Damn, it like we gotta blame everything but the one thing that has been shown to cause said thing.

Pollution...

Autistics have gut issues and 99% of the time if you dig into their medical histories... Surprise their moms were exposed to some pollutant ... A heavy metal during the pregnancy. Shit fucked up their baby's development during the pregnancy. It's especially prevalent in areas that have abandoned open pits, abandoned industrial plants etc that were recently "agitated" because of new development n shit... Ergo why there seems to be a cluster of autistic kids and then it's gone then another spike.

But hey let's blame everything but the real cause!