Parody Image of Trump holding two bottles of Tylenol. Photo credit: Tye Brown/The Sentinel
On Monday, Sept. 22, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will no longer advise doctors to prescribe acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol, to pregnant women due to it being “associated with a very increased risk of autism.”
“Fight like hell not to take it,” Trump said in the announcement.
Alongside Trump was Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who, before joining the Trump Administration, was well-known for his widely disproven belief that vaccines cause autism.
The announcement was made with a noticeable lack of new evidence supporting the claim that acetaminophen is linked to autism, despite existing studies that say there is no direct link between the two.
The Trump Administration changing medical guidelines based on unreliable information is not only incompetent but dangerous.
Acetaminophen has long been regarded as one of the safest pain relieving and fever reducing medications for use by pregnant women.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), pregnant women that do not use acetaminophen when needed for maternal fever and pain could potentially create a severe risk of harm or death to themselves and the fetus.
Discouraging the use of a safe medication for pregnancy could lead women to seek alternatives to take care of their symptoms, such as the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ibuprofen.
Studies show that the use of ibuprofen and other NSAIDs is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage.
Some medical groups, such as ACOG and The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), have outright rejected the Trump Administration’s claims and said they will continue to advise doctors to administer acetaminophen to pregnant women that need it.
Despite the lack of evidence and pushback on the topic from experts, the Trump Administration has doubled down on their claim that acetaminophen causes autism.
On October 9, Kennedy claimed in a Cabinet meeting that countries that use the most acetaminophen have the highest level of autism.
Kennedy also made a bizarre claim that boys who are circumcised at an early age have double the rate of autism because it is “highly likely it’s because they’re given Tylenol.”
Once again, not only were these claims made without a shred of evidence to support them, but Kennedy seemingly implied that the Trump Administration would fabricate studies to back up their theories.
“This is not proof,” Kennedy said, “We are doing the studies to make the proof.”
Whether or not this was simply a faux pas on Kennedy’s part, it paints an incredibly concerning picture of the future of American healthcare, and the confusion about who to trust for medical advice only puts Americans in harm’s way.
