Medical experts and regulators say US president should not be questioning established science
Global health agencies and regulators have dismissed unscientific advice from Donald Trump that made an unproven link between autism and the use of everyday painkillers and vaccines.
In a sign of how worried foreign governments are about the US president’s comments, the health secretary of the UK, which is one the US’s closest allies, told the British public they should not “pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine”.
On Monday, Trump told pregnant women to avoid taking acetaminophen, which is sold in the US as Tylenol and known internationally as paracetamol, adding that those who could not “tough it out” should limit their intake.
He also said – in comments that risk exposing children to fatal diseases – that parents of young children should delay or avoid some vaccines. “Don’t let them pump your baby up with the largest pile of stuff you’ve ever seen in your life,” he said.
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that questioning the value of lifesaving vaccines was misguided and that evidence linking paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism was “inconsistent”.
“We know that vaccines do not cause autism,” said the WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević. “Vaccines, as I said, save countless lives. So this is something that science has proven, and these things should not be really questioned.”
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