Tylenol/paracetamol: Study suggests Trump's unproven autism claims influenced care
Related: Changes in paracetamol and leucovorin use after a White House briefing (The Lancet)
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Source: Associated Press
Study suggests Trump’s unproven autism claims influenced care
By LAURA UNGAR
Updated 6:40 PM EST, March 5, 2026
Last year, President Donald Trump told pregnant women not to take Tylenol as he promoted unproven ties between the fever reducer and autism and touted an old generic drug as a treatment for the developmental condition.
For nearly three months after that, new research found, Tylenol orders for pregnant women showing up in emergency rooms dropped and prescriptions of the generic drug for children rose. This happened despite sharp criticism of the president’s message from doctor groups saying that the drug, leucovorin, shouldn’t be broadly used for autism and Tylenol is safe during pregnancy.
“It just shows that in our country right now, health care has been politicized in a way that political messages are driving and impacting care — and not always for good,” said Dr. Susan Sirota, a pediatrician in Highland Park, Illinois, who wasn’t involved with the research.
Doctors, who published their work Thursday in The Lancet, looked at changes in drug ordering or prescribing compared with projected trends, or what might have happened if things had continued on the same path as before the White House briefing.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/autism-pregnant-tylenol-acetaminophen-leucovorin-71a300eda87ed89160d01d334f0d1925