This can be a KFF Health News story.
Ann Bauer, a researcher who research Tylenol and autism, felt queasy with nervousness within the weeks main as much as the White Home’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 situations, whereas some recommended Tylenol would possibly sometimes exacerbate different potential causes of autism, equivalent to genetics.
Bauer, an epidemiologist on the College of Massachusetts-Lowell, and her crew known as for extra considered use of the drug till the science is settled.
On Monday, President Donald Trump stood beside Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for what he known as a “historic” announcement on autism. “For those who’re pregnant, do not take Tylenol, and do not give it to the newborn after the newborn is born,” Trump mentioned. “There are specific teams of individuals that do not take vaccines and do not take any tablets that haven’t any autism,” he added, with out offering proof. “They pump a lot stuff into these stunning little infants, it is a shame.”
A fact sheet launched alongside the White Home briefing cited Bauer’s evaluation. However she was alarmed by Trump’s feedback. If prenatal Tylenol has any affiliation, which it could not, it could assist account for under a fraction of instances, she mentioned. Additional, 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 lower each methods: Individuals might put themselves in danger to keep away from vaccines and Tylenol, the one protected painkiller to be used throughout being pregnant. And he or she frets that scientists would possibly outright reject her crew’s measured issues about Tylenol in a backlash towards deceptive remarks from Trump and different members of his “Make America Wholesome Once more” motion.
“I am actually involved about how this message goes to play out,” she mentioned. “It is a sound-bite universe, and everybody needs a easy answer.”
President Donald Trump accompanied by Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Meals and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, speaks about autism on the White Home in Washington, Sept. 22, 2025.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos
Autism consultants on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention had been neither consulted for the White Home’s long-awaited autism announcement nor requested to evaluate a draft of the findings and suggestions, CDC scientists instructed KFF Well being Information, which agreed to not establish them as a result of they worry retaliation.
“Usually, we might be requested to offer data and evaluate the report for accuracy, however we have had completely no contact with anybody,” one CDC researcher mentioned. “It is extremely uncommon.”
Trump and Kennedy promised this yr that beneath their management the federal authorities would swiftly determine what causes autism. Scientists who work within the subject have been skeptical, noting that a long time of analysis has proven that no single drug, chemical, or different environmental issue is strongly linked to the developmental dysfunction. As well as, each Trump and Kennedy have repeated the scientifically debunked notion that childhood vaccines might trigger autism.
Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of the Heart for Autism Analysis Excellence at Boston College, known as Trump’s feedback harmful. Fevers can hurt the mom and the creating 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’re utilizing gold-standard science to unravel America’s unprecedented rise in autism charges.”
White Home spokesperson Kush Desai wrote, “President Trump pledged to handle America’s rising fee of autism, and to take action with Gold Normal Science.”
Had CDC scientists been allowed to temporary Kennedy, they are saying they’d have cautioned that straightforward fixes will not make a dent within the variety of autism instances in america: As many as 1 in 31 8-year-old kids had autism spectrum disorder in 2022.
Systemic modifications, equivalent to rules on air air pollution, which has been linked to bronchial asthma and developmental disabilities together with autism, and help for fogeys of disabled kids, may enhance lives for a lot extra People with autism and different situations 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 train their greatest judgment in use of acetaminophen for fevers and ache in being pregnant by prescribing the bottom efficient dose for the shortest length.” The American Faculty of Obstetricians and Gynecologists already recommends acetaminophen “as wanted, carefully, and after session with a physician.”
‘Political campaign’
Regardless of Kennedy’s a few years of talking about autism, he hardly ever cites credible autism research or knowledgeable suggestions, Tager-Flusberg mentioned. As an alternative, Kennedy repeats fringe, scientifically debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, regardless of rigorous studies revealed in peer-reviewed journals that refute a link.
On the Sept. 22 briefing, Trump mentioned he spoke with Kennedy about autism 20 years in the past: “We understood much more than lots of people who studied it,” he mentioned. Forward 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 did not occur then. However 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 principle driver of rising autism diagnoses was that medical doctors more and more acknowledge the dysfunction.
Packages of Tylenol are displayed on a shelf at a CVS retailer, September 22, 2025 in Greenbrae, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Photos
At a televised Cupboard meeting in April , Kennedy instructed Trump, “By September, we are going to know what has induced the autism epidemic and we’ll be capable to remove these exposures.”
“You cease taking one thing, you cease consuming one thing, or perhaps it is a shot,” Trump replied.
“He’s on a political campaign,” Tager-Flusberg mentioned of Kennedy, including that vaccines, Tylenol, aluminum, and meals dyes make for easy targets to rally towards. “We all know genetics is essentially the most vital danger issue,” she mentioned, “however you may’t blame Large Pharma for genetics, and you may’t construct a political motion on genetics analysis and trip to victory.”
