Health secretary Wes Streeting has dismissed Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of a link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism, urging pregnant women to ignore the US president’s remarks. Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine programme, Streeting said: “I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this. There is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children. None.”
Streeting highlighted a major 2024 Swedish study involving 2.4 million children that did not uphold such claims. He advised the public to “listen to British doctors, British scientists, the NHS” rather than Trump. The health secretary’s intervention comes after Trump alleged a “meteoric rise” in autism cases and blamed paracetamol, known as Tylenol in the US. US authorities intend to add warning labels to the drug.
UK health agencies and experts are coordinating efforts to counter what one called Trump’s “political misinformation”. The Department of Health and Social Care helped doctors and parenting influencers share evidence-based information. Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the MHRA, said pregnant women should continue taking paracetamol as directed, noting that “untreated pain and fever can pose risks to the unborn baby”.
Professor Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, stressed that paracetamol “has been used safely by millions of people for decades, including during pregnancy, when taken as directed”. The National Autistic Society condemned the misinformation, with policy head Mel Merritt warning it “risks undermining decades of research” and causing fear and stigmatisation.
Medical experts also criticised Trump’s remarks. Dr Steven Kapp, a senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, said: “There is a long history of false causes and ‘treatments’ offered for autism that prey on desperate people’s hopes and fears.” Professor Laurie Tomlinson of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who has two autistic children, noted the announcement would cause “distress and guilt to many parents”.
