President Donald Trump’s speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday took a detour into previewing an announcement he plans to make from the Oval Office on Monday about autism.
“I think you’re going to find it to be amazing,” he mentioned. “I think we found an answer to autism.”
Although he didn’t provide any particulars on what he deliberate to say about autism, Trump mentioned his administration “won’t let it happen anymore.”
“I think it’s going to be one of the most important news conferences I’ll ever have, and I look so forward to it,” he mentioned, including he believed Kirk would have additionally seemed ahead to the occasion.
Monday’s announcement is expected to link the event of autism in youngsters with use of the ache reliever Tylenol throughout being pregnant, together with low ranges of folate, a vitamin that’s necessary for correct improvement of a child’s mind and backbone, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
It may even title folinic acid, a type of folate often known as leucovorin, as a option to lower signs of autism.
Folate dietary supplements are already recommended throughout being pregnant to forestall neural tube defects, similar to spina bifida, in infants.
Tylenol, which is the model title of the generic ache reliever acetaminophen, is broadly used within the US, together with throughout being pregnant. Health officers are planning to warn ladies in opposition to utilizing the medicine early in a being pregnant until they’ve a fever, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Tylenol maker Kenvue mentioned earlier this month that it had engaged in a “scientific exchange” on the issue with US Department of Health and Human Services officers, and urged pregnant ladies to talk with their well being care supplier earlier than taking any over-the-counter medicine.
“Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy,” the corporate mentioned in a press release Sunday. “Without it, women face dangerous choices: suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially harmful to both mom and baby or use riskier alternatives.”
“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. We stand with the many public health and medical professionals who have reviewed this science and agree. We will continue to explore all options to protect the health interests of American women and children.”
Experts typically agree.
“There is no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues,” Dr. Christopher Zahn, chief of medical observe for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, mentioned in a press release. “Neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular, are multifactorial and very difficult to associate with a singular cause. Pregnant patients should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen, which is safe and one of the few options pregnant people have for pain relief.”
Untreated fever and ache throughout being pregnant can carry their own risks for each mom and toddler, together with miscarriage, beginning defects and hypertension, in accordance with the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
The incidence of autism within the US is on the rise. About 1 in each 31 youngsters was identified with autism by age 8 in 2022, up from 1 in 36 in 2020, in accordance with a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report revealed in April.
There are two main causes for the rise, in accordance with Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta, vice director of the Wendy Klagg Center for Autism at John Hopkins.
The first is that the definition of autism was broadened by the psychiatric group in 2013, so extra individuals now qualify for an autism analysis.
Secondly, there was a push for higher screening of youngsters, particularly infants, for indicators of autism. That push for elevated consciousness of the signs has been accompanied by a higher acceptance of the dysfunction, so persons are not as afraid to hunt assist or to be recognized as having autism, Ladd-Acosta mentioned on the Johns Hopkins podcast “Public Health on Call.”
Several research have seemed on the affiliation between acetaminophen use in being pregnant and the event of autism in youngsters, however specialists say the science behind this principle shouldn’t be settled.
A 2024 study published in JAMA checked out greater than 2 million youngsters born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019, about 185,000 of whom have been born to moms who used acetaminophen throughout being pregnant. The examine in contrast autism charges between these youngsters with their siblings and with youngsters who weren’t uncovered, and it discovered that acetaminophen use throughout being pregnant was not related to an elevated threat of autism, consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction or different neurodevelopmental problems.
A meta-analysis published in August within the journal BMC Environmental Health checked out 46 research on using acetaminophen throughout being pregnant and neurodevelopmental problems in youngsters. Six of the research seemed particularly at acetaminophen and autism. Overall, the evaluation concluded that there was “strong evidence of an association” between taking acetaminophen throughout being pregnant and the event of autism in youngsters, however the authors warning that their paper can present solely associations, not that acetaminophen causes autism.
“We recommend judicious acetaminophen use — lowest effective dose, shortest duration — under medical guidance, tailored to individual risk–benefit assessments, rather than a broad limitation,” the researchers wrote.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has beforehand promoted debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, and he pledged in April that his company would have answers this month on the causes of autism. Thousands of researchers from prime universities and establishments have utilized for federal funding for autism analysis that Kennedy introduced in April, and the US National Institutes of Health is anticipated this month to announce as much as 25 awardees for the $50 million effort.
“We’re finding … certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly causing autism, and we’re going to be able to address those in September,” Kennedy mentioned in a Cabinet assembly final month, to which Trump responded, “There has to be something artificial causing this, meaning, a drug or something.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician who co-directs the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, mentioned the revealed proof on hyperlinks between acetaminophen and autism is “not terribly compelling.”
“We can explain just about all of [autism spectrum disorder] through the autism genes. However there is also a role for certain environmental exposures in early pregnancy because it interacts with autism genes,” he wrote in a social media post Sunday.
“To focus an entire press conference just on Tylenol would be reckless in my opinion without additional info,” mentioned Hotez, who has a daughter with autism and has written a ebook in regards to the situation. “As for leucovorin, again maybe for one or more types of autism but not for a spectrum linked to >100 genes. It would be like saying only one thing causes cancer and now there’s a cure.”
NCS’s Meg Tirrell and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.