Trump administration links Tylenol use during pregnancy

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ASPartOfMe
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22 Sep 2025, 5:11 pm

Trump admin links Tylenol use in pregnancy to increased risk of autism despite mixed studies

Quote:
The Trump administration stated on Monday that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy may be linked to an increased risk of autism.

In a press conference at the White House, President Donald Trump said the Food and Drug Administration will begin notifying physicians immediately that it is "strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary."

"They are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary," Trump said. "That's, for instance, in cases of extremely high fever."

Studies on this question have not shown a direct cause and effect. Some studies point to a possible link, but major medical groups have evaluated the evidence and continue to recommend acetaminophen as the safest painkiller during pregnancy.

Trump and his health officials said that the FDA would update the label for acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol, to "reflect potential benefits in reducing some autism symptoms.”

a statement, Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), said the medical group continues to recommend acetaminophen as the safest painkiller during pregnancy.

"Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy," Fleischman said.

"Today's announcement by HHS is not backed by the full body of scientific evidence and dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children. It is highly unsettling that our federal health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of millions of people without the backing of reliable data," the statement continued.

In a statement from Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, on Sunday, the company said it believes research shows that acetaminophen does not cause autism.

We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers," the statement read. "Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy. Without it, women face dangerous choices: suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially harmful to both mom and baby or use riskier alternatives.

The administration also announced on Monday that it is starting an approval process for a drug called leucovorin, despite limited evidence of benefit.

Leucovorin, which is typically used as part of cancer care, has shown early promise in a handful of small studies suggesting it may help the symptoms of some children with autism.

Typically, more robust studies would be required for a new FDA approval. Doctors say there could be some promise for this drug, but caution that more research is needed to understand how much -- or even whether -- this drug helps certain children.

In the press release, GSK, the maker of the drug, did not mention autism by name but said it is starting a process to expand the approval.

During the press conference on Monday, Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also suggested the childhood vaccine schedule could contribute to autism, contradicting years of research that has found no link between the two.


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kokopelli
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22 Sep 2025, 6:14 pm

Trump can never turn down any opportunity to exhibit the levels of his stupidity to the world.



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23 Sep 2025, 2:32 pm

Tylenol was apparently introduced in 1955.

I was born in 1954. I have Autism.

I am the eldest of four children. All four of us have and were raised by the same parents. My siblings are not Autistic.


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24 Sep 2025, 10:05 am

ASAN Condemns Administration’s Rampant Misinformation about Autism, Acetaminophen, and Vaccines; Calls for Respectful, Fact-Based Approach
Plain Language Statement

Words to Know
Acetaminophen – a medicine that helps get rid of fevers and pain. Acetaminophen is also called Tylenol.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – a part of the United States government that works on health care. The Department of Health and Human services gets called HHS for short.

Leucovorin – a kind of medicine. Doctors usually give leucovorin to people who have cancer.

Press conference – an event where someone shares important news with a lot of news reporters. News reporters ask questions about the news at the press conference.

Removed from office – when someone who works for the government is forced to leave their job.

RFK Jr. a short name for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. RFK is in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services.
———————————————————–
Yesterday, President Trump and RFK Jr. said dangerous things about autism that are not based on facts. They said these dangerous things at a press conference. A press conference is when the government shares important news. News reporters ask questions about the news at the press conference.

These are some of the dangerous things RFK Jr. and President Trump said at the press conference:

They said that pregnant people should not take acetaminophen Acetaminophen is a medicine that helps get rid of fevers and pain. Acetaminophen is also called Tylenol. RFK Jr. and President Trump said that acetaminophen causes autism. Real science shows that acetaminophen does not cause autism. A baby can not get autism from their parent taking acetaminophen. A baby can not get autism from taking acetaminophen.

They said that parents should give their autistic children leucovorin. Leucovorin is a kind of medicine. Doctors usually give leucovorin to people who have cancer. RFK and President Trump said that leucovorin can make someone “get better” from autism. Autism is not a sickness.

Autistic people do not need to “get better” from autism. Autistic people do not need to be cured.

Scientists have not done enough research about how leucovorin affects autistic kids. It is dangerous for RFK and President Trump to say that parents should give their autistic kids leucovorin.

