US President Donald Trump has attracted condemnation from health experts after he claimed there was a link between the widely used painkiller Tylenol and autism. Accompanied by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump asserted that doctors would soon be advised to avoid recommending paracetamol to pregnant women. This announcement was met with criticism, with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists labeling it unsettling and the UK's National Autism Society denouncing it as dangerous and anti-science.
During the event, Trump highlighted statistics purporting to show a rapid increase in autism diagnoses in the US over the last two decades. He claimed that the incidence had risen from approximately one in 10,000...probably 18 years ago to one in 31 by 2025. While the latter statistic is accurate according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the earlier figure lacks support from credible data. Experts attribute the increase in autism diagnoses to improved identification and awareness rather than an actual rise in prevalence.
Trump also suggested that children should receive the mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine separately rather than as a combined shot. Experts caution that such misinformation could lead to decreased vaccination rates and a resurgence of preventable diseases. The discredited notion that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism emerged from a flawed study published in 1998, which has been thoroughly discredited and retracted.
Furthermore, Trump claimed that autism rates are almost non-existent among the Amish community, attributing it to their low consumption of Tylenol. However, research into autism prevalence in this demographic is scarce, leading many experts to refute his assertions.
Trump's history of voicing concerns about vaccine safety can be traced back nearly two decades, with his recent remarks continuing to stir debate among health professionals and laypersons alike. Critics emphasize the need for a media-savvy approach to public health communication to combat misinformation effectively.
