Amid all the storm and strife--and lies--about Donald Trump's and RFK, Jr.'s warnings about the dangers of using Tylenol during pregnancy, little things like the evidence behind the concerns were lost in the outrage.
As liberals howled in rage and pregnant women took enough Tylenol to overdose and harm their livers--there are mixed reports about the latter, but no question that millions of white pills were quaffed to spite Trump--few Pravda Media folks bothered to discuss the actual evidence both for and against the claim that acetaminophen can increase the risk out autism in children exposed in the womb.
Very grateful to @MartyMakary for making the time to talk to me about Tylenol, autism, and trust in public health:https://t.co/s7v0xKNYDO
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) September 25, 2025
So, of course, you have to leave it to The Free Press to do the work that American media won't do--and they aren't even illegal immigrants!
Bari Weiss sat down with FDA Chief Marty Makary to ask him a simple question: Why did the Department of Health and Human Services go public to warn women of this potential danger? Was it simple RFK, Jr. alarmism about autism, or is there a genuine concern?
Guess what? The evidence is not without ambiguity, but there are multiple studies suggesting a link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism in children.
There are a number of pathways involved in autism, each of which may be a cause. As we unlock the science behind these different pathways, we arrive at a point in our investigation where there is enough information that should be made available to the public in real time.
One finding that we believed rose to that level was the association between prenatal acetaminophen and autism—an association that was affirmed in a Harvard review published four weeks ago. One of the co-authors of the study, the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said that there is a causal association between prenatal acetaminophen and the neurodevelopmental disorders of ADHD and autism spectrum disorder. When the dean of the Harvard School of Public Health is waving a flag in the air about an expanding epidemic that barely existed a generation ago, an epidemic that affects over two million kids in a way that makes their lives brutal, and we know that most acetaminophen prescribed is unnecessary, do you have a moral obligation to let the public know about this body of research?
We felt that we had an obligation to do so. We did not limit the availability of acetaminophen. But we made the information available.
This was once known as "informed consent," a principle that has fallen out of fashion in these hyper-politicized times. These days, you only need to know one thing and one thing only about whether you should take a drug: Does Donald Trump approve or not?
This is unhealthy regardless of what side of the aisle you are on, although we all know that the preponderance of the people who use this standard lean left.
So Trump tells people to not take Tylenol out of an abundance caution for them and their child's health, and what do these women do?
— Jeffery Mead (@the_jefferymead) September 24, 2025
They go and take Tylenol just to "stick it to Trump". It doesn't matter what it is. They want to oppose Trump for the sake of opposing Trump.… pic.twitter.com/CzM3ZZMQxZ
No drug is perfectly safe--this is something that used to be taken for granted, but now that claim entirely depends on what anybody associated with Trump says. Kamala Harris famously said in 2020 that she would not take the COVID vaccine if Donald Trump recommended it, but once in office, the Biden administration mandated for millions of people and claimed perfect safety for everybody, including pregnant women--a truly insane position.
Makary pointed out the obvious: that doctors haven't been informing women of the potential dangers as a matter of routine. As with many side effects, drugs won't get approved without being generally considered safer than the alternative, but all the known or potential risks are supposed to be disclosed.
In the Dear Doctor letter we sent to physicians on this topic, we acknowledged that there are conflicting studies. But given the magnitude of the epidemic, this information should at least be considered when recommending acetaminophen to pregnant women. I can tell you from my personal experience, when my wife was recently pregnant, she had a low-grade fever and was told to take acetaminophen. There was zero discussion of any potential risks.
We feel that there’s a duty not to tell people what they should be doing in decisions with their doctor, but to make information about those risks available.
Anybody who has gone to a doctor has had a similar experience. Very fine doctors have made decisions about the risks and benefits of a drug, and after a while, they just casually dispense it without discussing it with patients. It's not because they are intentionally hiding the potential risks from patients, but rather, they have made their own judgments about risks versus benefits and casually assume that their judgment is sufficient.
That is not how it is supposed to work. The ultimate decision is the patient's, and the only way to make a decision well is to be informed. That is basic public health.
Makary and RFK, Jr. were not saying definitively that Tylenol causes autism. They were saying that studies indicated a potential risk, and it's not just the Harvard/Mt. Sinai study that does. Others, going back many years, have suggested neurological harm for fetuses, and women should be told that even if the doctors are skeptical.
Chances are very good that if Tylenol were going before the FDA today, instead of being approved more than 70 years ago, there would be a black box warning spelling out the potentially fatal complications of overdoses. The safe and effective range is remarkably close to the overdose range--something that is generally frowned upon for obvious reasons--and there would be blaring warnings required.
That doesn't mean Tylenol shouldn't be used--I occasionally use it--but plenty of people have damaged their livers by taking doses of Tylenol and combining it with cold medicines that also have acetaminophen in them. That is dangerous, and people should be aware of that.
As I wrote yesterday, something isn't false just because Trump says it is true, and RFK, Jr., whatever you think of him, shouldn't be seen as a guidestar either for or against using a product.
But there it is. We live in stupid times. McDonald's has to warn you that coffee is hot, Subway has to inform its customers that eating the wrapper is a bad idea, and pregnant women apparently need a Democrat to tell them not to kill themselves with Tylenol.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member