By THOMAS BEAUMONT and LAURA UNGAR
Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Thursday reasserted the unproven hyperlink between the ache reliever Tylenol and autism, and advised individuals who opposed the idea had been motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump.
Throughout a gathering with Trump and the Cupboard, Kennedy reiterated the connection, even whereas noting there was no medical proof to substantiate the declare. He additionally mistakenly described a pregnant lady’s anatomy and linked autism to circumcision.
“Anybody who takes the stuff during pregnancy unless they have to is, is irresponsible,” Kennedy advised Trump and fellow Cupboard members. “It is not proof. We’re doing the studies to make the proof.”
Kennedy has lengthy espoused unconventional beliefs about public well being, which have prompted concern amongst medical specialists that, as well being secretary, he might upend the nation’s evidence-based well being insurance policies.
Kennedy famous in the course of the assembly that he had seen a TikTok video on Thursday, which he stated featured a pregnant lady “gobbling Tylenol” and cursing Trump. “The level of Trump derangement syndrome has now left the political landscape and now in the realm of pathology,” he stated. Kennedy additionally stated the lady was taking Tylenol “with a baby in her placenta.”
A fetus develops within the uterus, not the placenta. The placenta is a short lived organ that develops within the uterus throughout being pregnant and offers oxygen, vitamins, and hormones to the rising fetus.
Kennedy’s assertion got here two weeks after he stood with Trump within the White Home because the president used his workplace to advertise unproven and, in some circumstances, discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism.
Tylenol pain-relief capsules are proven in La Habra, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Picture/Jae C. Hong)
Kennedy additionally stated Thursday that toddler boys who’re circumcised have double the speed of autism as a result of they’re given Tylenol after the process.
This declare appears to consult with a research within the Journal of the Royal Society of Drugs from 2015, which checked out ritual circumcision and the danger of autism spectrum dysfunction in boys beneath the age of 10 in Denmark.
It discovered that those that had undergone the process, which entails the removing of the foreskin from the penis, had been extra more likely to develop autism than different boys within the research. Researchers advised a possible hyperlink is perhaps as a result of ache of the process. Researchers famous that they’d no information on painkillers or anesthetics used, and thus couldn’t handle whether or not Tylenol was linked to autism.
Different researchers identified that the Denmark research checked out correlation, not causation. In addition they level to different research that discovered no proof to help a hyperlink between circumcision and autism.
The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives help from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Division of Science Training and the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis. The AP is solely answerable for all content material.
Initially Revealed: October 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM EDT
