Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, has come under fire for remarks made during his first press conference since being appointed to the role by President Donald Trump

Responding to a new study by the CDC that found 3% of children in the U.S. have autism, Kennedy said the rise in diagnoses constitutes an “epidemic” and vowed to identify the “environmental causes” responsible for the disorder

Kennedy, who has previously promoted a scientifically debunked claim that autism is caused by vaccines, denied that the uptick in diagnoses can be explained by experts learning more about the disorder

“One of the things that I think that we need to move away from today is this ideology that…the autism prevalence increase, the relentless increases, are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition or changing diagnostic criteria,” he said. “This epidemic denial has become a feature in mainstream media”

Kennedy is also facing backlash for the stark, yet demonstrably false, claims he made about life for children who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder

“Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this,” he said. “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 unassisted”

On April 15, following the CDC report, Kennedy said in a statement that the HHS hopes to have “answers” by September