Kennedy Jr. to meet. Singer’s brother and daughter are two of the millions living with autism in the United States, and part of a much larger community that has very publicly expressed feeling hurt and disrespected by the US Health and Human Services secretary’s description of who they are and how they live.

Robert F Kennedy said people with autism "will never pay taxes, they'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball," in remarks that are now being criticised.

NIH already keeps a list of registries for various diagnoses, but the "autism registry" report comes amid Kennedy's false assertions about autism.