The Trump administration’s claim about autism was widely condemned by medical professionals. photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
In September, Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a misinformation-filled announcement about the cause of autism.
We did it, folks! We found the cause of autism, or at least the Trump administration did. Apparently, this incredibly complex neurodevelopmental disorder has one main cause: Tylenol. In the spring, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr., Trump’s Health Secretary, had promised that we would know the cause of the increased rates of autism diagnosis—or, as he called it, the autism epidemic, because autism is obviously comparable to an infectious disease—by September, and boy did he deliver! In an hour-long news conference on September 22nd, President Trump and RFK Jr. announced that “Tylenol during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk for autism.” Never mind that the authors of one of the main studies that concluded there was an association between acetaminophen and autism have said that their study doesn’t show a causal link between the two (remember, correlation does not equal causation). Or that it is especially hard to determine whether or not acetaminophen is linked to the development of autism because it’s difficult to know if it’s the painkiller itself increasing chances of autism or the reason the mother took it in the first place. Or that most autism researchers agree that there is no one cause for autism.
You know, I was expecting that they would announce that autism is caused by vaccines, but I trust this administration completely so I believe every word they said. Who doesn’t want to take their medical advice from people who are the opposite of medical professionals, especially when those people don’t back up their claims with sufficient evidence? Trump even opened himself up to a lawsuit from Tylenol for his targeting of the brand, all because he couldn’t pronounce acetaminophen. But wait, they’re “doing the studies to make the proof,” as per RFK Jr. in a Cabinet meeting on October 9th, so obviously their claim has to be true. Just disregard the fact that that’s not at all how the scientific method works, and the fact that there are already studies concluding that their claim is false. It’s definitely women taking Tylenol during pregnancy—and maybe babies being given Tylenol after being circumcised—that causes autism. I think we can save the proposed studies, actually, because this reminds me of the time when people thought that autism was caused by a lack of motherly warmth. If we want to blame moms for their kids’ autism, why don’t we just go back to that?
On a more serious note, because we don’t fully understand how and why autism develops, we can’t definitively say why autism rates have increased. Many experts, though, point to changing diagnostic criteria as one of the most likely contributing factors. But how would figuring out the cause of autism even help autistic people? Ignore the idea that we could prevent the development of autism; how would this help autistic people currently living? It’s understandable to want an easy explanation for autism—after all, the lives of autistic people, especially those with higher support needs, can be difficult. But treating autism as some sort of curse that needs to be undone helps no one.
Oh, guess what? Just a few days ago, RFK Jr. admitted that his purported link between Tylenol and autism doesn’t have sufficient evidence. So what was the point of this whole thing? Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway. The conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism has been going strong for decades at this point, so I expect that this fresh false claim will continue to spread. Already, about 41% of parents in one poll believe that it is probably or definitely true that taking Tylenol during pregnancy increases the child’s chances of being autistic. What will be the effect of even more misinformation about autism on autistic people themselves, you ask? Who cares? This administration certainly doesn’t.
