President Donald Trump has urged pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol, pointing to an unproven claim that links the painkiller to autism.
Speaking from the Oval Office with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump claimed that acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol – also known as paracetamol in most parts of the world – was “no good” and should only be used in pregnancy when there’s a high fever.
He then outlined steps his administration would take to restrict the use of the drug during pregnancy, in comments laced with unproven – and, in some cases, false – claims.
Here is what he said, and what the facts say, about the drug, autism and whether Cuba, as Trump claimed at one point, does not have autism.
Trump opened the event by calling autism a “horrible, horrible crisis”.
“The meteoric rise in autism is among the most alarming public health developments in history. There’s never been anything like this,” Trump said, even though experts point out that the data on autism only captures increased diagnoses – not necessarily a rise in the incidence of autism itself.
Trump then laid out his administration’s plans to tackle the “crisis”.
“First, effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of a – well, let’s see how we say that acetaminophen – is that OK? Which is basically commonly known as Tylenol during pregnancy, can be associated with a very increased risk of autism,” he said.
He went on to warn that...
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