On Monday, Sept. 21, Donald Trump said that taking Tylenol was correlated with developing autism. He insisted that people who cannot access Tylenol have “no autism” and that women should “tough it out” instead of taking the medication while pregnant. This shocking claim caught listeners off-guard and intensified discourse surrounding the use of medications and vaccinations as treatments.
Like Tylenol, vaccinations help to relieve pain as well as save millions of lives each year. It is important to be vaccinated, not only for oneself, but for the people around you, especially those who are immunocompromised. However, individual and group influences as well as vaccination specific issues “can act as a barrier against vaccine hesitancy or promote such attitudes.” Trump’s claim can push vaccine-hesitant individuals to become anti-vax through the spread of propaganda with a lack of evidence to back it up.
It’s important to understand the difference between people who are vaccine-hesitant and people who are anti-vax. While people who are anti-vax are firmly against vaccines, people who are vaccine-hesitant are unsure about receiving vaccinations due to an array of concerns. These can include misconceptions about safety and access barriers to vaccination services. Above all, misinformation and a lack of information is the driving force of hesitancy. This can intensify peer influence, discrimination and concerns about overall side effects.
Trump’s claim about Tylenol causing autism ties into vaccine hesitancy because the increase of misinformation about Tylenol and vaccines have both shown dramatic increases since the press conference. In a CNN article, Dr. Scott Hadland, the chief of adolescent medicine at Mass General Brigham for Children, spoke about the effects of the conference. Messages have flooded Hadland’s inbox with questions and concerns from parents about choices they made years ago.
“The surge of information on Tylenol and vaccines is clearly already heightening parents’ guilt,” said Hadland. This can leave their children feeling confused and potentially internalizing that guilt as their own. The increase in hesitance and shame decreases the likelihood of trusting further vaccinations, leading parents’ and children’s health and wellbeing to decrease.
Instead of listening to well-qualified doctors, Trump is still insisting that Tylenol and vaccines are the primary causes of autism. He has continued to talk about this on X (formally known as Twitter), where he posted in all caps, “DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON.” Even worse, perhaps, he offered unwarranted medical advice about how to treat a child’s pain in the same post.
Scientists do not approve of Trump’s claim that has reportedly zero evidence to back up. Many researchers that are studying autism say that there is not enough data to link the cause of autism to the use of Tylenol.
Many scientists say that even the most thorough research has not found a link between the usage of Tylenol and the increase in children with autism. In an article from The Week, Helen Tager-Flusberg, who studies autism at Boston University, agreed. “The better controlled studies are less likely to find even “a small risk,” said Tager-Flusberg.
James Cusack, the chief executive of Autistica, a charity that researches autism, also explained in an interview with the outlet Nature that there is no definitive evidence to suggest that taking Tylenol while pregnant causes autism in children.
“When you see any associations, they are very, very small,” said Cusack. Remember, correlation does not equal causation. While these two variables may happen to increase, that does not mean whatsoever that they are directly causing each other to shift.
Cusack also believes that focusing on this is merely “a distraction,” and I agree. I believe Trump’s current political tactic is ‘flooding the zone.’ ‘Flooding the zone’ means issuing executive orders and controversial statements to “overwhelm the opposition and the media” to create confusion. Ridiculous claims such as this distract us from much larger problems within the political atmosphere. This is why it is so important to not allow the mass, redundant stream of upsetting and outrageous news to numb and desensitize you. Stay alert.
On a positive note, the National Autistic Society is currently working on a campaign “to fight back against the dangerous misinformation about the causes of autism from President Donald Trump.” It is more important to address the very real and challenging issues autistic people face in society today instead of creating problems out of thin air. Tylenol and vaccinations are not your enemies, but the people abusing their power to shame and fool you are.