Tag: Tylenol

New research bolsters evidence that Tylenol doesn’t raise the risk of autism despite Trump’s claims

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A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities — adding to the growing body of research refuting claims made by the Trump administration.President Donald Trump last year promoted unproven ties between the painkiller and autism, telling pregnant women: “Don’t take Tylenol.”Related video above — Stop Overpaying for Meds: Smart Ways to Cut Prescription CostsThe latest research review, published Friday in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health, looked at 43 studies and concluded that the most rigorous ones, such as those that compare siblings, provide strong evidence that taking the drug commonly known as paracetamol outside of the U.S. does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.It’s “safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Asma Khalil. “It remains … the first line of treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant woman has pain or fever.”While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy, more haven’t found a connection.A review published last year in BMJ said existing evidence doesn’t clearly link the drug’s use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. A study published the previous year in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found it wasn’t associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in an analysis looking at siblings.But the White House has focused on research supporting a link.One of the papers cited on its web page, published in BMC Environmental Health last year, analyzed results from 46 previous studies and found that they supported evidence of an association between Tylenol exposure during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers noted that the drug is still important for treating pain and fever during pregnancy, but said steps should be taken to limit its use.Some health experts have raised concerns about that review and the way Trump administration officials portrayed it, pointing out that only a fraction of the studies focus on autism and that an association doesn’t prove cause and effect. Khalil, a fetal medicine specialist at St. George’s Hospital, London, said that review included some studies that were small and some that were prone to bias.The senior author of that review was Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who noted in the paper that he served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli did not respond to an email seeking comment on his study.Overall, Khalil said, research cited in the public debate showing small associations between acetaminophen and autism is vulnerable to confounding factors. For example, a pregnant woman might take Tylenol for fevers, and fever during pregnancy may raise the risk for autism. Research can also be affected by “recall bias,” such as when the mother of an autistic child doesn’t accurately remember how much of the drug she used during pregnancy after the fact, Khalil said.When researchers prioritize the most rigorous study approaches – such as comparing siblings to account for the influence of things like genetics – “the association is not seen,” she said.Genetics are the biggest risk factor for autism, experts say. Other risks include the age of the child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy.In a commentary published with the latest review, a group of researchers who weren’t involved — from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and elsewhere —cautioned that discouraging the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could lead to inadequate pain or fever control. And that may hurt the baby as well as the mother. Untreated fever and infection in a pregnant woman poses “well-established risks to fetal survival and neurodevelopment,” they said.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities — adding to the growing body of research refuting claims made by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump last year promoted unproven ties between the painkiller and autism, telling pregnant women: “Don’t take Tylenol.”

Related video above — Stop Overpaying for Meds: Smart Ways to Cut Prescription Costs

The latest research review, published Friday in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health, looked at 43 studies and concluded that the most rigorous ones, such as those that compare siblings, provide strong evidence that taking the drug commonly known as paracetamol outside of the U.S. does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.

It’s “safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Asma Khalil. “It remains … the first line of treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant woman has pain or fever.”

While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy, more haven’t found a connection.

A review published last year in BMJ said existing evidence doesn’t clearly link the drug’s use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. A study published the previous year in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found it wasn’t associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in an analysis looking at siblings.

But the White House has focused on research supporting a link.

One of the papers cited on its web page, published in BMC Environmental Health last year, analyzed results from 46 previous studies and found that they supported evidence of an association between Tylenol exposure during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers noted that the drug is still important for treating pain and fever during pregnancy, but said steps should be taken to limit its use.

Some health experts have raised concerns about that review and the way Trump administration officials portrayed it, pointing out that only a fraction of the studies focus on autism and that an association doesn’t prove cause and effect. Khalil, a fetal medicine specialist at St. George’s Hospital, London, said that review included some studies that were small and some that were prone to bias.

The senior author of that review was Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who noted in the paper that he served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli did not respond to an email seeking comment on his study.

Overall, Khalil said, research cited in the public debate showing small associations between acetaminophen and autism is vulnerable to confounding factors. For example, a pregnant woman might take Tylenol for fevers, and fever during pregnancy may raise the risk for autism. Research can also be affected by “recall bias,” such as when the mother of an autistic child doesn’t accurately remember how much of the drug she used during pregnancy after the fact, Khalil said.

When researchers prioritize the most rigorous study approaches – such as comparing siblings to account for the influence of things like genetics – “the association is not seen,” she said.

Genetics are the biggest risk factor for autism, experts say. Other risks include the age of the child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy.

In a commentary published with the latest review, a group of researchers who weren’t involved — from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and elsewhere —cautioned that discouraging the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could lead to inadequate pain or fever control. And that may hurt the baby as well as the mother. Untreated fever and infection in a pregnant woman poses “well-established risks to fetal survival and neurodevelopment,” they said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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January 17, 2026
New research bolsters evidence that Tylenol doesn’t raise the risk of autism despite Trump’s claims

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By LAURA UNGAR

A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities – adding to the growing body of research refuting claims made by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump last year promoted unproven ties between the painkiller and autism, telling pregnant women: “Don’t take Tylenol.”

The latest research review, published Friday in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health, looked at 43 studies and concluded that the most rigorous ones, such as those that compare siblings, provide strong evidence that taking the drug commonly known as paracetamol outside of the U.S. does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.

It’s “safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Asma Khalil. “It remains … the first line of treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant woman has pain or fever.”

While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy, more haven’t found a connection.

A review published last year in BMJ said existing evidence doesn’t clearly link the drug’s use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. A study published the previous year in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found it wasn’t associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in an analysis looking at siblings.

But the White House has focused on research supporting a link.

One of the papers cited on its web page, published in BMC Environmental Health last year, analyzed results from 46 previous studies and found that they supported evidence of an association between Tylenol exposure during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers noted that the drug is still important for treating pain and fever during pregnancy, but said steps should be taken to limit its use.

Some health experts have raised concerns about that review and the way Trump administration officials portrayed it, pointing out that only a fraction of the studies focus on autism and that an association doesn’t prove cause and effect. Khalil, a fetal medicine specialist at St. George’s Hospital, London, said that review included some studies that were small and some that were prone to bias.

The senior author of that review was Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who noted in the paper that he served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli did not respond to an email seeking comment on his study.

Overall, Khalil said, research cited in the public debate showing small associations between acetaminophen and autism is vulnerable to confounding factors. For example, a pregnant woman might take Tylenol for fevers, and fever during pregnancy may raise the risk for autism. Research can also be affected by “recall bias,” such as when the mother of an autistic child doesn’t accurately remember how much of the drug she used during pregnancy after the fact, Khalil said.

When researchers prioritize the most rigorous study approaches – such as comparing siblings to account for the influence of things like genetics – “the association is not seen,” she said.

Genetics are the biggest risk factor for autism, experts say. Other risks include the age of the child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy.

In a commentary published with the latest review, a group of researchers who weren’t involved — from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and elsewhere —cautioned that discouraging the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could lead to inadequate pain or fever control. And that may hurt the baby as well as the mother. Untreated fever and infection in a pregnant woman poses “well-established risks to fetal survival and neurodevelopment,” they said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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January 16, 2026
Tylenol, vaccines, autism: Being a doctor in a year of lies

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Dr. Mona Amin clicked on the email.

