President Donald Trump has announced that pregnant women should limit their use of paracetamol—known as Tylenol in the US—claiming it increases the risk of autism in children. The assertion, made at a White House event alongside Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, has been widely contested by scientists and contradicted by existing research.
Trump stated that he had “waited for 20 years for this meeting” and declared: “Don’t take Tylenol. There’s no downside.” Kennedy added that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration would work to change the label on acetaminophen risks. The administration also unveiled plans to investigate leucovorin, a cancer drug, as a potential treatment for autism.
Scientists in the US and UK reacted sceptically. Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, called the Tylenol link “not scientifically based” and based on “very limited, conflicting and inconsistent science”. British physicians denounced it as “fearmongering” that risked stigmatising parents of children with autism.
Kennedy, who has previously promoted unsubstantiated theories linking vaccines to autism, said the National Institutes of Health had focused on “politically safe and entirely fruitless research”. Specialists, however, attribute the rise in autism diagnoses primarily to increased screening and evolving definitions, with genetics playing a key role.
