Throughout a press convention about Tylenol and autism risks, President Donald Trump repeated a number of inaccurate claims a few vary of matters.
On Monday, Trump, joined by prime administration officers, claimed using Tylenol throughout being pregnant could also be linked to an elevated danger of autism and that pregnant girls ought to restrict their use, contradicting medical proof.
ABC Information has evaluated a number of the president’s statements.
President Donald Trump accompanied by Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Meals and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, speaks about autism on the White Home in Washington, Sept. 22, 2025.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures
CLAIM: Amish kids don’t get vaccines and don’t get autism
This can be a widespread anti-vaccine speaking level. Research have recognized and identified autism in Amish kids together with different situations, in keeping with the Worldwide Society for Autism Analysis (INSAR). Additionally, not all Amish households decline common childhood vaccinations, in keeping with a examine achieved by Science Direct.
Whereas Autism charges certainly seem decrease amongst Amish communities, consultants say that is possible as a result of elements like restricted healthcare entry and cultural angle resulting in underreporting, not as a result of these situations are absent in these communities, consultants say.
In an announcement to ABC Information, the White Home reiterated that “charges of autism amongst Amish kids is decrease than that of non-Amish kids.”
CLAIM: Children get 80 vaccines, ‘horse-sized’ photographs; some components might not be protected
It isn’t correct that kids get this many photographs, neither is it correct that kids get an inappropriately giant quantity of vaccine.
Kids get roughly 30 vaccine doses earlier than the age of 18, excluding flu and COVID, in keeping with the present Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention pediatric vaccine recommendations. In recent times, the variety of components and components in vaccines has been reducing, doctors have explained.
The implication that kids’s immune methods get overwhelmed by vaccinations isn’t correct, doctors say. Kids’s immune methods are uncovered to many new micro organism and germs daily.
The vaccine schedule is beneficial based mostly on dosing and defending younger kids at sure occasions of their improvement of their lives. Sure vaccines have to be given a number of occasions to construct up immunity; in the meantime, sure ailments are extra harmful to youthful kids. Different vaccines are timed to supply group safety earlier than kids go off to highschool.
Secretary of Well being and Human Companies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listens as President Donald Trump makes an announcement on autism on the White Home, in Washington, September 22, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
In an announcement to ABC Information, the White Home mentioned, “The American childhood vaccine schedule requires considerably more vaccinations than the vaccine schedules of comparable rich nations equivalent to Denmark.”
CLAIM: Tylenol causes autism when taken throughout being pregnant, pregnant girls ought to ‘robust it out’
No research in individuals have proven that Tylenol (acetaminophen) straight causes autism. Some research present a doable hyperlink, different research present no such hyperlink, however all current research cease wanting exhibiting cause-and-effect.
One of many lead researchers of a significant Harvard evaluation exhibiting an elevated danger mentioned in an announcement, “Additional analysis is required to substantiate the affiliation and decide causality.”
In the meantime, fever throughout being pregnant is thought to have severe dangers, together with the next danger of stillbirth and miscarriage, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Basis, mentioned, “No new knowledge or scientific research had been introduced or shared. No new research have been revealed within the literature. No new shows on this subject had been made at scientific or medical conferences. As an alternative, President Trump talked about what he thinks and feels with out providing scientific proof.”
“The very best quality proof doesn’t present that acetaminophen causes autism,” Jessica Steier, president and founding father of Unbiased Science, advised ABC Information, “There have been dozens of research which have investigated this.”
CLAIM: Tylenol causes autism when given to younger kids
No research have proven any hyperlink between autism and giving Tylenol to younger kids, regardless of Trump’s repeated assertion that younger kids mustn’t obtain Tylenol. One giant analysis of a number of research discovered no hyperlink between giving acetaminophen after beginning and autism or ADHD in kids.
Steier mentioned that at this level, there isn’t any proof of any causal hyperlink between acetaminophen use in children and autism.
“Genetics performs the most important position in autism probability, adopted by environmental elements throughout being pregnant, and parental age,” she mentioned. “It’s unlikely that elements after beginning have a big influence on autism probability.”
CLAIM: There’s ‘no purpose’ to vaccinate newborns towards hepatitis B
Throughout Monday’s presser, Trump prompt there ought to be main modifications to the present suggestion of vaccinating all newborns towards hepatitis B, explaining that it’s a sexually transmitted illness.
He mentioned, “I might say, wait till the child is 12 years outdated and shaped.”
Hepatitis B could be transmitted sexually, however it may also be transmitted from mother-to-child throughout being pregnant, in keeping with the World Health Organization. That’s the reason current CDC guidance suggests infants are vaccinated within the hours after beginning. If not vaccinated, a hepatitis B an infection can lead to liver illness and liver most cancers.
In an announcement to ABC Information, the White Home mentioned, “Infants born to moms who wouldn’t have HepB don’t obtain any speedy well being advantages from HepB vaccination upon beginning.”However consultants refute that characterization.
“Pediatricians know firsthand that kids’s immune methods carry out higher after vaccination towards severe, contagious ailments like polio, measles, whooping cough and Hepatitis B. Spacing out or delaying vaccines means kids is not going to have immunity towards these ailments at occasions when they’re most in danger,” Dr. Susan Kressly, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, mentioned in an announcement.
ABC Information’ Dr. Jamie Parkerson contributed to this report.