The South Florida pediatric practice where she worked was changing its rules on whether to accept patients who refuse routine vaccines. Since 2017, Pediatric Associates disclosed to families that its physicians reserved the right to stop seeing patients who disregarded their advice.

That was now going away under political pressure, the email said.

“The state of Florida has made strong statements about our continued ability to maintain this policy, directly threatening our ability to participate in Medicaid,” Amin read aloud before stopping.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just so sad right now.”

It was Amin’s latest disappointment over what was happening to her field; far from her first. Pediatric Associates did not respond to our questions about the policy change.

Under the strain of a government increasingly influenced and led by antivaccine advocates, health care professionals like Amin find themselves drawn into political controversy.

Dr. Mona Amin with her son at Pediatric Associates in Florida in September 2020. (Handout photo courtesy Dr. Mona Amin)

Since President Donald Trump took office and selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the nation’s top health official, misinformation that simmered for years before the COVID-19 pandemic now came fast. The people with the power and reach to turn the levers on public health discourse and policy were seizing the moment.

Trump and Kennedy told Americans that taking Tylenol while pregnant may cause autism, even though decades of research doesn’t support that. There’s no known single cause for autism spectrum disorder. They attacked childhood vaccines as excessive and harmful, exaggerating the number of shots children receive.

Kennedy has falsely assailed the efficacy and contents of vaccines such as the one that protects against measles, mumps and rubella from childhood. Studies show the MMR vaccine is 97% effective and its protection does not wane. Citing no data, Trump said the vaccine should be broken up into shots for each infection risk, although it’s been effectively administered since 1971 and adverse effects are rare.

In Amin’s state of Florida, health leaders are seeking to end the rules that require children to come to school vaccinated, at a time when childhood vaccination rates have already been dropping. About 88% of Florida’s kindergartners are up to date on vaccines today, down from about 94% in 2019 — both figures below the 95% rate typically needed to prevent infectious disease outbreaks.

Amin and other pediatricians see these falsehoods manifest in parents’ real-time decisions. About 61% of 1,000 physicians said in an August survey that their patients were influenced by misinformation, and nearly 86% said the amount of misinformation had increased in five years.

More parents are declining the vitamin K shot for their newborns. Administered hours after birth since the 1960s, the shot prevents bleeding into the brain, intestines and other internal organs. Parents’ refusal is leading to rising cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infants.

Measles cases reached a 30-year high in the U.S. in 2025, with nearly 1,800 cases reported in 42 states as of November. Cases of whooping cough are also on the rise. Pediatricians we spoke with said parents of immunocompromised children are asking whether they should send their kids to school at all.

Some parents are hostile. Amin said she’s been screamed at around a dozen times.

Once, she remembers, a mother came into the practice with her toddler and a piece of paper in her hand.

As Amin walked into the room to say hello, the mother slammed the paper down on her desk. It was a document noting her refusal to vaccinate her child, a new patient.

“Before you begin, I need you to know that I’m not injecting my kids with that poison,” Amin recalls the mother saying.

“Let’s talk about it,” Amin said, but her efforts to keep the conversation open didn’t work. The mother took her toddler and left.

The challenge for Amin was real: How could she provide meaningful patient care while competing with large-scale medical misinformation that increasingly questioned or disregarded the validity of her expertise?

Consequences of the Trump administration’s lies about Tylenol, vaccines and autism

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sept. 22, 2025, alongside others, including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (AP)

When Trump and Kennedy made their claims about Tylenol and autism in a Sept. 22 Oval Office press conference, Amin was with a patient. Her phone flooded with messages from colleagues and friends:

“Oh my god.”

“Did you hear about this?”

“What is going on?”

The president had given Americans an unsupported medical warning: Taking Tylenol during pregnancy “can be associated with a very increased risk of autism” for children, he said.

“If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol and don’t give it to the baby after the baby is born,” Trump said. He told women to “fight like hell” not to take it. Tylenol is the only over-the-counter pain reliever approved for pregnant women. Forgoing treatment can lead to uncontrolled fevers, causing maternal and fetal harm.

Amin collected her thoughts. She was glad for the focus on autism, but frustrated by the administration’s headline-grabbing take about Tylenol’s active ingredient, acetaminophen.

Research so far doesn’t support Trump’s statements. Some studies have found an association between autism prevalence and use of acetaminophen during pregnancy; others have found none. None of the research has proven it causes autism, a condition first identified in 1943, more than a decade before the Food and Drug Administration approved Tylenol.

“Why can’t we just explain the truth, the nuance?” Amin said. “Because the nuance isn’t as spicy, right? It’s much easier to say, ‘Tylenol causes this’ than to say, ‘Hey there may be a concern with Tylenol but it’s not well studied. At this point, it’s best to take it as recommended if you have pain.’”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stood by Trump’s Tylenol comments in a statement to PolitiFact. The administration, she said, doesn’t believe that “popping more pills is always the answer for better health.”

In a statement following Trump’s September press conference, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ president Dr. Steven Fleischman said any suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are “highly concerning to clinicians” and “irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy.”

Fleischman said the announcement isn’t backed by the full body of evidence and “dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children.”

The moment was one of many over the course of 2025 that made pediatric medicine harder for Amin and her colleagues.

In November, when the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention edited its website to falsely assert vaccines may cause autism, Amin was on vacation and tried not to let the news affect her attention.

In December, when the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee members voted to end its decades-old universal recommendation for a hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth, she was at her daughter’s school event.

“I’m constantly in different environments when these things happen,” she said, “and honestly, the feelings that come with it almost every single time are just, ‘What is going on? Where is this coming from?”

In each instance, Amin made the changing guidance a topic for PedsDocTalk, the social media and podcast account she started in 2019 in an effort to improve expert online communication about child development, health and parenting.

Born after a conversation she had with a patient’s mother about fevers, PedsDocTalk today has around 2 million followers across all platforms.

Amin shares videos to help parents and caregivers navigate child development, illness and behavior — giving guidance on everything from infant milestones to identifying childhood rashes. In one recent video, she provides parents with tips on ways to raise emotionally regulated boys. In another, she talks about how to help children cope with fear.

Since Trump took office in January, her audience numbers jumped: Instagram followers alone doubled to 1.4 million — and more of the topics she tackles are related to the health confusion his administration stokes. Besides directing the CDC to falsely link routine childhood vaccines to autism, Kennedy said during an October White House Cabinet meeting that circumcision and autism are connected. Studies don’t show that. In June, he also falsely told Tucker Carlson that the hepatitis B vaccine is a “likely culprit” of autism. There is no evidence of that.

“There’s a sense of authority behind the pseudoscience, because it’s coming in press conferences, from official government documents. And when the government is repeating pseudoscience, it directly impacts policy,” Amin said.

This isn’t what she expected her job would be.

Amin was about 15 when she decided she wanted to be a doctor. Growing up in the Los Angeles area, she drew inspiration from her own physician, a doctor of osteopathic medicine. He was funny, listened to her and gave her meaningful advice. He took the time to talk to her about her mental wellbeing as much as her physical health.

