Scientists rebuke Trump's Tylenol claim

President Donald Trump's call for pregnant women to avoid Tylenol is drawing sharp criticism from researchers who say the advice ignores decades of evidence and could endanger mothers and babies.

- JASON GALE

At a White House event Monday, Trump linked acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, to autism and encouraged women to tough out fevers. The remarks, made alongside health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr — a longtime critic of mainstream medicine — rattled doctors and drugmakers.

Mady Hornig, a New York physician-scientist who has studied pregnancy-related risk factors for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder for 25 years, said the White House’s message misrepresents science.

“It seemed like they had indicated that there was evidence that prolonging a fever is a good thing,” Dr Hornig, a visiting scientist at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, said in an interview. “It's astonishing misinformation.”

Trump and Mr Kennedy have both sought to challenge health guidance and practices, sometimes relying on cherry-picked evidence. The US leader also has a record of promoting unfounded medical theories.