They said that vaccines cause autism. RFK Jr. has been saying that vaccines cause autism for a long time. But vaccines do not cause autism. Vaccines are safe. Vaccines help stop people from getting really sick. You can read our plain language resource about vaccines and autism here.
RFK Jr. and President Trump said these dangerous things because they want to “end” autism. They think autism needs to be cured. They think scientists should figure out how to stop people from being born with autism. ASAN strongly disagrees.

ASAN knows that autism is not a bad thing. Autistic people can have amazing lives. Autistic people do not need a cure for autism. We need supports that help us succeed. We need to be able to choose the services we get. We need resources that help us. We need resources that help the people who support us, like our families. The government should focus on actually helping autistic people. The government should not focus on getting rid of autism.

RFK Jr. is in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS gives the President advice about public health. The advice is supposed to be based on facts. The advice is supposed to be based on real science.

RFK Jr. is not using facts or real science to make choices about autism. RFK Jr. should not be in charge of HHS. ASAN thinks RFK Jr. should be removed from office. Removed from office
means that someone who works for the government is forced to leave their job. The United States Congress should vote to remove RFK Jr. from office.



Formal Language Statement

Quote:
Yesterday’s press conference with President Trump, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and other members of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leadership contained flagrantly inaccurate information about autism, acetaminophen, and vaccines. The announced actions to change the safety recommendations for acetaminophen and make leucovorin widely available for use as a largely unstudied autism “treatment” will only serve to confuse the public and expose all of us, especially autistic people and our families, to unnecessary harm. Weak claims based on a limited number of small studies and outright health disinformation are not the “gold-standard science” the Administration has promised the American people.

We know vaccines are safe because of three decades of research. The best studies suggest that there is no link between acetaminophen and autism. Autism is overwhelmingly caused by genetics. With hundreds of genes associated with autism, it is highly unlikely that a single drug will successfully help all autistic people. There is no cure-all for autism, but there are measures we can take to empower autistic people to have good lives. Autistic people require self-directed, individualized supports and services informed by our needs. Using cherrypicked, poorly collected, and out-of-date data to justify anything besides that is irresponsible. Using such data to enact sweeping policy change and make new medical recommendations is dangerous.

ASAN strongly recommends looking to reliable sources of scientific and medical information, like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in the aftermath of yesterday’s press conference. People who have regular access to a doctor they trust should continue to rely on that person’s medical advice for questions specific to their health needs. Under current leadership, HHS is not a reliable or consistent source of trustworthy information. We continue to urge states to use the powers at their disposal to protect us as HHS abdicates its responsibility to defend and champion our health. ASAN will continue to advocate for an autism research agenda based in science and a policy agenda that addresses the needs of autistic people and our families, like better access to services and supports. We deserve nothing less.

We are horrified by comments that call for “ending” autism, a crude, yet plain, endorsement of eugenics demonstrating a callous lack of understanding of what autism is. Autism is a natural part of human diversity. Autistic people usually enjoy a good quality of life when we have the supports we need. Autism is not a problem for which anyone needs to be blamed. An HHS that does not further this understanding and provide accurate information to the President and the public to make safe, science-informed decisions puts the country at grave risk.

Yesterday’s words and actions are the culmination of the MAHA agenda — the agenda spearheaded by Secretary Kennedy. From recommending against the use of the best treatment for fever during pregnancy to reducing access to life-saving vaccines, the actions taken at Secretary Kennedy’s behest put us all in danger. To defend the health and well-being of autistic people, our families, and the general public, we call upon Congress to impeach and remove Secretary Kennedy.


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24 Sep 2025, 10:24 am

Interesting. BTW I clearly remember being told not to take Tylenol when I was pregnant. I have migraines. I said no problem, Tylenol doesn't work. I couldn't take my migraine medication either. In fact, the only thing I was cleared to take for migraines was mild opioids, and that was in the third trimester.

So now keep this in mind guys:

Autism cannot be diagnosed like a broken leg. There is no foolproof, scientifically measurable method to determine if any person does or does not qualify as an autistic person. There are behaviors and developmental differences that are associated with what we currently call the autism spectrum. These behaviors and differences can also be explained by neurological damage and by some other disorders or injuries.

It may be that some people do not in fact, qualify as what we have come to know as autistic people, but they have autistic traits that have been caused by neurological damage. That damage may be treatable and may result in that person no longer seeming to be autistic.