He was real with her. When she kept coming in sick with colds, for example, he called her out on how her nail-biting habit was exposing her to viruses. She quit, and the frequent colds stopped.

Amin entered medical school to become an osteopathic doctor in 2008. She started practicing pediatrics in New York in 2015 before moving to Florida in 2017 and having two children of her own.

Her plan was to stay in outpatient medicine for the rest of her life. But reality altered her outlook.

Medical lies pressure a field already under strain

Between misinformation-fueled aggression, growing patient loads and regular news alerts about the administration’s changing public health guidance, Amin found herself unusually irritable.

“Any ask was a big ask,” she said, “I was just tapped out.”

When she started having panic attacks on the way to work, she knew something needed to change.

Amin isn’t alone in her burnout.

Numbers show pediatric care is under strain, and people in the field say misinformation isn’t helping. With parts of the country already facing critical pediatrician shortages, families struggle to find care and can wait months for appointments in some areas, especially for subspecialty doctors.

Amin teaches residents, and fewer medical school graduates are choosing to be pediatricians. Those already in the field are also leaving traditional practices, citing increasing falsehoods and doctor distrust, among other concerns.

Like Amin, more providers are turning to social media to share their expertise on platforms increasingly populated by people peddling unregulated wellness products and unsubstantiated health advice.

Although we found no clear data documenting the rise of doctor influencers, industry groups and researchers acknowledge the phenomenon in articles exploring its benefits, drawbacks and need for quality control. Even artificial intelligence has jumped into the mix, falsely portraying doctors on social media in order to spread falsehoods and market products.

Amin eventually reduced her office hours. She spent more time online talking about the topics she was often too rushed to discuss in person. Her panic attacks stopped.

By the time she received the email from her practice announcing its vaccine policy change, Amin had already accepted a new position at a telehealth venture that she hopes will give her more flexibility and more opportunities for one-on-one patient care.

Amin is optimistic about her future, but remains disturbed by the distress doctors are facing.

“It’s always going to be the good people who are tired and burnt out and can’t handle this moral injury of having to fight for what they wanted to do when they went into pediatrics,” she said.

“You’re going to lose some of the most amazing clinicians, because they don’t — they can’t do it. Their mental health is suffering, and they just can’t do it anymore.”

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

READ MORE: What to make of an abysmal year for truth? PolitiFact names 2025 the Year of the Lies

READ MORE: Year of the Lies: Farmer says some Trump tariff statements ‘as far from the truth as you can get’

READ MORE: Year of the Lies: ‘Worst of the worst’? ICE deports brothers after years of check-ins, good conduct

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December 17, 2025
Kimberly-Clark to acquire Tylenol maker Kenvue in $48.7 billion deal

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Kimberly-Clark on Monday said it is buying Tylenol maker Kenvue in a cash and stock deal worth about $48.7 billion, combining the Huggies manufacturer with the owner of Aveeno and Band-Aid.

Kenvue shareholders will receive $3.50 per share in cash and 0.14625 Kimberly-Clark shares for each Kenvue share held at closing. That amounts to $21.01 per share, based on the closing price of Kimberly-Clark shares on Friday.

Kimberly-Clark shareholders are expected to own about 54% of the combined company. Kenvue shareholders will own about 46%.

The combination merges two businesses that own major consumer health brands, ranging from Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex and Scott lines to Kenvue’s Johnson’s and Neutrogena.

Recently, Kenvue’s Tylenol has drawn headlines after President Trump announced the Food and Drug Administration believes the use of the pain medication’s active ingredient, acetaminophen, during pregnancy can be associated with an increased risk of autism. Medical experts and Kenvue say Tylenol is safe.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of next year. It still needs approval from shareholders of both companies.

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November 3, 2025
Texas attorney general sues Tylenol manufacturers over autism claims

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Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the makers of the drug Tylenol on Tuesday, claiming that they hid from consumers that exposure to the drug in pregnancy increases the risk of autism in children.

Paxton filed suit against Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, accusing them of “deceptively marketing” Tylenol to pregnant mothers. Paxton’s suit comes about a month after President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. repeated the unfounded claim that exposure to Tylenol during pregnancy can cause autism and other developmental disorders.

A group of leading autism scientists formed a group, the Coalition of Autism Scientists, to share credible scientific information about the causes of autism in response to the information being shared by Trump and Kennedy.

There is no singular cause of autism, according to the coalition. In a statement, the scientists said, “The data cited do not support the claim that Tylenol causes autism and leucovorin is a cure, and only stoke fear and falsely suggest hope when there is no simple answer.”

Paxton’s lawsuit also claims that Kenvue was created to shield Johnson & Johnson from liability over Tylenol.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Kenvue reiterated that acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women.

“We will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims and respond per the legal process,” Melissa Witt said in an email. “We stand firmly with the global medical community that acknowledges the safety of acetaminophen and believe we will continue to be successful in litigation as these claims lack legal merit and scientific support.”

A company spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson said in an email: “Johnson & Johnson divested its consumer health business years ago, and all rights and liabilities associated with the sale of its over-the-counter products, including Tylenol (acetaminophen), are owned by Kenvue.”

Paxton said this lawsuit was his latest action against Big Pharma.

“These corporations lied for decades, knowingly endangering millions to line their pockets,” Paxton said in a statement. “Additionally, seeing that the day of reckoning was coming, Johnson & Johnson attempted to escape responsibility by illegally offloading their liability onto a different company. By holding Big Pharma accountable for poisoning our people, we will help Make America Healthy Again.”

Ciara McCarthy

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Ciara McCarthy covers health and wellness as part of the Star-Telegram’s Crossroads Lab. She came to Fort Worth after three years in Victoria, Texas, where she worked at the Victoria Advocate. Ciara is focused on equipping people and communities with information they need to make decisions about their lives and well-being. Please reach out with your questions about public health or the health care system. Email cmccarthy@star-telegram.com or call or text 817-203-4391.

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October 28, 2025
Texas Sues Tylenol Following Trump Administration’s Unproven Autism Claims

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Texas attorney general Ken Paxton attends the executive-order signing ceremony to reduce the size and scope of the Education Department in the East Room of the White House on March 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Last month, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly drew a link between acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, and autism, urging pregnant women to abstain from the drug despite many medical experts challenging that assertion.

On Monday, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, a spinoff company that currently manufactures Tylenol, alleging that the corporations “deceptively marketed Tylenol as the only safe painkiller for pregnant women” despite knowing of potential risks to babies and young children.

In the filing, Paxton directly invoked the Trump administration’s findings on the issue, saying that the federal government “confirmed what Defendants knew for years: acetaminophen use during pregnancy likely causes conditions like [autism spectrum disorder] and ADHD,” in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act.

The lawsuit also alleges that Johnson & Johnson spun off its consumer health division and “fraudulently transferred its Tylenol-related liabilities” to Kenvue in order to “shield its illgotten assets from the families they harmed.”

Paxton’s lawsuit comes as the attorney general is seeking to challenge Republican senator John Cornyn for his seat, a primary that is predicted to be one of the most expensive of the 2026 election cycle.

