The scientific consensus rejects the president\u2019s view, and here in the UK the NHS reiterated its recommendation that paracetamol is safe for pregnant women to use<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now a new YouGov study has investigated whether the British public question the safety of paracetamol. The results show that 73% of Britons believe paracetamol to be safe for pregnant women, while 9% consider it unsafe, and 19% are unsure.<\/p>\n To set these results in context, we compared them against other potential risk factors in pregnancy – and some activities that doctors actively recommend.<\/p>\n For example, our survey finds 4% of Britons consider taking folic acid supplements \u2013 which women are specifically recommended to do \u2013 are unsafe, with a further 29% unsure.<\/p>\n Likewise, 33% of Britons believe soft cheese is safe for pregnant women \u2013 despite or in ignorance of advice from health bodies that such food carries a risk of listeria<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is also notable that women are more likely to say paracetamol is safe than men (77% vs 68%), with the difference being primarily that men are more likely to answer \u201cdon\u2019t know\u201d than to say it is not safe.<\/p>\n Reform UK voters are also noticeably more likely to say that paracetamol is unsafe (15%) than other voters (1-8%). This is partly because Reform UK\u2019s electorate skews more heavily male, although female Reform UK voters are still more likely than their non-Reform counterparts to see paracetamol as unsafe.<\/p>\n Why do some people say paracetamol is unsafe?<\/p>\n Of those who say paracetamol is unsafe, few brought up Donald Trump in connection (4%), cited the potential link with autism or neurodevelopmental conditions (5%), or more generally cited \u201cresearch\u201d (3%) or \u201crecent news\u201d that says you shouldn\u2019t (2%). (These categories are not mutually exclusive, so some respondents will have mentioned several of these at the same time).<\/p>\n By far the most common justifications given are generic statements that paracetamol could have an unspecified impact on the child (20%), while a similar number suggest that taking any drug whatsoever during pregnancy bears risks (19%).<\/p>\n Indeed, 8% went back on themselves and said that it is in fact safe to take paracetamol, but only in small doses.<\/p>\n How does perceived safety of paracetamol correlate with vaccine scepticism?<\/p>\n Our study also delved into the related field of vaccine scepticism, which has been much discussed in recent years, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Our results find that 84% of Britons say \u201cvaccines in general\u201d are safe, compared to only 7% who see them as unsafe.<\/p>\n We see comparable figures when it comes to the safety of the MMR vaccine more specifically, with 87% saying they think this vaccine is safe, and only 4% unsafe.<\/p>\n However, when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, the number answering \u2018safe\u2019 drops to 69%, with 16% considering it unsafe.<\/p>\n Again, the results show that Reform UK voters are more likely to be vaccine sceptical than other voters, with 13% saying vaccines in general are unsafe compared to 4% of Labour, Lib Dem, Tory and Green voters.<\/p>\n This is especially the case when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, which fully 35% of Reform UK voters consider to be unsafe, compared to only 9-10% of voters from other parties.<\/p>\n Comparing answers across questions shows that belief that paracetamol is unsafe for pregnant women does correlate to a degree with vaccine scepticism. Vaccine sceptics prove to be much less likely to say that paracetamol is unsafe for pregnant women at 36% compared to 78% of those who think vaccines are safe.<\/p>\n However, the majority of those who think paracetamol is unsafe think that vaccines in general are safe (63%). While a quarter (25%) do see vaccines as unsafe \u2013 a figure that stands at just 3% among those who think paracetamol is safe \u2013 this nevertheless suggests that the motivations that most who are concerned about paracetamol safety differ significantly from those who worry about vaccines.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Vaccine_scepticism_and_paracetamol_safety_c.format-webp.webp.webp\")
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