I have a rare neurological disorder. I am definitely not autistic. But if you came upon me on a bad day when I was having difficulty communicating, and you didn't know me or know what was going on, you could easily think that I was a non-verbal autistic person or that I was even intellectually disabled or had had a stroke. I can have a good day and jog or perform complex tasks and appear completely normal.

It sounded to me like what the HHS said was that they are still investigating, but they wanted to let the public know that there is a strong correlation between Tylenol and autism rates. It will take time to see if Tylenol is causing the autism-like symptoms. I am glad that they are not sitting on the early information and they have instead just let us know what they have found so far.

I would really like to know what this will mean for adults.



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25 Sep 2025, 4:43 pm

Educators Worry About How Trump’s Autism Rhetoric Will Affect Students, Parents

Quote:
President Donald Trump’s recent announcements about autism didn’t center on education. But educators still expect his comments—including an assertion, disputed by scientists, that acetaminophen use during pregnancy causes the condition—to pop up in emotional conversations with parents.

Educators and people with autism have long confronted misinformation about the condition, said Jennifer Paz Ryan, a former teacher and clinical psychologist in Denver who contracts with school districts to assess students with disabilities, including autism. But an address from the Oval Office raises the spectacle of those falsehoods to a new level, she said.

“It’s pseudoscience, and it has so much more power” coming from the president, Paz Ryan said. “It’s another myth, and it adds to this ongoing battle that autistic individuals have had to endure for a very long time.”

Careless rhetoric fuels a stigma that harms students with autism and can make it difficult for educators to build crucial trust with their families, educators and advocates said. Of particular concern: the administration’s efforts to identify a singular cause of the condition may heap blame and guilt on parents who need support.

The public narrative about autism “has become political and polarized” following Trump’s remarks, said Robyn Linscott, the director of education and family policy for The Arc of the United States, an organization that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “It could potentially put educators in uncomfortable positions.”

Advocacy groups like The Arc worry that, by painting autism as “a crisis” and using harsh and dehumanizing language, federal officials will exacerbate harmful stigma.
In April, for example, Kennedy said “autism destroys families” and called it an “individual tragedy” for those who receive the diagnosis.

“The understanding and acceptance of autism has come a long way,” said Linscott, a former special education teacher whose adult brother has autism. “I sometimes wish he was growing up in today’s world. But I think [Trump’s and Kennedy’s remarks] are going to have a significantly negative impact on stigma.”

Stigma affects students with autism and their families
The Trump administration’s rhetoric around autism has already had real-world consequences, said Paz Ryan, the Denver psychologist. When Kennedy said in May that the federal government would create a database of information about people with autism, parents said they were more reluctant to pursue a diagnosis for their children for fear of how the information would be used, she said.

That plan, which the Trump administration later walked back, would have compiled information from autistic people’s insurance claims, medical records, and wearable devices like smart watches to probe a cause. It was met with alarm from a broad span of organization concerned about civil rights.

“This just ignites that same kind of fear,” Paz Ryan said of the Monday announcement.
For parents, shame and fear of blame may be a hurdle to early identification and treatment, Linscott said. She’s particularly concerned those fears may further fuel racial disparities, like the tendency for Black boys with autism to be misdiagnosed with emotional disturbance instead.

Getting to the root of parental concerns
Misunderstandings about autism also pose a broader risk, said Jessica Calarco, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin who studies education, parenting, and medical decisionmaking.

“If autism can be easily prevented … then it’s easy to treat autism as an individual responsibility, a risk that families have to manage without support from the state,” she said.

That may contribute, even subtly, to diminished public concern about things like funding for special education, Calarco said. The Trump administration has already bypassed Congress to pull funding for resource centers that support parents of children with disabilities, training for special education teachers, research on how to support students in special education as they transition into college and careers, and efforts to address a shortage of school psychologists, who play a role in assessing and supporting students with disabilities.

It’s understandable that parents of children with autism want to understand the cause and nature of the condition, Calarco said, even as public conversation about the subject typically lacks needed nuance. Before debunked research about vaccines and autism rose to prominence in the 1990s, it was common to blame emotionally cold, detached “refrigerator mothers” for their children’s autism, she said. The new theory about vaccines helped alleviate that shame, but eventually grew into a new form of self-blame for parents who questioned their decisions to get their children immunized.