In a statement, Kenvue denounced Paxton’s lawsuit as “scientifically unfounded,” saying that the company is “deeply concerned by the perpetuation of misinformation on the safety of acetaminophen and the potential impact that could have on the health of American women and children.”

“We will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims and respond per the legal process. We stand firmly with the global medical community that acknowledges the safety of acetaminophen and believe we will continue to be successful in litigation as these claims lack legal merit and scientific support,” the statement read.

Trump’s September press conference on his administration’s findings was criticized by numerous medical experts who pushed back on the idea that a link between Tylenol and autism had been definitively proved and blasted the president’s spreading of misinformation on vaccines in the same event. But Trump has continued to promote unsupported medical advice with zeal on social media. “Pregnant Women, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON, BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS!,” he wrote on Truth Social Sunday.

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October 28, 2025
Texas attorney general sues Tylenol makers, claiming links to autism

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(CNN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the companies Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, claiming that they “deceptively” marketed Tylenol to pregnant mothers and that the medication is tied to an increased risk of autism. Kenvue said in a statement that the medication is safe and the company will “vigorously defend” against the claims.

The lawsuit, dated Monday and filed in the District Court of Panola County, Texas, comes about a month after President Donald Trump publicly claimed that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy can be associated with an increased risk of autism in the child, despite decades of evidence that the medication is safe.

“Big Pharma betrayed America by profiting off of pain and pushing pills regardless of the risks. These corporations lied for decades, knowingly endangering millions to line their pockets,” Paxton, the state’s Republican attorney general, who is also running for US Senate, said in a news release Tuesday. “By holding Big Pharma accountable for poisoning our people, we will help Make America Healthy Again.”

The lawsuit claims that Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act because they knew that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, “is dangerous to unborn children and young children” and “they hid this danger and deceptively marketed Tylenol as the only safe painkiller for pregnant women,” according to the lawsuit.

The state’s lawsuit has requested a jury trial and, in part, calls for the companies to “destroy any marketing or advertising materials in their possession that represent, directly or indirectly, that Tylenol is safe for pregnant women and children.” The lawsuit also calls for the companies to pay civil penalties to the state in the amount of $10,000 per violation.

“Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products. We are deeply concerned by the perpetuation of misinformation on the safety of acetaminophen and the potential impact that could have on the health of American women and children,” Kenvue said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

“We will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims and respond per the legal process. We stand firmly with the global medical community that acknowledges the safety of acetaminophen and believe we will continue to be successful in litigation as these claims lack legal merit and scientific support,” the statement said in part. “We also encourage expecting mothers to speak to their health professional before taking any over-the-counter medication, including acetaminophen, as indicated on our product label for Tylenol®.”

In a statement, a Johnson & Johnson company spokesperson said it “divested its consumer health business years ago, and all rights and liabilities associated with the sale of its over-the-counter products, including Tylenol (acetaminophen), are owned by Kenvue.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit that says makers of Tylenol “deceptively marketed” the medication as the “only safe painkiller for pregnant women.” Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP / Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Experts have said there are multiple causes of autism, and the science showing a connection between autism and Tylenol is not settled.

“Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy,” Dr. Steven J. Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement in September.

“Acetaminophen is one of the few options available to pregnant patients to treat pain and fever, which can be harmful to pregnant people when left untreated. Maternal fever, headaches as an early sign of preeclampsia, and pain are all managed with the therapeutic use of acetaminophen, making acetaminophen essential to the people who need it,” he said. “The conditions people use acetaminophen to treat during pregnancy are far more dangerous than any theoretical risks and can create severe morbidity and mortality for the pregnant person and the fetus.”

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Jacqueline Howard and CNN

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October 28, 2025
Tylenol’s maker pushes back against possible label change linking pain reliever’s use in pregnancy to autism

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(CNN) — Kenvue, the American company that makes Tylenol, sa y s the US Food and Drug Administration should not make proposed changes to the product’s safety label to reflect research about a possible connection between its use in pregnancy and diagnoses of autism or ADHD in children.

Kenvue says that acetaminophen, the generic name for the painkiller and fever reducer also known as paracetamol, is “one of the most studied medicines in history” and that “adoption of the proposed labeling revisions would be arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.”

Tylenol generates $1 billion annually for the company and is considered the company’s biggest-selling brand, according to the brokerage Morningstar.

The current label instructs people who are pregnant or breastfeeding to “ask a health professional before use.”

The push for a label change came after President Donald Trump held a news conference last month in which he told pregnant women who are in pain to try to “tough it out” instead of taking Tylenol, even though acetaminophen is the one over-the-counter pain reliever considered safe for pregnant people to take.

The president claimed without evidence that Tylenol use during pregnancy was linked to a “very increased risk of autism.”

“Fight like hell not to take it,” Trump urged.

Most people use acetaminophen at some point during their pregnancy, studies show. Other common pain or fever treatments like ibuprofen or regular-dose aspirin can increase the risk of serious complications when used during pregnancy.

Untreated pain or fever can be dangerous for the mother and the fetus, possibly leading to problems like miscarriage, birth defects or high blood pressure.

Beginning the process to change the safety label on acetaminophen products was just one action the Trump administration planned to take.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at the news conference last month that his agency would launch a public service campaign about the issue.

The FDA also sent a letter to physicians saying that the choice to take Tylenol “still belongs with parents” but that use during pregnancy may cause an “increased risk of neurological conditions such as autism and ADHD in children.”

However, the letter also noted that “a causal relationship has not been established” and that studies about a link are “contradictory.”

The Informed Consent Action Network, an anti-vaccine nonprofit with close ties Kennedy, said in a letter dated the day of Trump’s news conference that it had filed a citizen’s petition with the FDA. Such filings are a way for individuals, industry or consumer groups to ask the agency to take action on a specific issue.

The petition says that because of the “urgent public health implications,” the FDA should act quickly to add a more detailed warning to the labels of over-the-counter drug products that contain acetaminophen to spell out that “studies show that frequent use of this product during pregnancy may increase your child’s risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.”

On Friday, Kenvue asked the FDA to deny the petition, saying that suggested changes to the label are unsupported by scientific evidence “and would represent an unexplained departure from FDA’s longstanding position on acetaminophen during pregnancy.”

The company said it met with Kennedy in early September, after the HHS secretary reached out to say he believed there was a connection between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism, and it told him there was no such link.

An HHS spokesperson said Monday that the FDA doesn’t comment on product-specific matters.

The FDA website on acetaminophen has not changed to reflect the Trump administration’s views. It says it was last updated in August and specifies, “to date, FDA has not found clear evidence that appropriate use of acetaminophen during pregnancy causes adverse pregnancy, birth, neurobehavioral, or developmental outcomes.”

Acetaminophen has been studied for decades to find any problems it may cause in pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists. Not one reputable study has concluded that acetaminophen use in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children.

That group points to a study published last year of more than 2 million children that found no significant associations between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability.

Ano t her study published in August analyzed 46 studies on acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Six of the studies specifically examined acetaminophen use and autism. Overall, the analysis concluded that there was “strong evidence of an association” between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism, but the authors were careful to say that the paper could only show an association, the research could not show that acetaminophen caused autism.

