Trump links Tylenol and autism

Health experts are dismayed as president echoes a Kennedy talking point.

- By CorRINNE PURTILL

PRESIDENT TRUMP and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday.

(ANDREW HARNIK Getty Images)

President Trump blamed the over-the-counter drug acetaminophen, commonly known by the brandname Tylenol, asa significant factor in the rise of U.S. autism diagnoses on Monday, at a news conference in which he offered often inaccurate medical advice for the nation’s children and pregnant women.

“Taking Tylenol is not good. I’llsayit. It’snot good,” Trump said, flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.

In a series of rambling, error-filled remarks that touched upon pain relievers, pregnancy, vaccines and the Amish — who he inaccurately said have no autism prevalence in their communities — Trump also said that the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine should be broken up into multiple shots and that children defer until age 12 the hepatitis B vaccine series now started at birth.

“I'm just making these statements from me, I’m not making them from these doctors,” he said. “It’s too much liquid. Too many different things are going into that baby.”

The announcement was met with dismay from autism researchers and advocates who said that research thus far into causal links between acetaminophen and autism has turned up minimal evidence.

“Researchers have been studying the possible connections between acetaminophen and autism for more than a decade,” said Dr. David Mandell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. The Trump administration, he said, “has cherry-picked findings that are not in line with most of the research.”