While schools don’t prescribe medication or treat pregnant women, special education teachers have frequent interactions with students’ parents and are often some of the most trusted people in their circles, Calarco said, so it’s natural that such a high-profile news event would lead to discussions in schools. Previous research has suggested that when public health issues, like COVID-related school closures, grew intertwined with partisan political debates, it exacerbated mistrust between families and schools, she said.

It’s important for educators to acknowledge families’ and students’ underlying emotions in these conversations, educators said. For example, a parent looking for a cause to blame may need to hear assurances from educators that they value their child and want to ensure they receive needed supports.

Whether or not they agree on the science, educators discussing the recent announcements with parents should have “a lot of compassion, and a lot of empathy,” especially if parents are experiencing shame or self-blame, Paz Ryan said.

“Recognize that if somebody is sharing this, they are probably feeling pretty vulnerable,” she said.



Trump's touting of an unproven autism drug surprised many, including the doctor who proposed it
Quote:
When President Donald Trump's administration announced it would repurpose an old, generic drug as a new treatment for autism, it came as a surprise to many experts — including the physician who suggested the idea to the nation’s top health officials.

Dr. Richard Frye told The Associated Press that he'd been talking with federal regulators about developing his own customized version of the drug for children with autism, assuming more research would be required.

“So we were kinda surprised that they were just approving it right out of the gate without more studies or anything,” said Frye, an Arizona-based child neurologist who has a book and online education business focused on the experimental treatment.

It’s another example of the haphazard rollout of the Trump administration’s Monday announcement on autism, which critics say has elevated an unproven drug that needs far more study before being approved as a credible treatment for the complex brain disease.

The nation’s leading autism groups and researchers quickly distanced themselves from the decision on leucovorin, a derivative of vitamin B, calling the studies supporting its use “very weak" and ”very small."

“We have nothing resembling even moderate evidence that leucovorin is an effective treatment for autism symptoms,” said David Mandell, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mandell and other researchers say the evidence suggests autism is mostly rooted in genetics, with input from other factors, including the age of the child's father.

Nevertheless, a growing number of doctors are prescribing the medication, repurposing versions used for chemotherapy or ordering new formulations from compounding pharmacies.

Many researchers agree the drug warrants additional study, particularly for patients with a deficiency of folate, or vitamin B9, in the brain that may play a role in autism. But for now, they say, it should only be taken in carefully controlled clinical trials.

“We often say our job is to stay between the yellow lines," said Dr. Lawrence Gray, a pediatric developmental specialist at Northwestern University. “When people just decide to go outside of current guidelines, then they’re outside of that. And nobody knows what’s going to happen out there.”

The case for leucovorin’s use in autism begins with established science but quickly veers into uncertain terrain.

When metabolized, the drug turns into folate, which is essential for healthy prenatal development and is recommended before and during pregnancy. But far less is known about its role after birth.

The issue caught the attention of Frye and others more than 20 years ago, when research suggested some people with autism had low levels of folate in the brain due to antibodies blocking the vitamin's absorption.

The theory linking autism to folate levels was mostly abandoned, however, after research showed that the siblings of people with autism can also have low folates without any symptoms of the condition.

Earlier this year, Frye and several other researchers formed a new entity, the Autism Discovery Coalition, to pitch their work to Trump administration officials including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

After Kennedy got in, we thought they’d hopefully be friendly to autism scientists,” he said.

An August meeting with National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya quickly led to further discussions with the Food and Drug Administration about testing a proprietary, purified version of leucovorin.

A new formulation of the decades-old drug would mean new patents, allowing Frye and his yet-to-formed drug company to charge far more than the cheap generics currently on the market.

“We have a lot of investors who are excited about leucovorin and want to do something high quality for kids with autism,” he said.

But the FDA’s announcement Monday may have scuttled that plan. Instead of previewing a new version, the agency said it would simply update the label on the generic drug to mention use in boosting folate brain levels, including for patients with autism. That’s expected to encourage more doctors to prescribe it and insurers to cover it.

Specialists who have spent decades treating autistic patients say it’s important to proceed carefully and methodically.

Gray recalls other experimental treatments that initially looked promising only to fail in larger studies.

“Small studies often find populations that are very motivated,” Gray said. “But when those therapies are moved into larger studies, the initial positive findings often disappear.”

