A Link Between Tylenol and Autism?- A brief review of Donald Trump’s False Medical Claims
Juwayriya Sidat - BA Languages and Cultures
‘If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol’, said Donald Trump, 47th President of the United States, at a press conference on the 22nd of September in the Oval Office. This new medical advice from President Trump comes after investigations led by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., into the causes and subsequent rise of autism diagnoses in the US. President Trump’s comments received lots of pushback from medical health professionals debunking this claim, whilst the general public expressed their outrage over the President’s lies on social media. Acetaminophen, known as Tylenol in the US, and Paracetamol in the UK, is an over the counter medication which helps relieve headaches, fevers and minor pains. The NHS has recommended Paracetamol as the first choice of painkiller during pregnancy and the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) published a statement on the 22nd of September confirming that there is no evidence that Paracetamol causes autism in children.
This was not the only medical statement issued by President Trump during that press conference: in line with the prominent anti-vaccine beliefs of the Secretary of Health, he also suggested that Hepatitis B was only transmitted sexually and recommended that children should only be vaccinated for the disease once they turn 12 years old. This statement disregards the fact that Hepatitis B can be transmitted through childbirth. Babies are still at risk of getting Hepatitis B and the risk increases if the mother has Hepatitis B, thus justifying NHS advice to vaccinate babies as a preventative measure.
President Trump has had a long track record of spreading medical misinformation, dating back to his first term in Office during the pandemic. During this time, President Trump had suggested that 99% of Covid cases were harmless and on a X post (formerly Twitter), misleadingly compared it to the flu, which is a far less harmful virus than Covid-19 according to extensive scientific research. During a Coronavirus taskforce briefing, he proposed that researchers investigate UV light exposure as a cure for the virus. He also infamously suggested injecting disinfectant as a method for ‘cleaning’ out Covid-19 from the body. The latter suggestion received massive outcry from many US health professionals including John Balmes, a pulmonologist from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, who said that merely inhaling chlorine bleach would be dangerous and that it was a ‘ridiculous concept’ put forth by the President. On a separate occasion, President Trump also promoted the use of the antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as potential cures for Covid-19, which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected, citing harmful side effects to the kidneys, liver, and heart.
The British Medical Association (BMA) board of science chair, David Strain, has raised concerns about the shifting health policies of the USA and its impact globally whilst Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro advised the public to speak directly with healthcare professionals and not listen to President Trump’s medical advice.
