In a digressive press conference yesterday, President Donald Trump advised pregnant women to avoid taking acetaminophen, or Tylenol, during pregnancy because, he said, the painkiller and fever reducer raises the risk of autism. Trump also suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine should be given as three separate shots to children and also linked vaccines to autism.
The announcements were not based on any new evidence or research on the relationship between Tylenol use and autism or between vaccines and autism and was immediately discredited by scientists, researchers, and professional organizations around the globe
“We want no mercury in the vaccine. We want no aluminum in the vaccine. The MMR I think should be taken separately. This is based on what I feel,” Trump said. “It seems to be that when you mix them, there could be a problem. So, there’s no downside in taking them separately. In fact, they think it’s better. So let it be separate.”
No new data presented
No new data on the benefits of separate vaccines were presented, but it seems Trump was referencing the anti-vaccine argument that the current childhood vaccine schedule overwhelms a child’s immune system and that preservatives found in vaccines could cause autism.
In a statement on the president’s remarks, the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote, “Pediatricians know firsthand that children’s immune systems perform better after vaccination against serious, contagious diseases like polio, measles, whooping cough and Hepatitis B. Spacing out or delaying vaccines means children will not have immunity against these diseases at times when they are most at risk.”
The American Psychiatric Association also made a clear statement yesterday: “Vaccines do not cause autism. Claims of any such association have been repeatedly discredited in peer reviewed studies.”
‘Science isn’t based off vibes’
When pressed by reporters on his reasoning, Trump held fast to the idea that children receive too many vaccines. “You have a little child, little fragile child, and you get a vat of 80 different vaccines, I guess, 80 different blends, and they pump it in,” he said.
But hunches are not grounds for solid science, said Kevin Griffis, spokesperson for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy’s (CIDRAP’s) Vaccine Integrity Project,.
“The way to establish trust with people is to show the data you’re using to make decisions. That’s why the Vaccine Integrity Project held a public webinar to walk through the latest published data our team found on flu, COVID and RSV immunization, and why we posted the research protocol that guided the work and all the slides from the presentation,” said Griffis.
You can’t trust pronouncements when no evidence is offered.
“But whether you’re talking vaccine policy or Tylenol, we aren’t seeing that from the current administration. You can’t trust pronouncements when no evidence is offered. Science isn’t based off vibes or hunches.”
No evidence Tylenol increases the risk of autism
The press conference was the latest effort by Trump and US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to link vaccines to autism.
“It was just not based on evidence,” said epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, PHD, MPH, during an interview with journalist Katie Couric. “It was just word salad.”
Jetelina explained that Trump’s comments on Tylenol seemed to be based on a Harvard–Mount Sinai analysis of 46 studies that identified a slight increased risk of autism associated with prenatal Tylenol use but did not demonstrate causation.
“In more than two decades of research on the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy, not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that the use of acetaminophen in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children,” the American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said yesterday.
