fire from behind a chain-link fence just seconds after exiting their patrol cars and critically wounded a teenage boy — described by his family as nonverbal, autistic and intellectually disabled — as he stepped toward them with a knife, video from a witness shows. Seventeen-year-old Victor Perez, who also has cerebral…
Clanton, Alabama — Sometimes, wearing rainbow colors isn’t about orientation or politicization. Sometimes, a rainbow is just a rainbow, such as when 10-year-old Hunter Blankenship of Clanton, Alabama, picked out his rainbow-colored glasses. This car-loving, autistic boy wasn’t making a statement, he just loved the look — until the day he didn’t. A few months…
Hundreds of muscle car drivers rally around bullied Alabama boy – CBS News Watch CBS News When a mother desperate to show her 10-year-old son that people care and life can be joyful put out a small request on social media, hundreds of muscle car drivers heeded the call. Steve Hartman has the story in…