Trump’s ‘unfounded’ claims about Tylenol, ‘discredited’ link between vaccines, autism
The president promoted on Monday “unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder” reports The Associated Press.
“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump instructed pregnant women about a dozen times during the White House news conference, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen in the United States and paracetamol in most other countries, AP says.
He also fueled long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the United States, without providing medical evidence, says AP.
Trump said the Food and Drug Administration would start notifying doctors that the use of acetaminophen “can be associated” with an increased risk of autism, but he didn’t provide justification for the new recommendation, AP says.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced that the agency is taking the first steps to try to approve a folic acid metabolite called leucovorin as a treatment option for patients believed to have low levels of folate in the brain — which may include some people with autism.
The theory is that some, but not all, children with autism may not properly metabolize folate, says autism expert David Mandell of the University of Pennsylvania. But the recent studies “are really tiny,” he says. To prove an effect, “we would need an independent, large, rigorously controlled randomized trial.”
New York University bioethicist Art Caplan says the news conference was “the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recycling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies, and dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority.”
Autism experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were neither consulted for the White House’s announcement nor asked to review a draft of the findings and recommendations, CDC scientists tell KFF Health News.
Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have promised that under their leadership the federal government would swiftly figure out what causes autism. Scientists who work in the field have been skeptical, noting that decades of research has shown that no single drug, chemical, or other environmental factor is strongly linked to the developmental disorder.
“Several medical and scientific associations have called for Kennedy’s removal or resignation,” notes KFF. “Many scientists are skeptical of what he says because much of it has been misleading or wrong. For example, he’s said HIV isn’t the only cause of AIDS (it is), that antidepressant drugs cause mass shootings (they don’t), that older adults don’t have severe autism (some do), that the measles vaccine causes brain swelling (it doesn’t), that covid vaccines were the deadliest vaccines ever made (they aren’t), that vaccines aren’t safety-tested (they are), and that vaccines contribute to autism (they don’t).”
Here is an AP explainer of what we know about autism’s causes and any potential link to Tylenol.