Trump makes unproven claim linking Tylenol to autism while doctors insist it’s safe: Latest

Kennedy, who has long spread vaccine misinformation, has previously pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood vaccines were the cause of autism. After becoming HHS secretary, he pledged to determine the causes of autism by September, calling it an “epidemic.”

Kennedy has recently claimed that “interventions to improve health” were “almost certainly” responsible for autism, and alleged that many autistic children had been “fully functional” before they “regressed.”

However, decades of research has shown no direct connection between autism and acetaminophen, which is commonly known by the brand name Tylenol.

The Autism Society, a longstanding nonprofit that advocates for public policy and workforce access for autistic people, is “deeply concerned” about the Trump administration’s reported intention to claim the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy is a “cause” for autism.

The group, in a statement to The Independent, emphasized that autism is “not a single condition with a single cause” but rather a “diverse and complex, shaped by genetic, biological, and environmental factors.”

“Premature or overstated claims risk retraumatizing families, spreading misinformation, and undermining public health,” it added, arguing that “alarmist claims” could deter pregnant women from safely treating fever or pain, which itself puts babies at risk.

The society pointed to a 2024 JAMA study of more than 2 million children that found no causal link between acetaminophen and autism once genetic and familial factors were considered.

The Trump administration’s incoming autism announcement is the latest in a string of health-related clashes that have seen Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at odds with medical experts in- and outside of government.

Last week, former CDC Director Susan Monarez testified in the Senate that Kennedy pushed her out in August because she was “holding the line on scientific integrity” by refusing to rubber stamp firings and the administration’s preferred changes on childhood vaccine recommendations.

Monarez’s ouster in August prompted four top officials at the CDC to resign.

Earlier this summer, Kennedy abruptly fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) panel and canceled $500 million in vaccine development projects that use mRNA technology, the cutting-edge strategy used to rapidly develop multiple COVID vaccines.

“I only see harm coming,” Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned his position as director of National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases earlier this month, recently warned. “I may be wrong, but based on what I'm seeing, based on what I've heard with the new members of the advisory committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP. They're really moving in an ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination.”

President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will appear at the White House any moment for remarks where they are expected to claim there is evidence of a link between autism and the use of the pain reliever acetaminophen during pregnancy.

Studies, major medical groups, and autism organizations have refuted the claim that such medicines are a provable “cause” of autism.

You can watch the officials’ full remarks live on YouTube via The Independent channel.

Maternal medicine experts warn that scientific evidence does not support the Trump administration’s reported intention to claim Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism.

In a statement earlier this month, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine said that a “thorough review” of studies exploring the potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy “does not establish a causal relationship” — that is, a clear, provable link between cause and effect.

“All of the studies to date, including the most recent research, have significant methodological and design limitations and do not clearly establish the link between acetaminophen and childhood neurobehavioral issues,” the group wrote.

“At this time, the weight of scientific evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy causes an increased risk for autism or ADHD is simply inconclusive,” SMFM President Sindhu K. Srinivas, MD, MSCE, added in a press release. “In maternal-fetal medicine, as in all of medicine, our recommendations are based on an evaluation of rigorous research and data, clinical expertise, and our patients’ values and preferences.”

The group further explained that pregnant people avoiding common pain and fever medicine can carry “significant maternal and infant health risks,” including increasing the chance of miscarriage, birth defects, premature birth, maternal depression, anxiety, and high blood pressure.

After a brief wait, the president has begun his announcement about autism.

Watch live via The Independent.

Medical experts and autism advocates say the research is far too early-stage to confidently claim, as the Trump administration is expected to do, that the use of drugs with acetaminophen during pregnancy is a clear “cause” of autism in children.

“It is disingenuous and misleading to boil autism’s causes down to one simple thing,” Dr. Alycia Halladay, Chief Science Officer at the Autism Science Foundation, said in a statement from the Autism Science Foundation earlier this month, as reports first began trickling out the Trump administration was preparing such an announcement.

“We know that autism is incredibly complicated, and we need to move away from studies that simplify it down to one exposure without any other considerations,” she added.

Genetic factors play the “biggest role,” according to the foundation, which says hundreds of genes have been linked to autism, genes that can be inherited or spontaneously change in ways that impact brain development.

Other notable factors are “environmental,” such as advanced parental age, prematurity, low birth weight, or exposures to fever or illness during pregnancy.

During remarks from the White House on Monday, President Trump claimed a link between over-the-counter pain relievers and autism, despite medical groups arguing such claims are unsupported by current medical research.

“Taking Tylenol is not good,” Trump said. “I’ll say it. It’s not good. For this reason [the FDA] are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary.”

The president also claimed one in 12 boys are now diagnosed with autism, calling it “among the most alarming public health developments in history." He did not share the source of that data.

“You know there’s something artificial,” the president said of what is causing the spike in diagnoses. “They’re taking something. By the way, I think I can say there are certain groups of people who don’t take vaccines and don’t take any pills that have no autism. That have no autism.”

“Does that tell you something?” the president continued, looking to his advisors. “That's currently. Is that a correct statement by the way?”

Major medical groups have long found acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the popular medicine, to be safe but have advised pregnant women to consult with their physicians before use, as is the case with any drug during pregnancy.

Autism cases are thought to be increasing because of expanding criteria for diagnoses and more awareness of the spectrum.

In addition to making unsupported claims about using Tylenol during pregnancy being linked to autism, the president on Monday also urged parents against the common practice of vaccinating babies against hepatitis B.

“Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted,” Trump said. “There's no reason to give a baby that's almost just born hepatitis B.”

Trump claimed that parents avoiding this routine vaccination for their children until the teen years would be a “revolution in a positive sense.”

Public experts are dismayed by the Trump administrations recent attempts to claim Tylenol is a “cause” of the rise in autism diagnoses, a claim which numerous mainstream medical and autism groups say is unsupported by recent evidence.

“I’m absolutely speechless,” Dr. Craig Spencer, Associate Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, wrote on X of the Monday press conference announcing the administration’s claims. “Like, wow. This is the worst ‘health’ press conference I maybe have ever seen. And I watched every one during Covid. How are we doing this again???”

“How can you be so wrong on so many things in such a short period of time,” he added.