‘What I feel’: Trump links paracetamol to autism, urges parents to delay vaccines

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New York: US President Donald Trump has asserted an unproven link between painkillers and autism, and urged American parents to delay vaccinating their children, despite admitting he was presenting a personal opinion that was not based on medical advice.

In an extraordinary, rambling press conference that was broadcast live on cable television across the US, Trump warned pregnant women not to take paracetamol, or Tylenol, but at times appeared to address his remarks to all Americans.

US President Donald Trump in the White House on Monday, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr (left) watches.

“Taking Tylenol is not good. It’s not good … Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump said multiple times. “Just don’t take it unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

The president also instructed parents to spread out vaccines for their children over a period of years, rather than getting their shots delivered in one go, and not to inoculate children against hepatitis B until they were 12 years old, wrongly claiming it could only be spread by sexual transmission.

“You take it in smaller doses, and you spread it out over a period of years,” Trump said. “They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace … it looks like they’re pumping it into a horse.”

He also said there “could be a problem” with taking multiple vaccines together. Trump conceded his advice to parents did not correlate with what the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was recommending, but was based on “what I feel”.

“I’m making these statements from me,” he said. “I’m not making them from these doctors. They talk about different results, different studies, I talk about a lot of common sense.”

Later, Trump added: “I’m not a doctor, but I’m giving my opinion.”

The president also indulged several popular myths about vaccines and autism. “I think I can say that there are certain groups of people that don’t take vaccines and don’t take any pills that have no autism,” Trump said.

Then he turned to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr and asked: “Is that a correct statement, by the way?”

Kennedy said some studies suggested that was true among the Amish.

Trump added: “Bobby wants to be very careful with what he says, and he should, but I’m not so careful with what I say.”

Later, Kennedy confirmed the FDA would advise against the use of acetaminophen – known as paracetamol in Australia– during pregnancy due to clinical and laboratory studies that suggested a “potential association” between paracetamol use during pregnancy and adverse neurological outcomes, including autism and ADHD.

He said the government had evaluated other studies that suggested there was no association, but did not say anything about the results of that evaluation.

Scientific research has shown there might be a link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism, but no causal relationship has been proven.

“Evidence is mixed,” said Associate Professor Kevin Yap from La Trobe University. Australian researchers have also warned that contrary to Trump’s advice, there are risks from not treating fevers during pregnancy.

Trump argued there was no reason to wait for any further evidence as there was “no downside” to pregnant women opting not to take Tylenol for a fever, and urged them to “tough it out” instead.

“Nothing bad can happen, it can only good happen [sic],” Trump said.

Medical experts and drug companies pushed back against the claims aired at the news conference.

Tylenol maker Kenvue, a spinoff from Johnson & Johnson, said that independent, sound science clearly showed taking paracetamol did not cause autism.

“We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers,” the company said. Its share price fell nearly 7.5 per cent on Monday.

Christopher Zahn, chief of clinical practice at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: “There is no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and fetal development issues.”

The Trump administration has been under immense pressure from Kennedy’s diverse Make America Healthy Again movement to provide answers on the causes of the marked increase in autism cases in the US in recent years.

Experts say the rise in cases is mainly due to a new definition for the disorder that now includes mild cases on a “spectrum”, and better diagnoses. They say there is no single cause to the disorder and the rhetoric appears to ignore and undermine decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role.

But Trump and Kennedy have long been obsessed with the rising caseload of autism, which Kennedy labelled an “epidemic”. The Centres for Disease Control say the disorder affects about one in 31 American children.