{"id":45083,"date":"2025-09-26T21:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/45083\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T21:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:01:10","slug":"acetaminophen-shortage-and-autism-cuban-reality-contradicts-trump-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/45083\/","title":{"rendered":"Acetaminophen shortage and autism: Cuban reality contradicts Trump | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a prophet of the pharmaceutical industry, Donald Trump took the microphone at the White House this Monday and sent a message to all pregnant women in his country: \u201cDon\u2019t take Tylenol,\u201d he said, referring to the main brand name used in the United States for acetaminophen, better known as paracetamol in some countries and marketed under various brands. He even asked them to \u201ctough it out\u201d and accept the fever and pain. Although this supposed link between acetaminophen and autism is not supported by science and medical organizations immediately came out to deny it, the president dug out evidence perhaps never before amassed by researchers: in countries like Cuba, where \u201cthey don\u2019t have money<\/a>\u201d and therefore consume much less Tylenol, people barely deal with autism, the condition that affects one in every 31 children in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, there\u2019s a rumor, and I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s so or not, that Cuba, they don\u2019t have Tylenol because they don\u2019t have the money for Tylenol. And they have virtually no autism<\/a>, OK. Tell me about that one,\u201d said Trump, flanked by his Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert Kennedy Jr., the well-known anti-vaccine activist who had already announced that he would dedicate efforts to researching the condition and that, by September, they would know \u201cwhat caused\u201d what they considered an \u201cautism epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump stands before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the White House on September 22.Kevin Lamarque (REUTERS)<\/p>\n

For now, Trump\u2019s claim that Cuba is free of autism is refuted by the numbers. An article published in MEDICC Review in 2017 cites data from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health stated that 1 in every 2,500 Cuban children had been diagnosed with autism at the time. Last April, an official media outlet reported that there were 3,500 registered individuals on the autism spectrum in the country. They also highlighted that the prevalence of autism is 0.4 per 10,000, a lower rate than in other countries. However, some experts suggest that this could be due to underreporting due to the difficulty in establishing the diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cCuba also has autism. A lot. Do we have prevalence rates similar to those of the US or other more affluent countries? Speculation suggests not. But none of that is proven,\u201d said Dr. Yoysy Rond\u00f3n, national coordinator of Autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders at the Borr\u00e1s Marf\u00e1n Hospital in Havana, in statements to the specialized media outlet Autism Spectrum News this year. It is also not true that acetaminophen has not been sold in Cuban pharmacies or that relatives abroad do not provide those on the island with medications, including Tylenol. This has also increased since the General Customs of the Republic authorized the importation of drugs in 2021 without limiting quantities and exempting them from paying tariffs, amid the coronavirus pandemic that exacerbated the health crisis in the country.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cuban scientist Eduardo L\u00f3pez-Collazo, from the Health Research Institute of La Paz University Hospital (IdiPAZ) in Madrid, assured EL PA\u00cdS that although he recognizes that \u201cthe lack of medicines on the island is notorious,\u201d it cannot be said \u201cthat there is no consumption of paracetamol,\u201d the painkiller that appears in the National Drug Formulary issued by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez-Collazo, on the other hand, would not dare to assert, as Trump did, that there is \u201ca low incidence of autism in Cuba, since both the diagnosis and the monitoring and recording of this and other pathologies are very deficient due to the widespread crisis the island is experiencing.\u201d \u201cCuba is not a good model to test the hypothesis linking paracetamol during pregnancy with autism,\u201d he maintained. He also insisted that studies suggesting this type of hypothesis \u201care very weak and merely correlational.\u201d \u201cThe scientific consensus is that autism\u2014or, in more technical language, autism spectrum disorders (ASD)\u2014does not have a single cause. For now, we describe it as a set of conditions with multiple roots, in which genetics and environment interact in complex ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some American institutions have sounded the alarm over the Republican leader\u2019s statements. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reported that the president\u2019s suggestions \u201care not only deeply concerning for physicians, but also irresponsible considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients.\u201d Kenvue, the company behind the Tylenol brand, insisted that more than a decade of research confirms \u201cthat there is no credible evidence linking acetaminophen to autism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crusade to obtain medicines in Cuba<\/p>\n

On Monday, when Trump made the controversial statements linking paracetamol and autism, several activists on the island had begun a painkiller collection campaign on social media, with a message highlighting the need to collect paracetamol, a widely used medication for pain relief and fever reduction. This is the way many have found to obtain medication amid a crisis that, according to the government itself, has caused a shortage of 461 of the 651 medications listed in the Basic Medication List\u2014that is, 70% of the drugs needed by the population.<\/p>\n

In a WhatsApp group where people ask for and offer what they have, Vero is in charge of managing the distribution of medicines in the municipality of Pinar del R\u00edo. \u201cThere are almost no medicines in the pharmacies; it\u2019s not like it used to be, when you just had a prescription,\u201d she says. She also notes that the mothers in the group are afraid their children will get sick. \u201cThat they\u2019ll end up in a hospital because there are no medicines or supplies. That terrifies us,\u201d she confesses.<\/p>\n

People wait their turn outside a state-run pharmacy in Havana, Cuba, on March 6, 2024.Ariel Ley (AP)<\/p>\n

The other option left to Cubans is the almost unobtainable products on the black market. Lists of medications circulating in the country, mostly from abroad, include 500 grams of paracetamol and a host of other drugs impossible to find in state pharmacies.<\/p>\n

Dianisleidys L\u00f3pez Zayas, from Pinar del R\u00edo, mother of a six-year-old autistic child who never took paracetamol during her pregnancy \u201cbecause it wasn\u2019t necessary,\u201d is \u201cdisappointed\u201d with the care provided to children with autism in Cuba. Today, she has to buy the valproate or clonazepam her son needs from retail outlets and at prices she can\u2019t afford. The same is happening to Ania Argudin P\u00e1ez, whose 13-year-old son suffers from Lennox syndrome and is decompensated because he doesn\u2019t have Clobazam. His mother, who earns a monthly salary of 2,800 Cuban pesos (just over $6 on the informal market), has to buy blister packs of pills for 500 and 600 pesos (between $1 and $1.50). Sometimes, she buys paracetamol to relieve his fever. \u201cI feel very overwhelmed by this situation,\u201d she says. \u201cMy son depends on these medications to avoid seizures, and we have no support from the government or any institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest study by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) shows that only 3% of Cubans currently obtain medicines at pharmacies. The reason, according to authorities, is the lack of imported components used in the manufacture of medications. But the lack of medicines adds to the general shortages Cubans face, leaving them for hours without electricity,<\/a> drinking water, food, and, consequently, without a system that guarantees their health services.<\/p>\n

Sign up forour weekly newsletter<\/a>to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like a prophet of the pharmaceutical industry, Donald Trump took the microphone at the White House this Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[28277,39798,134,524,39799,111,139,69,20160],"class_list":{"0":"post-45083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-cuba","9":"tag-fidel-castro","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication","12":"tag-miguel-diaz-canel","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-robert-f-kennedy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}