Donald Trump has doubled down on his advice to expectant mothers not to take Tylenol.
In a Truth Social post, the president said: ‘Pregnant women, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
‘DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON.’
His posts follow a press conference Monday in which he told pregnant women to ‘tough it out’ and avoid taking acetaminophen, which is given to pregnant women for fevers or pain.
Some studies have shown an association between taking acetaminophen, the active drug in Tylenol, during pregnancy and autism in children.
But experts stress that an association does not directly prove that acetaminophen causes autism. They also highlight other large-scale research that has found no link between taking Tylenol during pregnancy and autism.
And in the days following Trump’s announcement, officials in the administration, including the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr Mehmet Oz, and Vice President JD Vance, gave more nuanced statements, saying that pregnant women should consult their doctor before taking Tylenol.
President Trump also gave other medical advice in the post, repeating similar remarks he also made during Monday’s press conference.
He wrote: ‘BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS [sic] B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN FIVE SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS! President DJT.’
Donald Trump is pictured at the press conference on Monday, where he told pregnant women not to take Tylenol, or acetaminophen
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During a press conference on Monday, President Trump told pregnant women, ‘don’t take Tylenol’, before adding, ‘fight like hell not to take it’.
The president and his health officials frequently cited a new study as the reason for their warnings.
The paper, from Mount Sinai and Harvard researchers, analyzed data from 46 previous studies and found that there was an association between taking acetaminophen during pregnancy and higher rates of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism in their children.
But there are also numerous papers showing no association between the two, including a 2024 study by Swedish researchers on 2.4million children that found no link between taking acetaminophen in pregnancy and a higher risk of autism.
Acetaminophen is used during pregnancy to bring down high fevers or reduce pain, which may also pose a risk, with studies showing expectant mothers struggling with high fevers are more likely to have babies with birth defects.
Dr Jeff Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in the Department of Health Policy Studies, told Daily Mail: ‘This is an issue, and it is being looked at by academic and clinical researchers around the world. It is not an unreasonable question to ask, “Does acetaminophen cause autism?”.
‘But what I am asking is that they leave the question to the scientists, to the clinical researchers, and stay out of it. We are on it, and we are already taking care of it.’
On Tuesday, Dr Oz, who was also at the press conference on Monday, said in an interview with TMZ that pregnant women should take Tylenol if they have a high fever.
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‘If you have a high fever… you ought to be talking to a doctor anyway,’ he said. ‘The doctor’s almost certainly going to prescribe you something. Tylenol might be one of the things they give.’
In an interview with CBS News on Thursday, Dr Oz said, ‘categorically, no’, when asked whether pregnant women should never take Tylenol under any circumstances.
He added: ‘The concern here is that I believe most women get low-grade fevers, they stub their toe, they have little aches and pains, and they think it’s perfectly safe to throw a couple paracetamol or acetaminophen or Tylenol when they’re pregnant, and I don’t think that’s the case.’
Vance said in an interview with NewsNation on Wednesday: ‘So, my guidance to pregnant women would be very simple, which is: Follow your doctor.
He added that ‘ultimately, whether you should take something is very context-specific’ and should be considered ‘case by case’.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person communicates, interacts with others, and experiences the world.
In the 1980s, about one in 2,000 children had autism, according to estimates. But rates have since exploded, with one in 31 now reported to have the condition.
Experts say the surge is largely due to a loosening of the definition of autism, allowing for children with milder symptoms to be diagnosed with the disease, and a more accepting attitude in the US toward people with autism.
Dr Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is pictured above at the press conference on Monday. He has since said pregnant women should take Tylenol under certain circumstances
Shown above is the Robert F Kennedy Junior-appointed CDC vaccine advisory panel. They recommended that the MMR and varicella shot should be given separately last Thursday
At the press conference on Monday, President Trump also urged parents to get the measles, mumps and rubella shots, normally delivered as a three-in-one vaccine, separately, and told parents to get the varicella, or chickenpox vaccine, separately, which can be given with the MMR shot. He also said that parents should not get their children vaccinated against hepatitis B until they are 12 years old.
The CDC’s Robert F Kennedy Junior-appointed vaccines advisory panel voted on Thursday last week for the agency to no longer recommend the MMR and varicella vaccines be given in the same shot to children aged four years and under. Instead, it said that the MMR and varicella vaccines should be administered separately.
Before the announcement, the CDC was already recommending that the MMR and varicella shots be administered separately unless a parent requests the combined version.
Studies show a slightly higher risk of febrile seizures in children who receive the combined shot as a first dose compared to those who receive the two shots separately on the same doctor’s visit.
It is not clear whether it is possible to get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines separately in the US, with the CDC saying online that only the combined versions are available. The combined shot was approved by the FDA in 1971.
The CDC says there is no published scientific benefit to support separating the shots. Officials stress that giving the vaccines together means children are protected sooner, endure fewer doctor’s visits and less trauma, while parents save both time and money.
Before the measles vaccine, the disease infected 3 to 4million people, caused 48,000 hospitalizations and 400 to 500 deaths every year.
The hepatitis B virus can cause a chronic infection in the liver that cannot be cleared and can lead to scarring of the organ and cancer.
In his statements, Trump also made recommendations for receiving the MMR, varicella and hepatitis B vaccines (stock photo)
It is a particular concern in infants, with the CDC estimating that 90 percent of unvaccinated children who catch the virus develop a chronic infection.
In the US, the hepatitis B vaccine is recommended for all children at birth, with two other doses at one to two months of age and six to 18 months of age.
It is only recommended for children aged 12 years or over as a catch-up dose and to avoid a chronic, lifelong infection with the disease.
It is not clear whether there would be a benefit to delaying vaccination against hepatitis B until the age of 12 years, although this could raise the risk of a child being infected with the virus and suffering from complications.
An estimated 640,000 people in the US are infected with chronic hepatitis B, while nearly 2,000 deaths are linked to the virus every year. The virus is spread via needles and syringes and contact with infected blood or bodily fluids. It can be passed from mother to child during childbirth.