“We recommend judicious acetaminophen use — lowest effective dose, shortest duration — under medical guidance, tailored to individual risk–benefit assessments, rather than a broad limitation,” the researchers wrote in that analysis.

After the Trump news conference, medicine regulatory agencies for the European Union and the United Kingdom and Health Canada quickly issued statements confirming that taking the over-the-counter pain-reliever during pregnancy remains safe.

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Jen Christensen and CNN

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October 20, 2025
Does circumcision lead to autism? No study shows that

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Circumcision doesn’t typically come up at White House Cabinet meetings, but Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently brought up the procedure in the context of autism.

“There’s two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol,” said Kennedy, who like President Donald Trump cited shaky research about the drug and autism when warning pregnant women against taking Tylenol.

Circumcision is the removal of penis foreskin, a typically elective procedure performed on infants largely for religious and cultural reasons.

We looked at the studies, one from 2013 and one from 2015.

Neither showed that circumcision causes autism. Neither had data on whether acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, was given to the patients in the studies.

The two papers found some association between circumcision and autism, but both had significant limitations, including small sample sizes.

Authors of both papers advised further research would be needed to confirm a relationship.

Decades of research shows that acetaminophen is safe for infants and children when used as recommended and under a pediatrician’s guidance. No research shows taking acetaminophen as a child causes increased autism risk.

Acetaminophen is not universally recommended for circumcisions. Infant circumcision is typically performed with a local anesthetic. Some hospital guidelines advise parents that they can give infants acetaminophen as needed for pain in the days following the procedure.

Asked about Kennedy’s statements on circumcision, a Health and Human Services Department spokesperson pointed us to the secretary’s Oct. 10 X post in which he pointed to the 2015 study and an unpublished research paper from 2025.

Unpublished article is not new research, a review of existing studies

The 2025 paper Kennedy referenced in his X post has not been peer-reviewed. It’s considered a pre-print, which means it hasn’t been vetted by other scientific experts in the field, a standard process for scholarly research that aims to ensure its quality and rigor prior to publication. The paper was authored by researchers at WPLab, a North Carolina company that promotes a link between acetaminophen and autism. In September, The Atlantic reported that WPLab CEO William Parker, a retired Duke University associate professor, has been in frequent contact with Kennedy.

The WPLab paper starts by saying in its abstract that “overwhelming evidence” shows acetaminophen exposure in babies “triggers many if not most cases of autism spectrum disorder.” The company makes similar statements about causation in several other papers, but that view does not reflect scientific consensus.

The premise of the article posted this summer is that “evidence that acetaminophen triggers autism” has been “ignored and mishandled” in existing published research. It is a critique and analysis; it doesn’t represent any new scientific research. It points to the 2013 and 2015 studies about circumcision and autism, but misrepresents the scope of the 2015 study’s findings. It does not explain that the 2013 study was a basic population-level look at circumcision rates and autism rates.

2013 study was a ‘hypothesis generating’ exercise that compared circumcision rates with autism rates

Authored by UMass-Lowell epidemiologists, the 2013 peer-reviewed study aimed to see if there was an association (not causation) between giving young infants acetaminophen and developing autism. The study was described by the authors as a “hypothesis generating exploratory analysis,” meaning it wasn’t intended to reach a final conclusion about a link.

Circumcision was not the focus. Data about the procedure was analyzed as if it were a proxy for giving Tylenol to a baby. But the study did not confirm whether the drug was given in the cases it cited.

The study looked at nine countries. For each country, it collected two pieces of data — the percentage of the population that was circumcised and its prevalence of autism in men. In some cases, the circumcision rate was estimated based on the number of Jewish and Muslim men in a country.

It used those few pieces of data to calculate a correlation.

“You can’t really do a correlation with any level of legitimacy from a statistical point of view on such a small sample size,” said Helen Tager-Flusberg, professor emerita at Boston University and founder of the Coalition of Autism Scientists.

The study said there was a positive association between a population’s circumcision rates and its autism rates, but cautioned there were “significant limitations” to the study and that “correlation is not causation and as such no causal inference is intended.” The authors called for more research to “confirm or disprove this association.”

Despite having no data on whether kids represented in the data were given acetaminophen, the study linked the finding to the drug’s use by looking at data from before 1995, around the time when acetaminophen became a tested treatment for circumcision-related pain. The study found a slightly weaker correlation pre-1995.

2015 study was in Denmark where circumcision is rare, didn’t assess acetaminophen use

The 2015 Danish study explored whether being circumcised meant a boy was more likely to be diagnosed with autism before age 10. The study did not examine acetaminophen use.

The study found that the risk of autism was 46 to 62% increased in boys who were circumcised, but this finding needs a lot of context.

First, circumcision in Denmark is rare and happens mostly among Jewish and Muslim families. But the study had only circumcision data from hospitals and doctor’s offices, meaning it didn’t count procedures that happened in home religious ceremonies.

Additionally, because circumcision and autism diagnoses are both uncommon, those groups’ sample sizes were small. In a study of 342,877 boys born between 1994 and 2003, fewer than 1% (3,347 boys) were circumcised and around 1.5% (5,033 boys) had autism. Just 57 boys had both.

“We’re talking about a relatively small number of children out of this very large Danish population,” Tager-Flusberg said. When the study broke the samples down by faith groups, or eliminated incomplete data from the analysis, its findings were more dramatic but based on even smaller numbers. The 62% increased risk of autism finding was based on just 24 boys. Other researchers in the field publicly criticized the study for issues with its methods.

In 2019, one of the study’s authors, Morten Frisch proposed that the Danish Parliament should prohibit circumcision until the age 18.

Although the 2015 study did not look at acetaminophen use, the WPLab paper cited it as “some of the most compelling ‘standalone’ evidence that acetaminophen triggers autism in susceptible babies and children” — a statement Kennedy quoted from in his X post.

“Neither of these studies take into consideration a whole range of potential cultural demographic or other confounding variables that one must always be aware of when looking at associations between some sort of risk factor and autism,” Tager-Flusberg said.

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October 20, 2025
RFK Jr. Complains About TikTok Video of Woman Taking Tylenol With a ‘Baby in Her Placenta’

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President Donald Trump held one of his televised “cabinet meetings” from the White House on Thursday, which mostly serves as an opportunity for members of the Trump regime to fawn over the president in nauseating ways. But Trump’s health secretary took the opportunity to embarrass himself Thursday in a way that reminds us he’s grossly unqualified.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently held a press conference with Trump to declare that pregnant women should no longer take Tylenol during pregnancy, in an attempt to claim that it causes autism. Kennedy brought up the topic on Thursday, mentioning a TikTok video he saw.

“Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant—she’s an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School—and she is saying ‘F Trump’ and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta,” Kennedy said Thursday.

“The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome has now left the political landscapes and it is now a pathology,” Kennedy continued.

RFK Jr: “Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant — she’s an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School — and she is saying ‘F Trump’ and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology.”

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 9, 2025 at 9:56 AM

Putting aside for a moment the debate over Tylenol, any educated adult with two brain cells to rub together can see a big problem with what Kennedy just said.

