In their ongoing quest to abolish autism using the power of brute force stupidity, President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. found a new scapegoat: Tylenol.
The over-the-counter painkiller pregnant women have been reaching for since forever is now public enemy number one in their latest report, which links acetaminophen (Tylenol’s generic name) to autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.
At a press conference that felt more like a stunt designed to give the men the illusion of gravitas and power that was immediately dashed, Trump announced, “Taking Tylenol is not good — I’ll say it: It’s not good,” and then butchered the word “acetaminophen.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy announced the FDA would slap a warning label on it. But as with most “breakthroughs” announced by this collective of political hacks rather than scientists, the data behind this one is shaky at best and total bullshit at worst. It leads much more toward bullshit, to be honest.
Experts immediately pushed back. The evidence that Trump and RFK Jr. are leaning on comes from studies that can show correlation, not causation. A major Swedish study even found that once sibling data was factored in, the supposed Tylenol-autism connection disappeared. There’s also the fact that autism rates have risen even as acetaminophen use in pregnancy has declined.
So why blame Tylenol? Possibly because it’s easier to scapegoat a bottle of pills manufactured by Big Pharma than to explain the complex interwoven web of genetics, environment, and better diagnostic tools that actually explain rising autism diagnoses.
The medical and scientific communities seemed pretty convinced that ASD is around 80 percent heritable. Meaning, if you’re going to point fingers at anyone or anything, start with DNA and not with an over-the-counter painkiller.
Desperate to come off as heroes who have not only singled out a cause but also offer a treatment, the administration is pushing leucovorin, a folate-based drug they claim might help treat — not cure — autism in children.
As you’d imagine, the evidence supporting leucovorin as an autism treatment is minimal at best. They’re basing it on just a few small trials, the largest of which only involved 80 children. Some are already wondering if all of this is just the FDA rushing a drug’s approval as a part of a bald-faced profiteering scheme.
One of leucovorin’s primary ingredients is folic acid. It is, at least, just a little bit strange that Mehmet Oz, the current administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the former TV doctor whose rise to power can be blamed squarely on Oprah Winfrey’s platforming of morons, cranks, and quacks, swore upon taking the job that he would divest from a company that sold folic acid supplements. It is currently unclear if he has done that; all signs point to no.
Pair all of this with the fact that the administration has revived autism/vaccine conspiracy theories by hiring known anti-vaxxers like David Geier to re-examine the already debunked link, and you might feel that this is just a repackaging of conspiracy theory and crackpot pseudoscience as legitimate law of the land that ignores actual scientific research and instead leans on links that are tenuous at their absolute best.
Autism does not need, nor will it ever be likely discovered to have, a clear-cut villain to be tarred and feathered in the town square. It needs honest science, and those with it need support and a hearty safety net. Tylenol isn’t the villain. It’s a scapegoat.
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