President Donald Trump cannot pronounce “acetaminophen” — not on the first try, at least. He does, however, feel he is qualified to tell American women that if they take it during pregnancy they might give their children autism.
The declaration came during a joint press event on Monday. Trump — flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz — said that “effective immediately” the Food and Drug Administration “will be notifying physicians that the use of acetaminophen,” commonly sold under the brand name Tylenol, “during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism.”
Trump told reporters that he was dispensing vaccine advice based on “common sense” and “what I feel,” and the administration’s new guidance on Tylenol similarly does not seem to be based on science. No established link exists between acetaminophen — one of the most common and effective pain and fever reduces in the world — and Autism Spectrum Disorders. The existing body of research is limited, contradictory, and difficult to replicate. The president, who once suggested using bleach to kill Covid-19, and Kennedy, a raw milk evangelist who seems allergic to academic research, are nevertheless charging ahead with the dubious advice.
“Taking Tylenol is not good,” Trump claimed, contradicting decades of data indicating it is perfectly safe. “Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it.” he said, suggesting women simply “tough it out” through pain or fever during pregnancy.
Kennedy added that “clinical laboratory studies” suggested a “potential association between acetaminophen used during pregnancy and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.”
Autism researchers and obstetrics experts were appalled.
“Paracetamol (acetaminophen) does not cause autism, ADHD, or learning disabilities,” Dr. Monique Botha, associate professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University, tells Rolling Stone. “That is something that I can confidently say.”
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Botha, whose work and research focuses on Autism Spectrum Disorders, adds that the studies suggesting correlation — not causation — did not control for things like genetics and family history: “As soon as you control for those things, any correlation like that essentially disappears.” It’s a reality even the FDA acknowledged in its announcement of the administration’s new guidance. “It is important to note that while an association between acetaminophen and neurological conditions has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature,” the FDA wrote in its public statement.
Kennedy has, for decades now, promoted claims that vaccines are responsible for increased rates of autism diagnoses in children, a phenomenon experts agree is more closely related to increased awareness and ability to identify the condition. In April, Kennedy publicly vowed to conduct a “massive testing and research effort” through HHS to find the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorders. “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures,” Kennedy said at the time.
Botha notes that the causes of autism have been researched for decades, and largely point to a multi-factor originating largely based on biology — not pharmaceutical exposure. “There’s plenty of research, decades of research. If you said I had to nail myself to one answer, I would say that it is primarily genetic and inheritable.”
What’s more concerning in Botha’s view is that the administration’s description of Autism Spectrum Disorders as an “epidemic” — as something to pin blame for and eliminate — is dehumanizing language that veers into eugenics.
“Autistic people are dehumanized, we know that from other research, as well,” Botha says. “This adds to that dehumanization, because it’s this obsession with ‘Why do you exist? Why are you here?’ It adds to this persistent feeling that autistic people report on, which is that they know that society would rather they did not exist. … Autistic people and their families, are deserving of respect, are deserving of adequate support, this is the last thing those families need”
Botha notes that the majority of monetary funding for autism research and resources tend to be directed towards finding the mythical single cause of the condition, instead of providing material support to autistic people and their families, or improving the public’s understanding of the disorder. The National Institute of Health on Monday announced a $50 million Autism Data Science Initiative to “unlock the causes and improve outcomes.”
Eric Garcia, journalist at The Independent and author of We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation, tells Rolling Stone that Kennedy is leading a “really a return to the blame game around autism.”
“Is it the vaccines? Is it the mold? Is it the Tylenol? It’s looking for someone to blame. But that doesn’t do anything — that doesn’t fix anything for autistic people. If anything, it distracts from the ability to rebuild the world for autistic people and heal the world for them,” Garcia says.
In the absence of actual science, the president offered up mad-libs rambling falsely insisting that communities that refuse to take “pills” or that avoid vaccines have nonexistent rates of Autism.
“I think I can say that there are certain groups of people that don’t take any vaccines or don’t take any pills that have no autism,” he said on Monday. “You have certain groups, the Amish, as an example, they have essentially no autism.” Trump added that “there’s a rumor” that there is “virtually no autism” in Cuba because “they don’t have money for Tylenol.” (This is false.)
It is clear to Garcia that the administration “wanted to find something” to fulfill its public promises, and was willing to throw out whatever they could find — in this case, blaming acetaminophen.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization issued a statement clarifying that there is “inconsistent” evidence on the matter, and that the “lack of replicability [for past studies] really calls for caution in drawing casual conclusions.”
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), meanwhile, affirmed that they had not changed their recommendations of the use of acetaminophen by pregnant women, and considered it safe. (Last year, researchers at Drexel University conducted a large-scale study of 2.5 million births in Sweden between 1995 to 2019, and found no direct causal risk related to the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy.)
“Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy,” ACOD President Steven J. Fleischman wrote in a statement. “Acetaminophen is one of the few options available to pregnant patients to treat pain and fever, which can be harmful to pregnant people when left untreated. … The conditions people use acetaminophen to treat during pregnancy are far more dangerous than any theoretical risks and can create severe morbidity and mortality for the pregnant person and the fetus.”
In a statement provided to Rolling Stone, Kenvue — the manufacturer of Tylenol — indicated their belief that “independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned about the health risks and confusion this poses for expecting mothers and parents.”
“The facts are that over a decade of rigorous research, endorsed by leading medical professionals and global health regulators, confirms there is no credible evidence linking acetaminophen to autism,” Kenvue continued. “We stand with the many public health and medical professionals who have reviewed this science and agree.”
Public health experts, research, and medical professionals have long been struggling to compete with outright falsehoods being broadcast at max volume from the most powerful political office on the planet. “It’s demoralizing,” Botha says.
Even more demoralizing than the lies and stigma being promoted by the president may be the callousness with which he presents them. At one point during Monday’s press conference, Trump took one of his rhetorical detours into a complaint about Ozempic, which he says he calls “the fat drug,” and how it’s cheaper overseas because the U.S. is “subsidizing the rest of the world” but it’s “nothing compared to autism.”
“We’ve got a lot of stupid people in this country running things,” the president said.
He has never been more correct.
From Rolling Stone US
