Medical experts slammed Donald Trump’s advice for pregnant women to “fight like hell” to avoid taking a common painkiller because his administration claims using the drug could lead to autism.
Neurosurgeon and CNN’s medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta said he was gobsmacked watching the president repeat, “Don’t take Tylenol, don’t take it,” during a press conference on Monday with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to publicize a dubious link between Tylenol and autism in children.
“It‘s just, it‘s so bizarre,” Gupta said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday, saying there was indeed a risk telling expectant mothers to do their best to “tough it out” and not take Tylenol if they have a fever.
“The way that people are getting medical advice and probably getting very confused,” Gupta said. “There is a problem with having fevers when you‘re pregnant… potential problems with birth defects, with early labor, with miscarriage, with neurodevelopmental problems because of the fever.”
“Treating the fever was probably very beneficial for those folks,” he added. “And women don‘t really have many alternatives when it comes to treating fever during pregnancy.”
Tylenol’s manufacturer, Kevenue, also disputed Trump’s claims. “We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism,” the company said in a statement to NPR.
“We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned about the health risks and confusion this poses for expecting mothers and parents.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, who has a daughter on the autism spectrum, said Trump’s words could have dangerous consequences.
“The real world impact is that parents are going to think that Tylenol causes autism,” Hotez said on CNN. “It‘s not supported by the science.”
Speaking on MSNBC, Dr. Vin Gupta claimed the FDC were “cherry-picking” data.
“Like they did with fluoride, like they’ve done with COVID vaccines, like they’ve done with the measles, mumps, Rubella… they cherry-pick data or [use] data that has been debunked or been superseded by tremendous quality data, which is relevant in this case.“
“And they say, ”Why haven’t we been talking about this more? We are now talking about this, we’re the white knights.“ And what they’re doing is confusing parents across the country.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Dr. Gupta said on X the lowest effective dose of Tylenol is safe to use in pregnancy.
Tylenol use is safe in pregnancy, lowest effective dose. Don’t listen to the utter nonsense emanating from the highest office in the land today. Speak to your medical provider. pic.twitter.com/pygqpfgQRL
— Dr. Vin Gupta (@VinGuptaMD) September 22, 2025
“Don’t listen to the utter nonsense emanating from the highest office in the land today,” he wrote. “Speak to your medical provider.”
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who quit the CDC last month after CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired, called out vaccine-skeptic RFK Jr.
“I‘m concerned that the only person who the president is listening to is Secretary Kennedy,” Daskalakis told Boris Sanchez on CNN’s The Source, adding he “has a long history of mis- and disinformation, really equating vaccination with an etiology for autism. So there is no evidence that supports those assertions.”
Daskalakis also questioned the health secretary’s mission to find a cause for autism within five months. Kennedy announced in April that his team would use research from “hundreds of scientists from around the world” and that, by September, “We will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
“Show your work,” he added. “If you‘ve done all this work, show us the data that you‘re using to make the assertion that acetaminophen is related to, is causal—not just related, but causal—for autism.
“And if we‘re not seeing the work, that is neither gold-standard science nor is it radical transparency, which seem to be really the emphasis of what Secretary Kennedy talks about. So show us the data, show us the data, show us the information. Show us the justification, and then we can talk about it.”
Dr. Marty Makary, the Trump-appointed FDA commissioner, defended the president’s actions.
Speaking on CNN on Monday, Makary said, “When you have an epidemic of autism exploding in our living generation… it was rare a generation ago…and we have no known cause—and you have this overwhelming body of evidence pointing to an association, why would we take a risk with our nation’s kids?”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former TV doctor who is now in charge of Medicaid and was at the press conference with Trump and RFK Jr., told Fox News on Monday, “The real history, victory today was a passionate president who said enough is enough. We have gaslit women too long… Autism destroys families—the president didn’t want to wait another day, he demanded it.”
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