Backlash has been swift and forceful as different elements of the world woke as much as US President Donald Trump’s feedback blaming – with out strong proof – acetaminophen and sure vaccines for autism in kids.
“Don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine. In fact, don’t take even take my word for it, as a politician – listen to British doctors, British scientists,” UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting stated in a televised interview on Tuesday. “I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this.”
It comes after Trump announced Monday the US Food and Drug Administration will notify docs that the usage of Tylenol – the model title for acetaminophen, recognized in most international locations as paracetamol – throughout being pregnant could be related to a “very increased risk of autism.” Despite many years of proof that it’s secure, Trump instructed that ladies restrict Tylenol use throughout being pregnant “if you can’t tough it out.”
The drugs regulatory agencies of the European Union and the United Kingdom additionally shortly issued statements Tuesday confirming that taking paracetamol throughout being pregnant stays secure.
“Paracetamol remains an important option to treat pain or fever in pregnant women,” Steffen Thirstrup, chief medical officer of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), stated in an announcement. “Our advice is based on a rigorous assessment of the available scientific data and we have found no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children.”
Experts warn that an untreated fever could be harmful for each the fetus and the pregnant particular person. Risks embrace miscarriage, start defects and hypertension. Experts additionally say there are a number of causes of autism, and the science on a connection between autism and Tylenol will not be settled.
A peer-reviewed analysis printed in BioMed Central in August checked out 46 research on acetaminophen use throughout being pregnant and neurodevelopmental problems. Overall, the evaluation concluded that there was “strong evidence of an association” between acetaminophen use throughout being pregnant and autism, however the authors have been cautious to say that the analysis couldn’t present that acetaminophen brought about autism. The authors beneficial considered acetaminophen use, underneath medical steerage.
Meanwhile, a 2024 peer-reviewed Swedish study printed within the medical journal JAMA discovered no hyperlink between acetaminophen taken in being pregnant and autism or different neurodevelopmental problems.
The EMA assertion stated that in 2019, the company “reviewed available studies that investigated the neurodevelopment of children exposed to paracetamol in utero and found that the results were inconclusive and that no link with neurodevelopmental disorders could be established.”
Speaking to Britain’s ITV News, Streeting stated: “I’ve just got to be really clear about this: There is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children. None.” He inspired the British public to “follow the science,” particularly at a time when “you’ve got kids in this country now dying of measles, whooping cough, kids not taking the RSV vaccine, when those respiratory diseases can be life-threatening in our children.”
The vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) has lengthy been a goal of misinformation and alarm, together with by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, following discredited analysis linking it to autism by a British physician who has since been barred from practising drugs. Kennedy publicly urged individuals to get the measles vaccine amid this yr’s outbreak that led to a few deaths and almost 200 hospitalizations throughout the US, but in addition touted unconventional therapies.
Acetaminophen, or paracetamol, is taken into account the one secure over-the-counter choice for ache or fever throughout being pregnant. Other frequent ache aid choices like ibuprofen or regular-dose aspirin can enhance the danger of great being pregnant problems, in accordance with consultants.
The UK medicines regulator stated: “Paracetamol remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed. Pregnant women should continue to follow existing NHS (National Health Service) guidance and speak to their healthcare professional if they have questions about any medication during pregnancy.”
On Monday, Trump also advocated for breaking apart childhood vaccinations and even pushing back the hepatitis B shot for newborns to age 12. It’s “too much liquid, too many different things are going into that baby,” Trump stated, with out citing scientific proof.
As a public health technique, offering hepatitis B shot to infants introduced the an infection in kids to the brink of elimination within the United States.
And intensive analysis has proven that there’s no hyperlink between vaccines and autism.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated in a statement that vaccination campaigns, which have saved greater than 150 million lives up to now 50 years, are being threatened by misinformation.
“Misinformation is increasingly driven from the top, with prominent influencers pushing thoroughly debunked myths, such as the disproven and false claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism,” stated WHO’s immunization director, Kate O’Brien.
“Pseudoscience, false logic, and selective ‘evidence’ are weaponized in ways that sow confusion and doubt among well-meaning parents.”
O’Brien stated the implications of this misinformation have been “real and tragic,” pointing to how the drop in protection of the measles vaccine “is driving a significant rise in measles cases and deaths, including in wealthy countries like the US, Canada, the UK and other European countries.”
This is a growing story and will probably be up to date.
NCS’s Jen Christensen, Brenda Goodman, Meg Tirrell and Robert North contributed to this report.