During a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, US President Donald Trump and his Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., talked about another highly controversial and scientifically fringe notion about what causes autism. This time, they said that either circumcision or the pain medicine (Tylenol/acetaminophen) provided during or after the procedure could have caused the neurodevelopmental issue.
Experts in autism quickly criticized and mocked the hypothesis, saying that the papers used to support it were very flawed. They said that this was just another example of Kennedy’s notorious love of “pseudoscience.”
What the Officials Said
During the conversation, both officials said that people should not take acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol.
Trump remarked at the gathering, “Don’t take Tylenol if you’re pregnant, and when the baby is born, don’t give it Tylenol.”
Kennedy’s Addition: Health Secretary Kennedy added, “There are two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism,” and claimed that the likely explanation was the medication, saying, “It’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol.”
Scientific Rebuttal to the Fringe Theory Autism professionals quickly rejected the officials’ allegations as unfounded:
No Causal Link on Tylenol/Acetaminophen: Helen Tager-Flusberg, an autism expert and professor at Boston University, told AFP, “None of this makes sense.” She made it clear that no research have shown that giving babies Tylenol increases their chance of autism when other factors are taken into account.
Medical Consensus: Medical groups say that pregnant women should only use acetaminophen when they really need it. Moreover, the most comprehensive study on the topic to date—published in JAMA last year and employing siblings as controls—identified no correlation between acetaminophen usage during pregnancy and autism risk.
On Circumcision Study faults: David Mandell, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, said that the most referenced publication on circumcision (published by Danish researchers in 2015) was “riddled with flaws.”
Confounding Variables: Mandell indicated that the study was based on a limited sample of Muslim boys who underwent circumcision in hospitals, as opposed to at home, which is the prevalent cultural norm. Since these kids were in the hospital, they were probably “otherwise medically compromised,” which could explain any greater prevalence of neurodevelopmental issues, not the treatment or the medicine itself.
Mandell said that a more recent evaluation of studies in this area finds no link between circumcision and any negative psychological impacts.
Kennedy’s Focus on Fake Science
This latest scandal fits with Health Secretary Kennedy’s history of pushing hypotheses that aren’t backed by science.
Kennedy, who used to be an environmental activist, spread false information about vaccines for decades before being hired.
He has made “finding the root causes of autism” a top priority during his time in office, while at the same time decreasing funding for research in other areas.
He has hired David Geier, a vaccine conspiracy theorist who was previously punished for practicing medicine without a license and testing unproven drugs on autistic children, to look into claims that vaccines are linked to autism. This link has been thoroughly disproven by many previous studies.