Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clarified remarks he made about autistic people, saying he knows that some of them have fulfilling lives.

“There are many kids with autism who are doing well. They’re holding down jobs, they’re getting paychecks, they’re living independently,” Kennedy said on Fox News on April 17.

During a press conference on autism the day prior, Kennedy had said that autism “destroys families” and “our children.”

“These are kids who will never pay taxes. They‘ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They‘ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet on an assistant,” Kennedy said during the briefing.

The remarks drew criticism from some, including parents who posted about their children being successful and not meeting any of the criteria Kennedy laid out.

“My Son with Autism graduated college with honors, is an 8th grade math teacher, has a girlfriend, pays taxes, and contributes to society. RFK doesn’t know [anything] about autism,” one wrote on social media platform X.

In clarifying his remarks, Kennedy said on Fox, “I was specifically referring to that 25 percent, the group that is non-verbal.”

According to a Cochrane review, around 25 percent to 30 percent of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) “fail to develop functional language or are minimally verbal.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that “some people with ASD need a lot of help in their daily lives,” while “others can work and live with little to no support.”

Other people had expressed support for Kennedy’s remarks.

“How dare he say the painful truth out loud that many of us can’t bring ourselves to say?” another X user who has an autistic child said.

Kennedy also said at the briefing that genetics may be behind some cases of autism, but that environmental factors are behind what he called the “autism epidemic.” Vaccines and food additives are among the possible causes, he said. And he said that autism is a “preventable disease.”

Organizations that advocate for autistic people said in a joint statement that there is no link between vaccines and autism.

“Claims that Autism is ‘preventable’ is not supported by scientific consensus and perpetuate stigma,” they said.

Others have attributed the rise in autism to better screening methods.

Walter Zahorodny, an associate professor at Rutgers University who has been studying autism for years, appeared with Kennedy and supported the position that the spike in autism—from one in 150 children in 2002 to, according to a new study from the CDC, one in 31 children—cannot be explained solely by improved screening.

Kennedy recently said that U.S. researchers were starting a broad effort to figure out the causes of autism and that they would know by September. The research is urgently needed as the autism rates in the United States continue to climb, he said this week.

“Bottom line, the more than 25% of people who have severe autism will never go on a date, write a poem, live independently, or have a job. We need to identify the exposures that are causing this epidemic and compensate the families of the injured,” Kennedy wrote on X on Thursday. “HHS under my leadership, will be unrelenting in assisting affected individuals in living up to all their potentials.”

The researchers have not been identified, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declined to share additional information as of yet, beyond saying that the National Institutes of Health would be involved.

Kennedy said on Fox that while the preliminary findings would be available by September, it could take another year before definitive answers are found.