On Monday, President Donald Trump stood beside the “Make America Healthy Again” team for a “historic” announcement on autism. Back in April, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had promised to reveal what was causing “the autism epidemic” by September.
At the start of this month, people close to the MAHA movement suggested that Kennedy’s 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 about an association between vaccines and autism in the past, despite many rigorous studies refuting any link.
Ann Bauer at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, an epidemiologist who co-wrote a recent analysis about Tylenol and autism, told me, “I was sick to my stomach,” worrying that Kennedy would distort her team’s conclusions. She also feared scientists would reject her team’s measured concerns about Tylenol in a backlash against politicized or misleading remarks.
Bauer and her colleagues had reviewed 46 studies 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.
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.
That’s not what Trump advised. “Don’t take Tylenol,” he said. “Don’t give Tylenol to the baby. When the baby’s 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’re throwing Tylenol. And some of these babies, they, you know, they, they’re long born, and all of a sudden, they’re gone.”
In emailed statements, HHS and White House spokespeople said Trump is using “gold-standard science” to address rising autism rates.
Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of the Center for Autism Research Excellence at Boston University, called Trump’s 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.
Quick fixes — the kind promised by Kennedy — won’t make a dent, Tager-Flusberg said. “We know genetics is the most significant risk factor,” she said, “but you can’t blame Big Pharma for genetics, and you can’t build a political movement on genetics research and ride to victory.”
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