As one doctor on Bluesky put it: “as a physician, I’ll note that if you have a fetus in your placenta then something has gone quite wrong indeed.” The placenta is an organ that grows in the uterus and provides nutrients transferred from the mother to the fetus. A fetus does not grow “in” a placenta, as Kennedy claimed on Thursday.

It’s not entirely clear what TikTok video Kennedy was referring to, but the Russian propaganda account RT posted a video Sept. 23 showing a woman who was taking Tylenol while 28 weeks pregnant. The video became popular on TikTok, and RT claims the woman is a “teaching doctor at New York’s Columbia University,” though the TikTok account has been set to private, and Gizmodo could not confirm the person’s employment.

The video shared by RT appears to show the woman taking just one pill and saying Tylenol “works like a charm and my baby won’t have autism.” She also doesn’t say “eff Trump.” The idea that pregnant women were “gobbling” Tylenol in large quantities was a meme among the far-right in the immediate aftermath of the press conference from Kennedy and Trump. But the videos that went viral largely appeared to show women taking one or two pills rather than “chugging” Tylenol as was so often claimed.

There were also unverified videos on TikTok and Instagram of people claiming that women were dying from overdosing on Tylenol as a way to oppose Trump. There’s no evidence that anyone overdosed on Tylenol as a way to stick it to Trump, despite what random people on social media have tried to claim.

What about this claim that she had a “baby in her placenta”? Kennedy’s ignorance of basic biological facts is disturbing, but not altogether surprising. As the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, the current health secretary has lived an existence of immense privilege that allowed him to coast through life. Kennedy, who was addicted to heroin for 14 years, has claimed that the drug helped him be a better student. But Kennedy is not nearly as bright as he thinks he is.

To give just one particularly galling example of his ignorance, the health secretary has written about the fact that he doesn’t believe in germ theory. Kennedy believes in something called miasma theory, which was popular in the early 19th century before science advanced to understand germs. As Ars Technica notes, Kennedy doesn’t even seem to understand miasma theory. And back in May, Kennedy posted photos of himself bathing in sewage-tainted water.

Kennedy also tried to suggest on Thursday that circumcision could be linked to autism because kids are given Tylenol after the procedure. Then he immediately backtracked and said “none of this is dispositive,” apparently admitting he was talking out of his ass and there was no definitive causation.

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

“Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol. None of this is positive…”

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 10:10 AM

Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine activist, also accidentally admitted that he was trying to find studies to fit his agenda rather than actually following the science.

President Trump has assembled some of the most unqualified people who have ever served in government. And they’re all doing everything they can to dismantle the U.S., whether it’s deploying troops to invade U.S. cities, cutting a billion dollars in food for schools and food banks, or trying to abolish the Department of Education.

Trump will continue to chip away at everything Americans hold dear as long as he holds office. (Did you hear him declare that he had to “take away” freedom of speech yesterday?) And people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will continue to make idiotic statements that would’ve been fireable offenses in literally any other political era.

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Matt Novak

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October 9, 2025
The 1 Thing Tylenol Should Do First to Fix Its Brand Image

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In fall of 1982, seven people in Chicago died from poisoned Tylenol.

Its parent company was Johnson & Johnson. And J&J’s response—led by CEO James Burke—was swift: A total recall, suspension of production, and the rapid development of triple-safety seal packaging.

It’s widely considered one of the most effective crisis management cases in business history, and a model for others.

While everything was executed perfectly—ethically and conceptually—something that was established back in 1886 helped enormously.

An Inc.com Featured Presentation

The J&J brand itself.

A trusted company known for tending to generations of babies and families, is capable of rebuilding trust in ways that a new company cannot hope to achieve.

On the other hand, the corporate brand behind the product that is being linked to autism, which the president of the United States is warning women not to take, is named ….

Kenvue.

Does anyone think that a clumsy, manufactured corporate name is going to inspire trust and confidence in a time of turmoil and anxiety?

Parent companies matter in crisis

In the current Tylenol media firestorm, what hasn’t been appropriately noted is the extraordinary branding gulf between the 1982 and the 2025 crises.

For those not paying attention to the maneuverings of corporate nomenclature, let me explain how the deep and resonant J&J equity got moved from consumer products—to pharmacueticals and medical devices.

Back in 2021, J&J announced that it was going to split its consumer and medical business into two separately traded companies. They assigned the iconic consumer brand to the latter, which struck me as odd at the time, as the medical segment would have been a more logical candidate for a new name. Keeping the J&J brand for Tylenol, Band-Aids, and Listerine would have been stunningly logical.

So, how did they end up here?

Some believe that the reason for dropping J&J from the consumer side was to protect it from the massive ongoing litigation connecting talc and cancer. Others maintained that since the medical business was bigger, the company believed the powerful J&J name would generate more value in that sector.

In fact, in the “Our Story” section of the Kenvue website, J&J doesn’t even make an appearance. If you were introducing Kenvue into the world, wouldn’t you want to celebrate how it was born from one of the greatest and most revered companies in American life?

Of course you would. The expungement of J&J suggests lawyers wanted as much separation as possible, which is why the consumer brands shifted to Kenvue.

Whatever the reason it was an atrocious choice.

Learn from badness

J&J introduced the Kenvue brand as follows:

“Kenvue (pronounced ken·view), is inspired by two powerful ideas: “ken”—meaning knowledge, an English word primarily used in Scotland, and “vue,” referencing sight. With rich knowledge of human needs and deep consumer insights, Kenvue will deliver meaningful, personal health solutions.”

Oh my, such corporate babble, and when you’ve got to tell people how to pronounce a name, you know you’re in trouble.

The fundamental problem is that the name is cold. Unemotional. It evokes no memory trail, activating no neural substrates.

You’re not a billion-dollar company.

The J&J/Kenvue decision contains lessons for everyone from marketers to business leaders.

In today’s volatile world, where negativity is the coin of the social realm, you need to recognize that profound reputational challenges to your business can emerge suddenly. They can be everything from attacks on the safety of your ingredients to a TikTok video posted by an unhappy customer that goes viral, to a competitor spreading misinformation online.

Each of these needs to be addressed with a crisis management plan, and in fact, you might need to have a proactive one in place now. Of course, there is a massive public relations industry built around this world of crisis comms.

The point I want to make here is about the relationship between managing a crisis and the strength of the underlying brand—a point that is not widely enough discussed. The stronger the brand, the greater its reputational resiliency.

When you have a corporate brand like J&J behind Tylenol, you have two layers of insulation. When you have Kenvue plus Tylenol, you have the Maginot Line.

Consumers research everything. When consumers search Google, and now the LLMs, to learn about a company, a rich history matters.

Starting from scratch

Anyone naming a company or brand should pay heed to the likes of Kenvue. Naming is an entire industry itself, and I’ve been involved in dozens of naming processes over the years.

A thorough exploration will look at names that are descriptive—like Netflix, which isn’t imaginative but at least doesn’t need a pronunciation guide. Or Tesla, which opens the door to a backstory (like Warby Parker does).  Or Google, which humanized technology and, at least back then, made it feel warm and fuzzy. Or of course Apple, whose genius evocativeness captured the self-confident singularity of Steve Jobs.

All these directions can be effective, and of course, there is always a level of judgment and intuition.

