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US President Donald Trump on Monday vehemently insisted that pregnant folks ought to “tough it out” and keep away from Tylenol over an unproven hyperlink to autism, and urged main modifications to the usual vaccines administered to infants.
The Republican chief’s announcement rife with sweeping but unsubstantiated recommendation got here because the White Home has vowed to revolutionize well being in the USA, and as specialists throughout drugs and science voice broad concern over the administration’s initiatives that seem intent on unraveling a long time of medical consensus.
Medical teams together with The American School of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have lengthy cited acetaminophen—the first ingredient in Tylenol—as among the many most secure painkillers to take throughout being pregnant.
However Trump, who hammered on his message in more and more emphatic phrases, insisted that “taking Tylenol is not good” and to “fight like hell not to take it.”
He stated pregnant folks ought to “tough it out,” and that solely an “extremely high fever” would justify taking the over-the-counter drugs.
That is not true: fever and ache can pose severe threats to each the mom and the creating fetus.
Arthur Caplan, the top of NYU’s medical ethics division, referred to as Trump’s show “dangerous,” “unscientific” and “full of misinformation.”
“I worry that pregnant women are going to feel guilty if they took Tylenol. They’re going to feel they let down their babies. They’re going to feel that they were unethical in terms of trying to treat fever. That’s just not fair, and it’s not anything that anybody should be feeling,” Caplan advised AFP.
Debate ongoing
The Meals and Drug Administration was way more muted than Trump on the subject, saying in a letter to physicians that “a causal relationship has not been established” and that scientific debate was ongoing.
A literature evaluate printed final month concluded there was cause to consider a potential hyperlink between Tylenol publicity and autism existed—however many different research have discovered an reverse end result.
Researchers behind the August report cautioned that extra examine is required and that pregnant folks shouldn’t cease taking medicine with out consulting their docs.
David Mandell, a psychiatric epidemiologist on the College of Pennsylvania, advised AFP that analysis suggests the potential dangers posed by taking Tylenol whereas pregnant appear “to be lower than the risk of having an uncontrolled infection during pregnancy.”
Anti-vax ‘menace’ to kids
Figuring out the foundation of autism—a posh situation linked to mind growth that many specialists consider happens for predominantly genetic causes—has been a pet explanation for Trump’s well being chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy for many years has unfold debunked claims that vaccines trigger autism.
On Monday he touted the drug leucovorin, a type of vitamin B first used to alleviate chemotherapy unwanted side effects, as an “exciting therapy” that might assist kids with the dysfunction whose signs fluctuate extensively throughout a spectrum.
The FDA on Monday stated it was approving the drug’s pill type to assist a subset of kids who’ve “cerebral folate deficiency.”
Vaccines had been additionally on the rambling agenda of Trump’s convention.
He ardently repeated anti-vax motion speaking factors as prime figures within the administration, together with Kennedy, nodded alongside.
He sowed doubt over commonplace vaccines together with the MMR shot—which covers measles, mumps and rubella—and implied he would finish the frequent use of aluminum in vaccines, the protection of which has been extensively studied.
And the president pushed for a serious change to the routine vaccine schedule given to infants, insisting with out proof that there is “no reason” to vaccinate newborns towards the incurable, extremely contagious Hepatitis B.
That assertion stands in direct contradiction of broad medical consensus shaped over a long time. Many specialists say one of the best ways to forestall maternal transmission of the illness, which might trigger liver harm and most cancers, is to vaccinate infants inside the first day of life.
Trump’s push comes days after an influential advisory panel handpicked by Kennedy stopped in need of advising to delay the primary dose of Hepatitis B vaccine by one month.
They deemed extra dialogue was essential—providing momentary reduction to many specialists throughout public well being who stated suspending that shot might have dire outcomes.
“Spacing out or delaying vaccines means children will not have immunity against these diseases at times when they are most at risk,” stated Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, on Monday.
“Any effort to misrepresent sound, strong science poses a threat to the health of children.”
© 2025 AFP
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Trump ties autism danger to Tylenol as scientists urge warning (2025, September 23)
retrieved 23 September 2025
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