Among the challenges facing leucovorin: There isn’t agreement about what portion of autism patients have the folate-blocking antibodies supposedly targeted by the drug.

Frye screens his patients for the antibodies using a test developed at a laboratory at the State University of New York. Like many specialty tests, it has not been reviewed by the FDA.

Gray says the only way to definitively test for the antibodies would be by extracting cranial fluid from children with autism through a spinal tap.

“That’s a big limiting factor in having these large, randomized controlled trials,” Gray said.

While the Trump administration discusses fast-tracking leucovorin, interest in the drug continues to swirl online, including in forums and social media groups for parents of children with autism.

Brian Noonan, of Phoenix, found out about the drug earlier this year after asking ChatGPT for the best autism drug options for his 4-year-old son.

The FDA has never approved any drug for the underlying causes of autism, but the chatbot directed Noonan to Frye’s research.

After an evaluation and confirmatory blood test, the boy started on a formulation of the drug from a compounding pharmacy in June.

Within days, Noonan says, he saw improvement in his son’s ability to make eye contact and form sentences.

“He’s not cured, but these are just areas of improvement,” Noonan said. “It’s been a big thing for us.”

brain disease? I know, one phrase in otherwise fairly neutral article but this is media representation section.


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03 Oct 2025, 1:08 pm

I want Biden back.


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08 Oct 2025, 6:52 pm

'A lot of eye rolling going on': Parents of kids with autism sort through new federal recommendations

Quote:
Rose Baumann would be the first to say that there’s a need for more government attention to autism.

She describes her 24-year-old son, Collin, as profoundly autistic. He is able to speak only a few words and wears a helmet to protect himself from self-injury. Because of the level of care that he requires, his parents have been unable to find a day program or a residential facility with the capacity to take him.

But when the Cecil, Pa., resident watched the press conference announcing the federal government’s long-promised initiatives on autism, she didn’t see solutions.

“There was a lot of eye rolling going on among my community of parent advocates,” she said.

Like Baumann, many in the autism community watched with interest Sept. 22 as President Donald Trump stood with his top medical advisers to declare a three-pronged approach: $50 million in new research funding, a warning label on acetaminophen, known as Tylenol, and fast-tracked approval of the drug leucovorin, which may improve speech in some children with autism and a folate deficiency. During the televised press conference, Trump seemed to speak directly to pregnant women, forcefully warning them against using Tylenol.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” he said. “Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it.”

It was a statement that alarmed some pregnant women, given that other common painkillers and fever-reducers, such as ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin, are not recommended during pregnancy.

“We have been hearing from patients and obviously they are concerned,” Devon Ramaeker, division director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at AHN Women’s Institute, said in an interview last week. “What I’m seeing right now is a lot of uncertainty from patients — they’re not sure if they’ve been doing the right thing or who they should trust.”

Dr. Ramaeker advised patients to take concerns to their health care providers, adding that her recommendation that patients take Tylenol as needed for pain and fever relief has not changed.

In a statement, UPMC also advised consulting medical professionals. “It is natural to seek explanations and explore potential triggers for medical conditions, especially during pregnancy,” said Donald Yealy, UPMC chief medical officer. “We encourage anyone who is pregnant to discuss all medications and health care questions with their trusted health care provider.”

The federal recommendations were tied to studies that found a correlation between Tylenol use during pregnancy and children diagnosed with autism. Other studies found no correlation, said Dr. Ramaeker, who also noted that a correlation doesn’t mean that Tylenol use in pregnancy causes autism.

She likened it to studies that showed ties between a blood pressure medication and low-birthweight babies that raised the question of whether the medication was the cause — or the condition of high blood pressure itself.

Along the same lines, if there is a correlation between Tylenol and autism, it might come from the conditions that a pregnant woman is using Tylenol to treat.

The recommendation from leading medical groups is that pregnant women should treat fevers with Tylenol. “Fever itself is not a benign condition, especially in the first trimester,” said Dr. Ramaeker. “It can increase the risk of birth defects.”

In his press conference, Trump also forcefully advised new parents not to follow the vaccine schedule currently recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — giving credence to a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism.

The problem with that advice is that vaccinations are carefully arranged so that infants and toddlers get the protection at the optimal time, said Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease physician and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.

