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.

The autism study is planning to link confidential data "with broad coverage in the U.S. population" in one place for the first time.