{"id":8542,"date":"2025-09-26T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=8542"},"modified":"2025-09-26T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T18:30:00","slug":"historic-white-house-announcement-on-autism-and-tylenol-causes-confusion-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=8542","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Historic\u2019 White House Announcement on Autism and Tylenol Causes Confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, President Donald Trump stood beside the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d team for a \u201chistoric\u201d announcement on autism. Back in April<\/a>, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had promised to reveal what was causing \u201cthe autism epidemic\u201d by September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the start of this month, people close to the MAHA movement suggested that Kennedy\u2019s upcoming autism announcement would link Tylenol use during pregnancy with the condition. Researchers worried it would veer into vaccines. Both Kennedy and Trump have spread misinformation<\/a> about an association between vaccines and autism in the past, despite many rigorous studies<\/a> refuting any link<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ann Bauer at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, an epidemiologist who co-wrote a recent analysis about Tylenol and autism, told me, \u201cI was sick to my stomach,\u201d worrying that Kennedy would distort her team\u2019s conclusions. She also feared scientists would reject her team\u2019s measured concerns about Tylenol in a backlash against politicized or misleading remarks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bauer and her colleagues had reviewed 46 studies<\/a> on Tylenol, autism, and attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder. Many found no link, while some suggested Tylenol might occasionally exacerbate other potential causes of autism, such as genetics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since Tylenol is the only safe painkiller for use during pregnancy and fevers during pregnancy can be agonizing as well as dangerous, the team suggested judicious use of the medicine until the science was settled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what Trump advised. \u201cDon\u2019t take Tylenol,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t give Tylenol to the baby. When the baby\u2019s born, they throw it at you. Here, throw, give him a couple of Tylenol. They give him a shot. They give him a vaccine. And every time they give him a vaccine, they\u2019re throwing Tylenol. And some of these babies, they, you know, they, they\u2019re long born, and all of a sudden, they\u2019re gone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In emailed statements, HHS and White House spokespeople said Trump is using \u201cgold-standard science\u201d to address rising autism rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of the Center for Autism Research Excellence at Boston University, called Trump\u2019s comments dangerous. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists told me they were never asked to brief Kennedy or the White House on autism, or to review the recommendations. Had researchers been asked, they would have explained that no single drug, chemical, or other environmental factor is strongly linked to the developmental disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quick fixes \u2014 the kind promised by Kennedy \u2014 won\u2019t make a dent, Tager-Flusberg said. \u201cWe know genetics is the most significant risk factor,\u201d she said, \u201cbut you can\u2019t blame Big Pharma for genetics, and you can\u2019t build a political movement on genetics research and ride to victory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n

This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, President Donald Trump stood beside the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d team for a \u201chistoric\u201d announcement on autism. Back in April, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had promised to reveal what was causing \u201cthe autism epidemic\u201d by September.\u00a0 At the start of this month, people close to the MAHA movement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}