“The schedules are calibrated in order to give someone protection when they need it. The spacing and timing is not arbitrary,” he said. “What he was talking about is complete nonsense and anti-vaccine propaganda. It has no basis in reality.”

Jesse Torisky, president and CEO of Autism Pittsburgh, appreciated the administration’s focus on the topic.

We are extremely excited that so much attention is going to be focused on this subject and I, like everyone else, am excited to see what else is going to be rolled out.”

Torisky’s parents started what is now Autism Pittsburgh in 1966 as the National Society for Autistic Children, making it the longest-running autism advocacy organization in the country.

His brother, Ethan, was diagnosed with autism in 1966. Now 68, Ethan lives at the Allegheny Valley School, which is the beneficiary of all sales of the Terrible Towel, designated as such by sports journalist and Steelers commentator Myron Cope because of the care that the school gave his son with autism.

Rachael Bieltz, of Mount Lebanon, Pa., was skeptical of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims in August that the administration would find the cause of autism by September, and found the health recommendations on Tylenol and vaccines in the Sept. 22 press conference “very, very upsetting” to watch.

Bieltz’s 12-year-old daughter, Mira, was diagnosed with autism four years ago.

Watching the press conference live, she didn’t appreciate the tone of some of Trump’s remarks on autism, describing autism as a horrible crisis that tears families apart.

“These are human beings. This is not how we should be perceiving people who don’t need to be put in these terms,” she said. “Autism is not a horrible disease that needs to be solved — it’s a person that needs support and love and accommodations, just like any human with a disability.”

She also found the dire warnings about the growth and prevalence of autism to be deceptive, crediting most of the increase to changes in awareness and an expansion of diagnostic criteria.

Bieltz, like Baumann, would love to see more federal funding to support existing families with autism — particularly more money for social services, such as respite care or paraprofessionals in public schools, or for young adults transitioning out of a school setting.

“There are so many areas we could support,” she said. “There’s a lot more we can do than just blame it on Tylenol.”


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27 Oct 2025, 2:02 pm

Trump issues blistering new Tylenol warning after linking drug to autism

Quote:
Donald Trump has once again warned Americans against the risks of Tylenol, claiming young children and pregnant women should not take the everyday drug in a furious post online.

The president first raised concerns about Tylenol and links to autism at a press conference on September 22 with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

In a post to Truth Social on Sunday, Trump reiterated his guidance about using Tylenol as well as various childhood vaccines.

Trump also advised that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine be separated into three different shots. Typically, they are combined into one.

The president also wrote that the vaccine for chicken pox should also be taken separately, as they are usually given at the same times as the MMR shot.

Trump also said that children should be given the vaccine for Hepatitis B at 12 years or older.

That shot is currently given in three parts in the first 18 months of a child's life.

He ended by saying that children should be given their vaccines in 'five separate medical visits' to avoid potential vaccine injury.

Trump's post included a link to a story that accused the Food & Drug Administration of having 'stayed silent as internal reports of potential Tylenol risks piled up.'


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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 27 Oct 2025, 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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27 Oct 2025, 2:05 pm

Trump is a blister.


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31 Oct 2025, 10:33 am

"Health Secretary RFK Jr. says there's 'not sufficient' proof to show Tylenol causes autism"

Quote:
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Oct. 29 that he does not have "sufficient" evidence to link Tylenol to autism, more than a month after the White House discouraged the medicine's use by pregnant women and young children.

Evidence does not show that Kenvue's pain medicine Tylenol definitively causes autism but that it should still be used cautiously, President Donald Trump's top health official told reporters. Last month, the president said U.S. health officials would recommend limiting Tylenol's use.

"The causative association… between Tylenol given in pregnancy and the perinatal periods is not sufficient to say it definitely causes autism. But it is very suggestive," Kennedy told reporters, citing animal, blood and observational studies.
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11 Nov 2025, 11:21 am

No Clear Link Between Tylenol Use in Pregnancy and Autism, Study Finds

Quote:
A new study of existing research has concluded there is no clear link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and the risk of a baby developing autism or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

"Existing evidence does not clearly link maternal paracetamol use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring," the study authors wrote.

They added that "regulatory bodies, clinicians, pregnant women, parents, and those affected by autism and ADHD should be informed about the poor quality of the existing reviews and the likelihood that positive associations reported in studies were driven by familial confounding."

