Kennedy Jr. renews Tylenol autism claim as Trump echoes warning

At a Cabinet meeting on October 9, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. renewed a claim that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, may increase the risk of autism when given to pregnant women or to infants after procedures such as circumcision. President Donald Trump echoed the remarks and urged women to avoid acetaminophen during pregnancy and parents not to give it to newborns.

Kennedy told the meeting that two studies show boys circumcised early have twice the rate of autism and suggested the association is "highly likely" to be driven by use of acetaminophen for pain relief. The administration has emphasized investigating potential contributors to autism and said federal agencies would pay attention to emerging research. Trump repeated his earlier advice from September that women should avoid taking Tylenol while pregnant.

Public health experts and researchers say the scientific evidence does not support a causal link between acetaminophen use and autism. The studies cited by Kennedy include a 2015 Danish analysis that found higher autism diagnoses among a group of boys who had been ritually circumcised and a 2013 cross‑national...