Trump administration set to tie Tylenol to autism risk, officials say [View all]

Source: Washington Post

The Trump administration is expected to unveil new efforts Monday exploring how one medication may be linked to autism and another one can treat it, according to four people with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet public.

Federal health officials are expected to raise concerns about pregnant women’s use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and one of the most widely used medications globally. Officials have been reviewing previous research — including an August review by Mount Sinai and Harvard researchers — that suggests a possible link between Tylenol use early on in pregnancy and an increased risk of autism in children. They plan to warn pregnant women against using Tylenol early on unless they have a fever, according to the four individuals......

Since Kennedy became the nation’s top health official, there has been speculation that his agency would link autism to vaccines, a connection Kennedy has referenced regularly despite decades of scientific studies debunking the theory.

Under Kennedy’s leadership, HHS hired David Geier, a proponent of a connection between immunization and autism whose research has come under intense scrutiny, to conduct a government study on whether they are linked. Geier and his father, Mark Geier, have published papers claiming vaccines increase the risk of autism, a theory that has been studied for decades and scientifically debunked.

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulties in social and communication skills, and repetitive behaviors, which has been diagnosed at higher rates among U.S. children in recent decades. One in 31 8-year-olds had autism in U.S. communities examined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with about 1 in 150 children in 2000.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/09/21/trump-autism-announcement-tylenol-leucovorin/

Link to tweet