Washington DC - The new advisory board appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has recommended that the US government focus on "profound autism."
The new Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) on Tuesday met for its first meeting since RFK Jr. appointed a new chairperson and replaced all 20 public members on the board.
Its goal is to help guide the more than $2 billion of annual federal autism research spending, and coordinate with government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
A large proportion of the purported experts that RFK Jr. has appointed have promoted conspiracy theories linking vaccines with autism.
In response, a group of prominent scientists launched an Independent Autism Coordinating Committee to help counter misinformation coming out of the IACC and "preserve consensus-driven autism research priorities."
On Tuesday, the IACC recommended that the government adopt the term "profound autism" in reference to autism patients with more severe need for physical and medical support.
"Individuals with the greatest medical complexity and functional support needs are the most excluded from the research designed to help them," IACC Char Dr. Sylvia Fogel said, per Reuters.
"Existing systems do not reliably capture individuals with the highest support needs, and it's why a functional designation of profound autism, in my opinion, is needed," she continued.
"Many in the autism community are facing intense daily hardship driven by undiagnosed conditions, safety risks, and increased mortality."