US President Donald Trump on Monday announced new health guidelines on vaccines and made the unproven claim that use of acetaminophen, known in the US as Tylenol, during pregnancy was linked to autism.
Trump said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would notify doctors that the use of acetaminophen “can be associated” with an increased risk of autism, without providing any medical evidence for the new recommendation.
What are Trump and RFK’s views on autism?
The new guideline and the push to uncover autism’s roots have been a goal of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr (RFK)., who has spent decades pushing discredited claims that link vaccines to the condition. It all comes as RFK and Trump has vowed to upend the country’s health agencies with the slogan “Make America Healthy Again.”
The US president said “taking Tylenol is not good.”
“For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary. That’s for instance, in cases of extremely high fever that you feel you can’t tough it out,” he said.
Trump also falsely claimed that there are “parts of the world” that are too poor to use the drug and thus “don’t have autism.”
Tylenol company criticizes Trump autism comments
Tylenol’s parent company Kenvue said in a statement that it “strongly disagrees” with Trump’s comments, adding that “sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism.”
The company highlighted scientific reviews by multiple government regulators worldwide, including those previously published by the FDA.
Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah
