Amy Maxmen
Ann Bauer, a researcher who research Tylenol and autism, felt queasy with anxiousness within the weeks main as much as the White House’s much-anticipated autism announcement.
In August, Bauer and her colleagues published an analysis of 46 earlier research on Tylenol, autism, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction. Many discovered no hyperlink between the drug and the circumstances, whereas some prompt Tylenol may sometimes exacerbate different potential causes of autism, resembling genetics.
Bauer, an epidemiologist on the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and her staff referred to as for extra even handed use of the drug till the science is settled.
On Monday, President Donald Trump stood beside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for what he referred to as a “historic” announcement on autism. “If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol, and don’t give it to the baby after the baby is born,” Trump mentioned. “There are certain groups of people that don’t take vaccines and don’t take any pills that have no autism,” he added, with out offering proof. “They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace.”
A fact sheet launched alongside the White House briefing cited Bauer’s evaluation. But she was alarmed by Trump’s feedback. If prenatal Tylenol has any affiliation, which it might not, it could assist account for under a fraction of circumstances, she mentioned. Further, analysis has not deeply examined Tylenol dangers in younger kids, and many rigorous studies refute a hyperlink between vaccines and autism.
Bauer worries such statements will reduce each methods: People could put themselves in danger to keep away from vaccines and Tylenol, the one secure painkiller to be used throughout being pregnant. And she frets that scientists may outright reject her staff’s measured considerations about Tylenol in a backlash towards deceptive remarks from Trump and different members of his “Make America Healthy Again” motion.
“I’m really concerned about how this message is going to play out,” she mentioned. “It’s a sound-bite universe, and everyone wants a simple solution.”
Autism specialists on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been neither consulted for the White House’s long-awaited autism announcement nor requested to evaluation a draft of the findings and proposals, CDC scientists informed KFF Health News, which agreed to not determine them as a result of they concern retaliation.
“Typically, we’d be asked to provide information and review the report for accuracy, but we’ve had absolutely no contact with anyone,” one CDC researcher mentioned. “It is very unusual.”
Trump and Kennedy promised this yr that underneath their management the federal authorities would swiftly determine what causes autism. Scientists who work within the subject have been skeptical, noting that many years of analysis has proven that no single drug, chemical, or different environmental issue is strongly linked to the developmental dysfunction. In addition, each Trump and Kennedy have repeated the scientifically debunked notion that childhood vaccines could trigger autism.
Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of the Center for Autism Research Excellence at Boston University, referred to as Trump’s feedback harmful. Fevers can hurt the mom and the growing fetus, she mentioned, including that fevers are extra strongly related to autism than Tylenol.
In an emailed response to queries, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon mentioned, “We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates.”
White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote, “President Trump pledged to address America’s rising rate of autism, and to do so with Gold Standard Science.”
Had CDC scientists been allowed to transient Kennedy, they are saying they’d have cautioned that straightforward fixes received’t make a dent within the variety of autism circumstances within the United States: As many as 1 in 31 8-year-old kids had autism spectrum disorder in 2022.
Systemic modifications, resembling laws on air air pollution, which has been linked to bronchial asthma and developmental disabilities together with autism, and help for fogeys of disabled kids, might enhance lives for much extra Americans with autism and different circumstances than actions taken by the Trump administration on Sept. 22, researchers say.
One federal motion is to contemplate updating the label on Tylenol and to “encourage clinicians to exercise their best judgment in use of acetaminophen for fevers and pain in pregnancy by prescribing the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration.” The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists already recommends acetaminophen “as needed, in moderation, and after consultation with a doctor.”
‘Political Crusade’
Despite Kennedy’s a few years of talking about autism, he hardly ever cites credible autism research or skilled suggestions, Tager-Flusberg mentioned. Instead, Kennedy repeats fringe, scientifically debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, regardless of rigorous studies revealed in peer-reviewed journals that refute a link.
At the Sept. 22 briefing, Trump mentioned he spoke with Kennedy about autism 20 years in the past: “We understood a lot more than a lot of people who studied it,” he mentioned. Ahead of Trump’s first time period in 2017, Kennedy said he met with the president to contemplate a fee on vaccine security and autism. It didn’t occur then. But quickly after Kennedy was confirmed as well being secretary, he called autism “preventable,” pointed to “environmental toxins,” and contradicted the outcomes of a CDC study discovering that the primary driver of rising autism diagnoses was that medical doctors more and more acknowledge the dysfunction.
At a televised Cabinet meeting in April, Kennedy informed Trump, “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
“You stop taking something, you stop eating something, or maybe it’s a shot,” Trump replied.
“He is on a political crusade,” Tager-Flusberg mentioned of Kennedy, including that vaccines, Tylenol, aluminum, and meals dyes make for easy targets to rally towards. “We know genetics is the most significant risk factor,” she mentioned, “but you can’t blame Big Pharma for genetics, and you can’t build a political movement on genetics research and ride to victory.”
“RFK makes our work harder,” mentioned Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher and the writer of a guide about his autistic daughter, “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism.” He mentioned the guide stemmed from conversations with Kennedy in 2017, through which Hotez shared research pinpointing greater than 100 genes linked to autism, and analysis into the complicated interaction between genetics, organic processes, and issues that kids and fetuses encounter throughout improvement.
“I sat down with him and explained what the science says, but he was unwilling or incapable of thinking deeply about it,” Hotez mentioned. “He is extremely careless.”
In addition to its give attention to Tylenol, the White House mentioned it could move to update “prescribing information” on leucovorin — a drugs associated to the B vitamin folate — to mirror its use as an autism therapy. A small clinical trial in 2012-13 prompt the drug could assist deal with language issues in some kids with autism. Tager-Flusberg mentioned the findings warrant additional research however clarified these have been “old data, not a breakthrough.”
Likewise, research discovering a modest affiliation between autism and extended Tylenol use have been revealed years in the past. Researchers have prompt the drugs may sometimes exacerbate elements related to autism, such as genetics and oxidative stress, a organic situation that happens for quite a lot of causes that scientists are nonetheless unraveling.
Still, these research couldn’t rule out the likelihood that fevers prompting girls to take Tylenol, moderately than the drugs itself, may as a substitute be guilty. Fevers and infections — together with those prevented by vaccines — have additionally been linked to autism.
Nonetheless, Bauer’s suggestion can be to pause earlier than taking acetaminophen whereas pregnant — blanket recommendation that medical doctors give for all drugs throughout that interval, however which can be ignored. “Try to alleviate discomfort in some other ways, like with a cold compress, hydration, or massage, before taking it,” Bauer mentioned.
She welcomed the White House’s movement to contemplate labeling Tylenol to emphasise even handed use of the drug however worries about how the MAHA motion may distort a cautious message. On Sept. 2, the right-wing information outlet One America News Network posted an interview with newly appointed CDC vaccine adviser Robert Malone, writing that Malone “speculates RFK Jr. may have an important announcement this month regarding a potential link between Tylenol, multiple vaccinations and autism in children.”
“I was sick to my stomach,” Bauer mentioned, involved that Kennedy would hyperlink her research to discredited theories, inflicting medical doctors and scientists to reject her way more measured work.
‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’
Several medical and scientific associations have referred to as for Kennedy’s removing or resignation. Many scientists are skeptical of what he says as a result of a lot of it has been deceptive or flawed. For instance, he’s said HIV isn’t the one explanation for AIDS (it is), that antidepressant medication trigger mass shootings (they don’t), that older adults don’t have extreme autism (some do), that the measles vaccine causes mind swelling (it doesn’t), that covid vaccines have been the deadliest vaccines ever made (they aren’t), that vaccines aren’t safety-tested (they are), and that vaccines contribute to autism (they don’t).
“This is like the boy who cried wolf,” mentioned Brian Lee, an epidemiologist at Drexel University. “One day he might be right about something and Americans who are not prone to conspiracies won’t trust it because it’s coming from RFK’s mouth. And that could be a problem.”
What’s extra, the Trump administration is eroding scientists’ skill to probe the security of prescription drugs, mentioned Robert Steinbrook, head of well being analysis at Public Citizen, a nonprofit client safety group.
“Public Citizen is very supportive of research on medications that could be linked to diseases,” he mentioned. “But it needs to be through an open process, which looks at scientific evidence, and which doesn’t cherry-pick studies to support a preconceived point of view.”
Steinbrook mentioned the administration has undermined his confidence within the authorities’s skill to conduct credible work. The Food and Drug Administration has held lower than a 3rd the variety of advisory committee meetings this yr because it did final, that means fewer alternatives for specialists to debate analysis on the dangers and advantages of medication. The Trump administration has fired a whole lot of profession scientists on the CDC and FDA and reduce thousands and thousands of {dollars} in analysis funds, together with to tasks learning autism.
In early September, the CDC issued an uncommon contract with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to investigate datasets for indicators that vaccinated kids have been extra prone to have autism. Unlike with different analysis initiatives, the CDC didn’t submit an open name for purposes upfront. This permits company specialists to evaluation proposals and choose research greatest designed to reply the query at hand.
CDC researchers informed KFF Health News that specialists within the company’s autism and incapacity group weren’t conscious of the contract or requested to evaluation the proposal. That’s vital, they mentioned, as a result of researchers digging by knowledge to search out clues about autism should present how they’ll rule out organic and environmental exposures that muddy the outcomes, and be sure that kids have been precisely recognized. One researcher mentioned, “It absolutely looks like Kennedy has subverted the grantmaking process.”
The CDC and HHS didn’t reply to KFF Health News’ requests for data on the grant, together with by a Freedom of Information Act request.
The new vaccine research is separate from Kennedy’s autism data-science initiative, which was posted as an open name on the National Institutes of Health. “The hope is that something good comes of it, and that the government won’t cherry-pick or censor what scientists find out,” Lee mentioned.
Bauer mentioned she didn’t apply to be a part of the initiative due to Kennedy’s outsize presence at HHS.
“I would not take his funding because it could take away from the credibility of my study,” she mentioned, “in the same way that taking money from pharmaceutical companies does.”
