{"id":237612,"date":"2025-11-01T10:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/237612\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T10:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T10:22:14","slug":"kennedy-says-data-is-insufficient-to-show-tylenol-causes-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/237612\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy says data is insufficient to show Tylenol causes autism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., head of Health and Human Services, says Tylenol should be used with caution during pregnancy, but solid data linking it to autism is lacking.<\/p>\n

\"play\"<\/p>\n

RFK Jr. says ‘not sufficient’ proof linking Tylenol and autism<\/p>\n

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters there is ‘not sufficient’ proof linking Tylenol and autism.<\/p>\n

Last month, Trump said U.S. officials would suggest limiting the use of Tylenol during pregnancy, though doctors say it is safe to use.The state of Texas sued Tylenol maker Kenvue on Oct. 28, accusing it of hiding data about health risks.RFK Jr. said there isn’t enough data to confirm a link between Tylenol and autism, but the painkiller should still be avoided during pregnancy, if possible.<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2012 Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> said on Oct. 29 that he does not have “sufficient” evidence to link Tylenol to autism, more than a month<\/a> after the White House discouraged the medicine’s use by pregnant women and young children.<\/p>\n

Evidence does not show that Kenvue’s pain medicine Tylenol definitively causes autism but that it should still be used cautiously, President Donald Trump<\/a>‘s top health official told reporters. Last month, the president<\/a> said U.S. health officials would recommend limiting Tylenol’s use.<\/p>\n

“The causative association\u2026 between Tylenol given in pregnancy and the perinatal periods is not sufficient to say it definitely causes autism. But it is very suggestive,”\u00a0Kennedy\u00a0told reporters, citing animal, blood and observational studies.<\/p>\n

More: Texas suing makers of Tylenol over alleged autism link<\/a><\/p>\n

“There should be a cautious approach to it,” he added.<\/p>\n

Kennedy’s comments also come one day after the Texas attorney general sued Kenvue,<\/a> the maker of the medicine also known as acetaminophen and which has been sold widely for decades.<\/p>\n

Asked if Kennedy’s latest comments signaled a softening of his stance on the issue, Emily G. Hilliard, Health and Human Services press secretary, said: “It\u2019s the same position the Secretary has had since the beginning.”<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a report on April 15<\/a>, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2022, 1 in 31 children were diagnosed with autism by age 8 in the United States, an increase from 1 in 36 children in 2020. The prevalence of autism among boys was 1 in 20, and the 2022 rate is five times higher than it was in 2000.<\/p>\n

More: Health Secretary Kennedy, Trump link circumcision to autism through Tylenol<\/a><\/p>\n

In August, Kennedy said a\u00a0study on autism<\/a>\u00a0he spearheaded in April had found \u201cinterventions\u201d that could be causing the neuro-developmental disorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A month later, Trump and Kennedy, neither of whom is a doctor,\u00a0held a press conference in September\u00a0to specifically warn pregnant women against taking the medication without citing any scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

Trump: ‘Don’t take Tylenol’<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t take Tylenol,\u201d Trump said repeatedly during a Sept. 22 news conference alongside\u00a0Kennedy. \u201cFight like hell not to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Oct. 26, as he was en route to Asia, Trump chimed in once again, on Truth Social<\/a>: “Pregnant Women, DON\u2019T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON\u2019T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON.”<\/p>\n

More: She never took Tylenol while pregnant. All 3 of her kids were diagnosed with autism anyway.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kennedy has couched his statements by saying there was no clear scientific evidence showing causation: During a Cabinet meeting on Oct. 9 with Trump, Kennedy said: “Anybody who takes the stuff during pregnancy unless they have to, is irresponsible. It is not proof. We\u2019re doing the studies to make the proof.”<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug Administration announced on Sept. 22<\/a> that it would “issue a physician notice and begin the process to initiate a safety label change for acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and other such drugs.<\/p>\n

“The FDA is responding to prior clinical and laboratory studies that suggest a potential association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes<\/a>,” the agency said in its announcement. “FDA also recognizes that there are contrary studies showing no association and that there can be risks for untreated fever in pregnancy, both for the mother and fetus.\u202f”<\/p>\n

More: Obama calls Trump administration’s Tylenol, autism statement ‘violence against truth’<\/a><\/p>\n

The Department of Health and Human Services said “given the conflicting literature and lack of clear causal evidence,” it was encouraging clinicians to “exercise their best judgment.”<\/p>\n

Kennedy’s unproven claim initially hit shares of Kenvue<\/a>, a consumer health company, which was spun off from Johnson & Johnson in 2023. The claim also prompted pushback\u00a0from many doctors.<\/p>\n

Kenvue has repeatedly defended the pain medicine, saying there is no scientific link to autism and warning that such suggestions could endanger maternal health.<\/p>\n

The company\u00a0has urged\u00a0the FDA to reject the call for an autism warning on Tylenol’s label, and has reportedly hired a\u00a0new marketing chief.<\/p>\n

“We agree, as Secretary\u00a0Kennedy\u00a0said, that the best message to pregnant women is to consult their healthcare professional before taking acetaminophen, which is what our Tylenol label tells consumers to do. We also agree that there is no definitive causative association between taking acetaminophen and autism,” the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Kenvue\u00a0shares were down\u00a01.4% at market close on Oct. 29.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert F. Kennedy Jr., head of Health and Human Services, says Tylenol should be used with caution during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[13866,4666,29654,29864,57216,13888,11408,14546,553,15866,141,20619,2505,13890,5660,47929,7309,1991,436,102,4499,19289,100441,11274,20621,7428,8658,7427,7437,6591,13886,35418,51032,51036,50,5143,35422,8922,20708,749,7506,229,12827,62896,6382,20620,9568,10907,5134,13105,5148,56,54,55,2866],"class_list":["post-237612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-administration","tag-and","tag-branch","tag-centers","tag-centers-for-disease-control","tag-conditions","tag-control","tag-d-c","tag-disease","tag-donald","tag-donald-trump","tag-drug","tag-drugs","tag-drugs-u0026-medications","tag-executive","tag-executive-branch","tag-f","tag-food","tag-for","tag-health","tag-health-news","tag-johnson","tag-johnson-u0026-johnson","tag-jr","tag-kennedy","tag-literature","tag-management","tag-medical","tag-medical-literature-u0026-resources","tag-medication","tag-medications","tag-negative","tag-neurological","tag-neurological-conditions","tag-news","tag-overall","tag-overall-negative","tag-pain","tag-pain-management","tag-party","tag-pediatrics","tag-politics","tag-republican","tag-republican-party","tag-resources","tag-robert","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-trump","tag-u-s","tag-u-s-food-and-drug-administration","tag-u0026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}