At a White House press conference held on Sept. 22, President Donald Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced “new evidence suggesting a strong link” between acetaminophen and autism.  

According to the Trump Administration and the President himself, the FDA would be rolling out new drug labelling to discourage pregnant women against using acetaminophen — predominantly named Tylenol, a mainstream brand of over-the-counter acetaminophen. According to Trump and Secretary Kennedy, autism cases are “rapidly increasing at an alarming rate.” 

“Taking Tylenol is not good — I’ll say it: It’s not good,” President Trump said. “The meteoric rise in autism is among the most alarming public health developments in history. There’s never been anything like this.” 

He claimed validity of this observation through the “lack of autism” found within communities without access to Tylenol, claiming that communities that do have easy access to the drug have a significantly higher population of autistic individuals. These claims were made publicly, but with little to no evidence to back them up— providing inaccurate statistics in the press conference.

“It used to be one in 20,000, then one in 10,000,” President Trump said. “And I would say that’s probably 18 years ago. And now it’s one in 31, but in some areas it’s much worse than that, if you can believe it, 1 in 31, and I gave numbers yesterday for boys, it’s one in 12.” 

The Trump administration referred to an article published by Harvard University as evidence supporting their claims, but many researchers and physicians remain skeptical. Epidemiologist Dr. Ann Bauer was a contributing researcher to the paper – she concluded that while pregnant women should be aware of the potential risks of taking acetaminophen, she admits she has worries with the federal government offering guidance regarding the use of Tylenol to pregnant patients. 

“I’m a little concerned about how this message is going to come because I think they may be jumping the gun,” Bauer said in an interview with NPR. “I think those of us in the research community would like to see stronger evidence.” Bauer’s uncertainty regarding the decisions and statements made by the Trump Administration is shared among many practicing physicians, researchers and licensed professionals. 

Comparably, The FDA issued a notice to practicing physicians, namely OBGYNs and family physicians, encouraging those to acknowledge the potential for a positive relationship between Tylenol and Autism.

“This consideration should also be balanced with the fact that acetaminophen [Tylenol] is the safest over-the-counter alternative in pregnancy among all analgesics and antipyretics; aspirin and ibuprofen have well-documented adverse impacts on the fetus,” the FDA reported. Currently, the FDA regards the correlation between Tylenol and Autism as inconclusive, as “a casual relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature”. 

However, the Trump Administration remains adamant on understanding the root causes of autism, with new initiatives and actions to “tackle the autism epidemic,” as reported by The White House. Leucovorin, the generic name for folinic acid, is a type of vitamin B recommended by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, as an alternative to Tylenol. Dr. Oz claims the efficacy of folinic acid as “substantial” to “lessen Autism symptoms,” but no cases of improvement have been reported as of Oct. 14.