“RFK makes our work more durable,” mentioned Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher and the writer of a ebook about his autistic daughter, “Vaccines Did Not Trigger Rachel’s Autism.” He mentioned the ebook stemmed from conversations with Kennedy in 2017, through which Hotez shared research pinpointing greater than 100 genes linked to autism, and analysis into the advanced interaction between genetics, organic processes, and issues that kids and fetuses encounter throughout improvement.
“I sat down with him and defined what the science says, however he was unwilling or incapable of considering deeply about it,” Hotez mentioned. “He’s extraordinarily careless.”
Along with its concentrate on Tylenol, the White Home mentioned it could move to update “prescribing data” on leucovorin — a medicine associated to the B vitamin folate — to mirror its use as an autism therapy. A small clinical trial in 2012-13 recommended the drug might assist deal with language issues in some kids with autism. Tager-Flusberg mentioned the findings warrant additional research however clarified these had been “outdated knowledge, not a breakthrough.”
Likewise, research discovering a modest affiliation between autism and extended Tylenol use had been revealed years in the past. Researchers have recommended the drugs would possibly sometimes exacerbate components 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.
Nonetheless, these research could not rule out the chance that fevers prompting girls to take Tylenol, relatively than the drugs itself, would possibly as a substitute be responsible. 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 medicines throughout that interval, however which can be ignored. “Attempt to alleviate discomfort in another methods, like with a chilly compress, hydration, or therapeutic massage, earlier than taking it,” Bauer mentioned.
She welcomed the White Home’s movement to contemplate labeling Tylenol to emphasise considered use of the drug however worries about how the MAHA motion would possibly distort a cautious message. On Sept. 2, the right-wing information outlet One America Information Community posted an interview with newly appointed CDC vaccine adviser Robert Malone, writing that Malone “speculates RFK Jr. might have an necessary announcement this month concerning a possible hyperlink between Tylenol, a number of vaccinations and autism in kids.”
“I used to be sick to my abdomen,” Bauer mentioned, involved that Kennedy would hyperlink her research to discredited theories, inflicting medical doctors and scientists to reject her much more measured work.
‘The boy who cried wolf’
A number of medical and scientific associations have known 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 unsuitable. For instance, he’s said HIV is not the one explanation for AIDS (it is), that antidepressant medicine trigger mass shootings (they don’t), that older adults do not have extreme autism (some do), that the measles vaccine causes mind swelling (it doesn’t), that covid vaccines had 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).
“That is just like the boy who cried wolf,” mentioned Brian Lee, an epidemiologist at Drexel College. “At some point he may be proper about one thing and People who are usually not liable to conspiracies will not belief it as a result of it is coming from RFK’s mouth. And that might be an issue.”
Secretary of Well being and Human Companies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listens as President Donald Trump makes an announcement on autism on the White Home, in Washington, September 22, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
What’s extra, the Trump administration is eroding scientists’ potential to probe the security of prescription drugs, mentioned Robert Steinbrook, head of well being analysis at Public Citizen, a nonprofit shopper safety group.
“Public Citizen may be very supportive of analysis on medicines that might be linked to ailments,” he mentioned. “However it must be by way of an open course of, which appears at scientific proof, and which does not cherry-pick research to assist a preconceived perspective.”
Steinbrook mentioned the administration has undermined his confidence within the authorities’s potential to conduct credible work. The Meals and Drug Administration has held lower than a 3rd the variety of advisory committee meetings this yr because it did final, which means fewer alternatives for consultants to debate analysis on the dangers and advantages of medication. The Trump administration has fired lots of of profession scientists on the CDC and FDA and lower hundreds of 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 research datasets for indicators that vaccinated kids had been extra prone to have autism. In contrast to with different analysis initiatives, the CDC did not submit an open name for purposes prematurely. This enables company consultants to evaluate proposals and choose research greatest designed to reply the query at hand.
CDC researchers instructed KFF Well being Information that consultants within the company’s autism and incapacity group weren’t conscious of the contract or requested to evaluate the proposal. That is necessary, they mentioned, as a result of researchers digging by way of knowledge to seek out clues about autism should present how they will rule out organic and environmental exposures that muddy the outcomes, and make sure that kids have been precisely identified. One researcher mentioned, “It completely appears like Kennedy has subverted the grantmaking course of.”
The CDC and HHS didn’t reply to KFF Well being Information’ requests for data on the grant, together with by way of a Freedom of Info Act request.
The brand new vaccine research is separate from Kennedy’s autism data-science initiative, which was posted as an open name on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. “The hope is that one thing good comes of it, and that the federal government will not cherry-pick or censor what scientists discover out,” Lee mentioned.
Bauer mentioned she did not apply to be a part of the initiative due to Kennedy’s outsize presence at HHS.
“I’d not take his funding as a result of it may take away from the credibility of my research,” she mentioned, “in the identical manner that taking cash from pharmaceutical firms does.”
