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.

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

No official announcement has been made, though the report comes after Kennedy promised a large research effort to find the cause of autism.