Originally Published on DailyClout

“We have the worst health care system in the United States of America,” lamented Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. during his Democratic nomination bid announcement for President of the United States on April 19 to a packed crowd at the Boston Park Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts. “What do I mean by that?” he asked. “I mean that we spend more on health care by far than any other country, and we have the worst health outcomes.”

“We spend $4.3 trillion annually on health — $4.3 trillion. And about 84% of that goes to treating chronic disease,” Mr. Kennedy denoted. “Now, why is that?” he asked. “Because America has the highest chronic disease burden in the world, and we didn’t always [have it]. In [the] 1940s, 50s, and 60s, we had a really healthy population. We had only 6% of our people, of our citizens or children, had chronic disease. By 1988, that became 12.8%. So it doubled. Today, by 2006, it was 54%.”

“We have the sickest generation in American history. We have the sickest children on Earth in this country,” Mr. Kennedy grieved. “And by chronic disease, what do I mean? I mean obesity, but more importantly, neurological diseases, neurodevelopmental [disorders], ADD, ADHD, speech delays, language delays, tics, Tourette syndrome, ASD (autism spectrum disorder), and autism. Autism went from one in every 10,000 people in my generation to one in every 34 kids today.”

One of the talking points of people who cast doubt that vaccines or other substances or medical practices have caused the autism epidemic is, “Now, we have better diagnostic processes.” However, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. argues that that explanation doesn’t account for the 29-fold autism rate increase because “missing autism is like missing a train wreck. So it’s an absurd [claim].”

Mr. Kennedy added, “There is study after study after study that shows that this epidemic is real. It is not the result of changing diagnostic criteria. It is not the result of better recognition. It is an epidemic. And it’s common sense because if it was changing diagnostic criteria, you’d see people my age with full-blown autism. [At] sixty-nine years old, I have never seen somebody my age with full-blown autism … And yet, in my kids’ schools, there are many, many children who look like that.”

“Why aren’t we asking the question” of what’s causing this? he asked. Because “there’s a report that came out a couple of weeks ago that shows that the cost of autism alone to the American economy will be — just of caring for people as this group now ages — it will be a trillion dollars a year by 2040.”

“So something happened in 1989,” Mr. Kennedy attested, based on an EPA report to Congress. “And we know that it is an environmental insult because genes don’t cause epidemics. And the only thing is we just have to figure out what it is. There’s a limited number of culprits of chemical toxins that became ubiquitous around 1989.”

“And by the way, it wasn’t just those neurological disorders that started, and all these autoimmune diseases started; if you’re my age, you never saw anybody with rheumatoid arthritis or juvenile diabetes when you were younger,” he added. “The allergic diseases, food allergies, peanut allergies, eczema, anaphylaxis, which now are ubiquitous. 27% of our school budgets are now going to special education. This is crippling to the middle class in this country, and we need to figure out what it is.”

Mr. Kennedy ended on this note:

“I can tell you this. When I am the President of the United States, I am going to end the chronic disease epidemic in this country!”

The crowd erupted in applause.

“If I have not significantly dropped the level of chronic disease in our children by the end of my first term, I do not want you to reelect me.”

Applause continued.

For more, the entirety of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s speech is now available on Youtube.