But a name like Kenvue, which means something only to the branding agency that sold it for umpteen dollars, won’t cut it. When you have the president standing at a podium bleating, “Don’t Take Tylenol,” you need to staunch the brand bleeding with something more effective than a Band-Aid.

Tylenol desperately needs to publicly realign itself with the J&J parent brand.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Adam Hanft

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October 8, 2025
Read labels, ask doctors: How to give Tylenol to your child

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It isn’t often that President Donald Trump issues parenting advice. But in late-September, he repeatedly warned parents to stop giving Tylenol to young children.

“When you have your baby, don’t give your baby Tylenol at all unless it’s absolutely necessary,” he said during a Sept. 22 press conference focused on the administration’s actions to address increasing autism diagnoses.

Trump’s recommendation is at odds with medical research, pediatric advice and U.S. public health guidance. During the same Sept. 22 remarks, Trump told pregnant mothers to avoid taking Tylenol because of what he described as a risk that its active ingredient acetaminophen could cause autism in their children. That’s scientifically unproven, and there’s no proof of a connection between childhood acetaminophen use and autism either.

Trump’s statements may leave parents newly uncertain about how to respond when their children have fevers or pain. Pediatricians told us that Tylenol is safe for children when taken as directed. Parents should always read medicine labels, consult their doctors and take measures to make sure they are administering acetaminophen as indicated and in its appropriate doses.

Here are answers to some basic questions:

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What is acetaminophen?

Acetaminophen is widely used to reduce pain and fever. It is an active ingredient in some brand-name over-the-counter medications including Tylenol, Dayquil, Dimetapp, Robitussin and Sudafed. It has some risks, and those risks have made headlines: Too much acetaminophen can cause overdose and severe liver damage.

Acetaminophen does not reduce inflammation, unlike over-the-counter pain relievers such as ibuprofen, which is found in Advil and Motrin, and naproxen, found in Aleve. Those inflammation reducers are known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, often referred to as NSAIDs.

What do doctors say about acetaminophen’s safety?

Acetaminophen is safe, doctors say, when taken as recommended and under a pediatrician’s guidance. This finding is supported by decades of research.

Soon after Trump’s statements, the American Academy of Pediatrics affirmed acetaminophen’s safety when taken as directed and turned to social media to get the word out. “There is no causal link between acetaminophen and autism,” it wrote on Facebook.

Pediatricians echo that message.

Babies under 3 months old have immature immune systems, so parents should talk to their doctors before administering any medication, UC Davis Health’s Children’s Hospital pediatrician Dr. Lena van der List said. Once babies reach 3 months, parents should be able to give them acetaminophen for moderate pain and to reduce fevers of 100.4 F or higher.

“Used with proper guidance and for the correct indications, Tylenol has a place in routine pediatric care,” said Dr. Flor Muñoz, Baylor College of Medicine associate professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases.

How can I make sure I am giving Tylenol appropriately to my child?

Read ingredient labels on over-the-counter medications. Don’t combine medications that, taken together, exceed the appropriate doses of acetaminophen. Measure medicine using marked medicine cups or syringes. When giving acetaminophen orally, don’t give more than four doses in 24 hours.

Even in adults, using multiple acetaminophen-containing products such as cough medicine, menstrual relief medication or headache medicine can lead to overdoses, Rand said.

“It’s a great idea to keep a log of the date and times the medication was administered,” van der List said.

How do I decide if acetaminophen is the right call?

Evaluate how sick your child looks, feels and behaves.

“If your child has a fever but is still able to sleep, drink fluids to stay hydrated and is generally comfortable — then it’s O.K. to forgo fever-reducing medications, such as acetaminophen,” van der List said.

Children should see a doctor for any fever that persists for five days. If you don’t have a clear reason for administering the medication, avoid giving it to a child over a longer period.

“If it’s a fever, great, that’s an appropriate use for acetaminophen,” van der List said. “If it’s vague symptoms, like your infant waking up nightly crying for weeks that you have attributed to ‘teething pain,’ this may be a time to check in with your health care provider as there may be something aside from pain contributing.”

Has the federal government changed its guidance on acetaminophen’s safety for children?

Official public health communications remained the same as before Trump’s comments, as of Oct. 3. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration describes acetaminophen as “safe and effective when used as directed.” Health officials from the FDA and Health and Human Services Department have not announced actions related to childhood acetaminophen use.

Medline Plus, a website that is part of the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine and that provides advertising-free health information, echoes the FDA when describing acetaminophen dosage for children. It recommends checking with a physician before giving acetaminophen to children under 2 years old and advises reading drug labels to determine the appropriate dosages based on children’s weight.

Apart from a Trump Truth Social post, the administration’s written communication has focused on acetaminophen use during pregnancy. When we asked the White House and HHS if its official guidance is that children should not take acetaminophen, the agency did not answer that question.

Are there any risks if I don’t give my feverish child acetaminophen?

There can be risks, yes. Children who have high fevers and significant pain from a sore throat, for example, are at risk of becoming dehydrated without adequate treatment.

“Dehydration is serious and if severe enough can lead to organ damage,” van der List said. “Dehydration may require hospitalization for intravenous fluids and management of electrolyte changes, hypoglycemia and organ dysfunction.”

Rand said that from about the age of 6 months to 5 years old, fevers can cause febrile seizures in about 3% to 4% of children. Such seizures usually last less than one to two minutes; they can be frightening, but they don’t typically lead to long-term complications.

“If this occurs, you should contact a doctor for evaluation but also treat the fever to make the child more comfortable,” Rand said.

Is there anyone who shouldn’t take acetaminophen?

People with liver disease or hepatitis can’t process acetaminophen very easily, making them more vulnerable to liver damage from the medication.

In rare cases, acetaminophen can cause serious skin reactions, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis. Symptoms include red skin, rash and blisters. If a skin reaction occurs when your child is taking an acetaminophen-containing medication, the FDA advises that you stop using that medication and seek medical attention immediately. People who have had a serious skin reaction after taking acetaminophen should avoid the medication going forward, the agency said.

People with acetaminophen allergies should also avoid taking the drug.

Trump warned parents against giving Tylenol with vaccines. Is this something I should avoid?

After a vaccine, acetaminophen might be warranted to treat symptoms such as fever, discomfort or irritability and persistent crying that signal pain, Muñoz said.

But Rand said parents should avoid giving it to a child before the vaccine is given. “There is some evidence to show it may reduce the immune response,” she said.

Does taking acetaminophen increase my child’s risk of autism?

No research shows taking acetaminophen as a child causes increased risk of autism. A 2021 study in the European Journal of Epidemiology looking into the matter did not find an association between exposure to acetaminophen after a child is born and autism.

Researchers say that there is no single factor that can explain all autism diagnoses. Autism is a complex neurological condition that influences how someone acts and communicates. Research signals that genetics play a significant role in the likelihood someone will have autism.

Higher paternal age and maternal use of a drug called valproate, which is used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder, increases risk, research has found. Low birth weights and a mother’s fever or illness during pregnancy have also been linked to autism, the Autism Science Foundation said.

