President Donald Trump and White House officials announced that the administration will advise against taking acetaminophen, the medicine in Tylenol, during pregnancy, citing widely discredited concerns that it could cause autism, in the latest effort rebuking long-standing public health guidance.
Top medical organizations and lawmakers have widely panned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for promoting the theory as he looks to fulfill his promise to find the root causes of autism.
“Taking Tylenol it’s not good. I’ll say it — It’s not good,” the president said from the White House on Monday, flanked by Kennedy and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Mehmet Oz. He said pregnant women should only take Tylenol if they have a fever and cannot “tough it out.”
