The White House has been accused of misrepresenting scientific evidence to support President Trump’s claim that taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) during pregnancy causes autism. Physicians with expertise in medical research told the Guardian that the studies cited in a White House press release provided only ‘weak’ and ‘inconclusive’ evidence.
Jeffrey Singer, a surgeon and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said the press release created the appearance of extra evidence by linking to the same studies multiple times. For instance, a review paper from August was presented as two separate studies, one from Harvard and one from Mount Sinai, when it was a single paper with authors from both institutions. Similarly, a Boston Birth Cohort study by Johns Hopkins researchers was linked twice.
Jake Scott, a physician at Stanford, said the release ‘makes me sick in my stomach’ because it presents association as causation. None of the cited studies claim to have proven causation; all acknowledge they cannot definitively establish a causal link. The release also claimed scientists had proposed biological mechanisms linking acetaminophen to autism, but the study cited to support this actually stated that ‘mechanisms underlying the associations … remain unknown’ and did not investigate brain development.
Experts also noted that the release omitted a large Swedish study from 2024 that followed nearly 2.5 million births. That study found a slight association between acetaminophen use and autism, but the association disappeared when comparing siblings, suggesting genetic and environmental factors may explain the link.
