A North Carolina scientist on Trump, Tylenol and autism: ‘We’re very angry.’ | Opinion
Two pseudo-scientists — President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. — called a White House news conference this week to announce new information on the cause of autism.
The president confidently said the condition is likely linked to taking Tylenol – known generically as acetaminophen –during pregnancy.
“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump advised pregnant women. He also warned that young children shouldn’t be given the pain and fever reliever.
Trump announced that the Food and Drug Administration will send notices to doctors that acetaminophen “can be associated” with an increased risk of autism.
Trump, who is openly lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize, is apparently also angling for the Nobel for medicine.
But he won’t be nominated by anyone at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the nation’s leading centers for autism research. Scientists there say the president is spreading misinformation about a widely varying condition whose cause, or causes, is unknown.
When I called a scientist familiar with autism research, I ran into another condition – this one caused by Trump. It’s called: Fear of commenting about things that could offend the president and lead to a loss of federal research funding.
The scientist said a recent university memo advised the university’s experts, in the scientist’s words, “to avoid doing interviews on federal actions, given the current political climate.”
It’s not a gag order, but it works like one.
“If you don’t speak up, you feel like you are enabling,” the scientist said. “And if you do speak up, you feel threatened.”
Nonetheless, the scientist, speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the university, did describe the reaction to Trump’s declaration about autism: “We’re dumbfounded. We’re very angry. We are just overwhelmed with shock.”
“The public service announcement by the president is a disservice to the science that is much more complicated,” the scientist said.
Autism, formally known as Autism spectrum disorder, includes neurological conditions ranging from severe intellectual disability to mild issues with social communication and interaction. Trusted research indicates it occurs before birth.
Trump and Kennedy are inserting simple explanations into a complicated condition.
“There is total agreement in the field that there is not one cause of autism, and pretending there is one is false and dangerous, and terribly disturbing and misleading for families,” the scientist said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees, saying in a statement that the “White House event on autism was filled with dangerous claims and misleading information that sends a confusing message to parents and expecting parents and does a disservice to autistic individuals.”
Autism, or at least the diagnosis of it, is on the rise, and a combination of prenatal exposures and genes may be the cause. Science is pursuing increasingly focused questions, but Trump and Kennedy are hindering that process by offering unfounded answers. If they wanted to shed new light on autism’s causes, they should have waited for the results of major studies now underway.
Meanwhile, at the Autism Society of North Carolina, spokesman David Laxton said the president’s warnings about acetaminophen, as well as his caution against concentrating infant vaccinations, is “causing confusion about what people are to do, particularly moms.”
For a pregnant woman worried about using acetaminophen, he said, “If you are pregnant and have a fever, talk to your health care provider. Work with them for what you need to do. I don’t think it’s our place – or a politician’s – to tell her what she should be doing.”
At Wake County’s public hospital, WakeMed, the advice is direct. The hospital said in a statement: “The use of acetaminophen for fever and pain relief continues to be a safe option during pregnancy.”
The day after his White House autism announcement, Trump went to the United Nations to boost his Nobel Peace Prize campaign with unfounded claims that he has ended seven wars. But with science itself – he has started one.
Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 12:17 PM.