Kennedy Warns Trump Against Discussing Tylenol-Autism Link Amid Corporate Pushback

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged President Donald Trump to proceed cautiously after briefing him on research suggesting a possible link between the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism, the Health and Human Services secretary said in an Atlantic interview published Monday. Trump wanted to quickly release a dramatic warning on social media, Kennedy said, but he told the president, “You can’t do that. There’s nuance to it, and you can’t scare people away from Tylenol, and you’re going to get a huge amount of pushback from powerful pharmaceutical companies.” Trump reportedly dismissed Kennedy’s concerns, telling him: “I don’t give a s about that.” When Trump, Kennedy, and other federal health officials briefed the public two months ago about the findings, most medical experts disagreed, stressing that Tylenol was one of the few safe pain relief options available to pregnant women, the New York Post reported. According to The Atlantic, Kennedy reviewed 70 studies on the topic and consulted several experts before presenting the information to Trump. Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, publicly split with the Trump administration over the announcement. The Louisiana Republican, a trained gastroenterologist, said at the time, “HHS should release the new data that it has to support this claim. The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case. The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy. We must be compassionate to this problem.”

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