President Trump left no room for doubt with his recent statements.
“Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it,” he declared from the White House on Monday, cautioning pregnant women about an alleged, yet unproven, connection between the popular pain reliever and autism.
When confronted by a reporter about the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ differing view, Mr. Trump dismissed their expertise, stating: “You know what? Maybe they’re right. I don’t think they are.”
This isn’t the first time President Trump has leveraged his platform to share questionable medical advice. During his initial term, he infamously speculated about injecting bleach as a COVID-19 treatment. He consistently deviates from mainstream scientific understanding, favoring those who validate his personal theories or champion unproven remedies promising swift solutions.
On Monday, Mr. Trump appeared to drive the narrative, celebrating an announcement that even surpassed the Food and Drug Administration’s guidance. The FDA had merely advised healthcare providers to weigh the risks of acetaminophen use during pregnancy and discuss them with patients, rather than issuing an outright prohibition.
For years, researchers have investigated a potential association between pregnant women’s use of acetaminophen, the active component in Tylenol, and neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism. While some studies have hinted at a link, others have found no such correlation, and crucially, none have definitively proven a causal relationship.
“One of the challenges for healthcare providers and public health experts in communicating is our reliance on nuance; we don’t always have straightforward answers,” explained Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and editor at large for public health at KFF Health News.
Dr. Gounder, who also advised President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s coronavirus board, expressed apprehension when individuals lacking medical or scientific credentials discuss evidence-based research or offer medical advice.
“As healthcare providers, we are held to a rigorous standard,” she emphasized. “We face potential lawsuits if our recommendations prove detrimental to our patients.”
Throughout his career, Mr. Trump has shown a consistent distrust of medical professionals’ advice, particularly during his first term’s pandemic response. He notably refused to wear a mask despite federal recommendations and championed hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment against expert medical opinion. He also favored officials who presented optimistic views on the pandemic, often marginalizing or removing those who cautioned against his methods. Since his return to office, his administration has continued to promote vaccine skepticism and cut funding for vaccine research.
Dr. Paul Friedrichs, a retired Air Force major general and military combat surgeon who served in both the Trump and Biden administrations’ COVID-19 responses, labeled the president’s remarks as “dangerous.”
“He is an exceptionally effective communicator with his political base, and his pronouncements make it difficult for healthcare providers to offer sound advice,” Dr. Friedrichs stated. “Patients are left to grapple with conflicting information between their political leader and trusted medical experts.”
Known for his deal-making and a tendency to prematurely declare victory, Mr. Trump was reportedly eager for Monday’s announcement. Advisers indicated he saw it as fulfilling another campaign pledge, and he spent days enthusiastically promoting it to his base.
“I believe we have discovered a solution to autism,” he announced Sunday at conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. “How about that?”
On Monday, many of the president’s supporters lauded the announcement, grateful for an administration focused on investigating autism’s causes. To underscore this, Mr. Trump was accompanied by two mothers of autistic children who expressed their thanks for his attention to the matter. However, even one of the mothers, Amanda Rumer, indicated she wasn’t fully convinced of a definitive link between autism and the medication.
“I honestly have no idea,” Ms. Rumer remarked during the White House announcement. “I’m entirely open-minded. I’m not assigning blame, but I am receptive to the discussion and the ongoing efforts to find answers.”
White House health officials supported their announcement by citing a recent scientific review conducted by epidemiologists from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. While the article did suggest a correlation between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders, a co-author of the study, Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, stressed that more research is essential to establish a causal relationship.
The president, however, was less precise in his language. White House officials attributed Mr. Trump’s fervor to his deep concern for the well-being of the American populace.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, issued a statement saying, “The president’s dedication to office stems from this conviction, and he remains steadfast in his commitment to utilizing executive authority and rigorous scientific methods to restore America’s health and tackle the escalating rates of autism and other chronic ailments.”
Nevertheless, some of Mr. Trump’s former advisers expressed doubts about the announcement’s efficacy. Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as Surgeon General during Mr. Trump’s initial term but has since publicly opposed his administration’s vaccine skepticism, criticized the news conference. He directed his followers to studies indicating no causal link between Tylenol and autism.
“I genuinely fail to see,” he wrote on social media, “how we assist concerned parents by offering them false hope (suggesting Tylenol avoidance prevents autism) or by assigning unwarranted blame (implying their ‘failure to tough it out’ caused their child’s autism).”