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CLEVELAND (WJW) — The mystery surrounding what causes autism is taking center stage at the White House.

In a Wednesday morning news conference, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discussed an “unrelenting upward trend” for autism, as found in the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research on autism rates among American children.

f 8 in the U.S., up from 1 in 36 in 2020. They also said the rated varied widely by gender, race and geographic area.

But why are autism rates on the rise? The nation’s top health agency is undertaking a massive testing and research effort to to find out.

But local experts fear Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, may be pushing a debunked theory that childhood vaccines are the cause.

Estee Lowe is the help desk director with Milestones Autism Resources based in Warrensville Heights, which for more than two decades has been improving the lives of autistic people and families through education and life-building strategies.

“We’ve debunked it numerous times for numerous years so it is difficult to go back to that, if that’s the way that we’re going,” she said.

Lowe, as well as other experts, are attributing the growing diagnoses to a better understanding of the autism spectrum and broadeneing screening.

“We at Milestones do believe in evidence-based research, and there’s such an importance to it,” Lowe said. “So we should be looking for correlations of what the cause of autism is; what’s happening in utero and developmental factors. But going back to vaccines, I don’t think it’s the way to go.”

Autism is caused by differences in the brain and presents with a wide range of symptoms, including delays in language, learning, social or emotional skills.

Kennedy said we will know the cause of autism and take action to eliminate those exposures by September.

The CDC and other agencies have long ruled out childhood vaccines with researchers looking at genetics, the age of the father or biological predisposition as possible causes.

Kennedy went on to say he hopes to eventually incorporate an agency within the CDC to specialize in so-called “vaccine injuries.”