Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rejected suggestions that the Trump administration should merely suggest a possible link between Tylenol and autism, and instead launched a full-blown assault on the drug’s active ingredient, acetaminophen, according to a report.
Health officials tapped to lead agencies under Kennedy agreed there should be some warning about the painkiller, but wanted to focus on touting leucovorin, a form of vitamin B9, as a potential therapy for autism, according to The Wall Street Journal.
However, after Kennedy met with Kirk Perry, the interim CEO of Tylenol-maker Kenvue, earlier this month, RFK Jr. decided that warning pregnant women about the potential risk of taking acetaminophen should take full priority.
This decision led to the extraordinary press conference led by Donald Trump in which the president struggled to pronounce acetaminophen, made bizarre claims about the Amish and Cubans not having autism, and bluntly told pregnant women to “tough it out” and never take Tylenol.
This is despite it being a commonly recommended pain reliever during pregnancy and vital for controlling fevers.
“And if you can’t live and your fever is so bad, you have to take one because there’s no alternative to that, sadly,” Trump said.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Marty Makary, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health, were all ready for the B9 advice.
Multiple health experts and organizations across the world immediately denounced Trump’s remarks on the dangers of Tylenol as dangerous and misleading.
Professor Laurie Tomlinson, research professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the Daily Beast that people must reject Trump’s suggestion that acetaminophen causes autism and instead focus on the “countless number of reputable sources of evidence published” that conclude otherwise.
Even Oz, the Trump-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, tried to walk back the president’s attacks, saying that pregnant women should continue to take acetaminophen to control their fevers.
“Take it when it’s appropriate,” Oz told TMZ. “Acetaminophen’s probably your best option, but take it when you really need it.”
Trump veered so far off script from what Kennedy’s experts had intended Monday’s press conference to be about that he didn’t even mention leucovorin by name, referring only to “an existing drug” that could be used to treat autism symptoms. “That’s one of the things that I’m very, very happy about,” he said.
In a statement to the Journal, a spokesperson for Kenvue said, “The facts are that over a decade of rigorous research, endorsed by leading medical professionals and global health regulators, confirms there is no credible evidence linking acetaminophen to autism.”
The Department of Health and Human Services added, “HHS’ actions mark historic progress in tackling the autism epidemic—just as Secretary Kennedy promised.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services for further comment.
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