"The work highlights the need for investment in women’s health research, particularly on medications in pregnancy," Shakila Thangaratinam, author of the study and a professor of women's health at the University of Liverpool, England, told Newsweek.

What To Know
While not being new research per se, the study synthesizes previous reviews on the topic that have been published, evaluating the totality of evidence despite not being a new empirical study, David Savitz, a professor of epidemiology, and of obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics at Brown University, Rhode Island, told Newsweek.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on November 10, evaluated the results from nine reviews that reported the findings of 40 different primary studies. Of the studies evaluated, six reported on autism and 17 on ADHD.

All of the nine reviews reported "a positive association" between maternal paracetamol use in pregnancy and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring.

However, the authors wrote that "the methodological quality of the nine included systematic reviews revealed substantial weaknesses across several critical domains," they did not provide "comprehensive literature search strategies" and did not present "a list of excluded studies with justifications."

They also noted that consideration and assessment of potential bias in primary studies was "frequently absent or partially present." They added that this risk of bias in the primary studies were considered in some cases to "influence their results."

Seven of the nine reviews warned against determining there is a link between maternal paracetamol use and autism or ADHD, or both in offspring, citing "lack of data, bias in the primary studies, and unmeasured or inadequately controlled confounders."

The authors wrote: "Few reviews accounted for the study quality, appropriate control of relevant confounders, and rigorous ascertainment of drug use and outcomes in the primary studies when interpreting the evidence."

This finding prompted them to conclude there is a "lack of robust evidence linking paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism and ADHD in offspring."

When asked if he was surprised about the conclusion of the study, Savitz said he was not, "given how inconsistent and ultimately unconvincing the studies on this topic have been."

"From my assessment, the weight of evidence points away from an association between Tylenol and neurodevelopmental disorders given a series of recent high quality studies that document an absence of effect," he added.

He said that the studies have used sibling controls, meaning that they compared pregnancies of the same mother when that mother was and was not exposed to Tylenol. These results provide "consistent evidence of a lack of increased risk in the child who was exposed during pregnancy," he said.

Only with a very selective and in my view, generous, interpretation of the literature would the conclusion be that Tylenol causes autism or ADHD," Savitz said.

What People Are Saying
The study authors
wrote: "Given that alternative classes of drugs for relief of pain and fever, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, are known to adversely affect the fetal vascular system and can cause complications such as oligohydramnios and premature closure of the ductus arteriosus, and considering the harmful effects of pyrexia on pregnancy, women should be advised to take paracetamol when needed to treat pain and pyrexia in pregnancy."

Shakila Thangaratinam, author of the study and a professor of women's health at the University of Liverpool, England, told Newsweek: "Regulatory agencies worldwide have consistently reassured on the safety of paracetamol in pregnancy. Our work collates all the available evidence in a systematic, methodologically sound manner, to help health care professionals and women and families make informed decisions as there is no clear link between mothers’ taking paracetamol in pregnancy and children diagnosed with autism or ADHD."

She added: "Pregnant women should take paracetamol if indicated in pregnancy. It is likely that autism or ADHD in children is driven by shared familial genetic and environmental factors and unmeasured confounders, and not exposure to paracetamol. So women should not feel guilty that their actions have somehow affected their babies."

David A. Savitz, a professor of epidemiology, and of obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics at Brown University, Rhode Island, told Newsweek: "I would have particular concern for women who have faced the challenges of having a child with autism or ADHD and are now being told that a commonly used medication may be the cause of it despite the lack of evidence that this is the case. For them, this is not an academic exercise but a very personal consideration for them and their family, and the implication that if they had just "toughed it out" and suffered with fever, pain, or other indications for the use of Tylenol they would have prevented developmental problems in their child—despite fever itself being a very plausible cause of harm to the developing fetus. Offering hypotheses is the way that science moves forward, but it's extremely important to be clear on whether there is a basis for further research, which there is regarding Tylenol and any other medication taken during pregnancy, versus a proven or strongly suspected determinant of a health outcome, which is not the case for Tylenol."

What Happens Next
The study determined the current evidence on this topic is "insufficient to definitively link in utero exposure to paracetamol with autism and ADHD in childhood," suggesting that more research needs to be done before any such associations can be determined.


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