A 2022 European Journal of Pediatrics review of existing research concluded that acetaminophen “has been proven safe for liver function in infants and in small children, even at doses higher than those currently recommended,” but was “never shown to be safe for neurodevelopment.” It did not prove acetaminophen was unsafe for neurodevelopment.

RELATED: RFK Jr.’s statements about autism and environmental toxins conflict with ample research

RELATED: Research doesn’t show using Tylenol during pregnancy causes autism. Here’s what else you should know

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October 6, 2025
Congressional Conflicts: Lawmakers Dump Tylenol Stock Before Autism Controversy

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Before President Donald Trump warned pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol, three members of Congress dumped stock in the Fortune 500 company that makes the popular painkiller — sell-offs that saved them from incurring sizable losses, an investigation by The Center Square found.

The lawmakers sold $1,001 to $15,000 each in Kenvue Inc., a Summit, New Jersey-based consumer products company that spun off from Johnson & Johnson two years ago. The sales are notable also because most investment analysts recommended that investors hold their shares.

Among the three lawmakers is U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin, a Florida Republican, whose committee work overlapped with his reported sale of Kenvue stock on June 16, House financial disclosures show. He is the vice chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the budget of the Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency that regulates Tylenol.

Franklin’s spokesperson did not return an email or phone call for comment.

Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonprofit, said the lawmakers’ sale of Kenvue’s stock before the Trump administration’s announcement on Sept. 22 raises questions about whether lawmakers had inside information.

“It’s a possible conflict of interest,” Holman said in an interview. “The fact that they sold prior to the public scandal suggests they might have traded on non-public information before the Trump administration lowered the hammer.”

Kenvue has come under fire for its use of acetaminophen, the primary active ingredient in Tylenol. In August, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a private medical school in New York, reported that pregnant women who use acetaminophen may be at elevated risk of delivering babies with neurodevelopment disorders like autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Other studies have found no connection.

On September 12, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kenvue’s interim CEO, Kirk Perry, met with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to argue against declaring a strong link between Tylenol use and autism. Perry’s lobbying effort came up short.

A Kenvue spokeswoman said that “sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism.”

On September 22, Kennedy announced that the government would issue a warning on Tylenol packages about the possible risks for pregnant women.

Trump was blunt.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” he said in a press conference at the White House. “Fight like hell not to take it.”

Identifying possible conflicts of interest was a stated goal of a 2012 law known as the Stock Act. The law bars members of Congress, executive branch officials and their families from using information they discover in the course of their jobs for financial gain and requires them to file periodic transaction reports of trades worth more than $1,000 within 45 days.

Legislation to prohibit lawmakers from trading and owning stocks has never come up for a vote before the full House or Senate. On July 30, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs advanced a bill from U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, that would do just that. Hawley’s legislation, like companion bills in the House, would permit lawmakers to own mutual funds.

No lawmaker has been prosecuted for violating the law.

In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican, with insider trading. A member of the board of directors of a publicly traded Australian firm, Collins was accused of informing his son, a stock owner, that the company’s top product had failed a clinical trial before the news was public, the charges show. A year later, Collins pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Franklin reported that through a joint account with his wife, the couple sold $1,001 to $15,000 of Kenvue stock on June 16, according to a filing with the U.S. Office of the Clerk.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, reported that his wife, Ritu Ahuja Khanna, sold stock in Kenvue through a blind trust on August 26, his filing showed. The sale came three weeks after she bought $1,001 to $15,000 worth of the stock, on August 4.

Spokeswoman Sarah Drory declined to comment.

The third lawmaker who reported dumping Kenvue’s stock is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, through his wife, Sandra Thornton Whitehouse. A spokeswoman did not return a voicemail and email for comment.

None of the three lawmakers sold Kenvue stock alone on a single day. Each lawmaker reported selling the stock among his trades. Khanna reported that his wife via a blind trust bought 53 stocks and sold 51 on Aug. 26.

The lawmakers’ sales proved timely. Since June, Kenvue’s stock price has plunged more than 20 percent.

Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

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September 29, 2025
ONA Condemns President Trump’s Statements On Acetaminophen And Pregnancy – KXL

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The Oregon Nurses Association disputes President Trump’s claim about acetaminophen and pregnancy. Acquired Through MGN Online on 04/08/2020

PORTLAND, OR – The Oregon Nurses Association has issued a statement condemning President Trump’s recent comments advising that pregnant women “avoid Tylenol at all costs” and announcing plans for the Food and Drug Administration to require new warning labels against the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy. ONA said the president’s claims are not supported by scientific evidence and risk undermining public trust in evidence-based care.

“The President’s statements appear to be yet another ideologically driven attack on public health designed to score cheap political points,” they said.

According to ONA statement, there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, and that suggesting otherwise spreads misinformation, creates unnecessary fear among pregnant patients and families, and may lead to the undertreatment of pain and fever during pregnancy, which can create health risks for mothers and babies.

“We call on President Trump, his allies in Congress, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to respect science, protect public health, and support the frontline caregivers who care for patients and families across the country,” ONA officials wrote. “Spreading unsubstantiated claims on issues as sensitive as maternal and child health is not good for patients, not good for caregivers, and not good for Oregonians.”

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September 26, 2025
Dr. Oz says

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Dr. Mehmet Oz told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on “The Takeout” Thursday the Trump administration is not advising pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol under any circumstances — as President Trump’s announcement this week about an alleged link between the painkiller and fever reducer and autism draws pushback from medical experts.

Oz — a former surgeon and television personality who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency that is under the Department of Health and Human Services — said that if a pregnant woman develops a high fever, a doctor will likely encourage her to take acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, because fevers can pose health risks. And studies show acetaminophen is the safest medication to treat fevers in pregnant women.

“The concern here is that I believe most women get low-grade fevers, they stub their toe, they have little aches and pains, and they think it’s perfectly safe to throw a couple paracetamol or acetaminophen or Tylenol when they’re pregnant, and I don’t think that’s the case,” Oz said.

On Monday, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary released an open letter to physicians that said acetaminophen use during pregnancy “may be associated with” an increased risk of conditions like autism.

The letter noted that “while an association between acetaminophen and autism has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established.”

Makary’s letter was also more tempered than Mr. Trump’s comments during a news conference earlier this week in which the president said there’s “no downside in not taking” Tylenol.

“Acetaminophen is the safest over-the-counter alternative in pregnancy among all analgesics and antipyretics,” Makary wrote in his letter.

There is concern among the medical community that, as a result of the FDA’s announcement Monday, that some patients could turn to other pain medications that are proven to be unsafe during pregnancy.

“You should not, under any circumstances, avoid taking acetaminophen if you have a fever early in pregnancy, if you have a headache, if you have some other condition in pregnancy, we want you to take that medication,” Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told CBS News following the FDA’s announcement. “The overwhelming evidence that we have seen over the last 20 years does not show causation for acetaminophen causing autism.”

In a statement in response to the FDA’s announcement, Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, said, “Independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism,” calling it “the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy.”

Oz also addressed Makary’s announcement that the agency will approve the prescription drug leucovorin, which is derived from folic acid, to treat autism in children. Specialists say leucovorin can be helpful in treating some autism cases, but it is not a universal remedy.

“The key question is, if you, as a researcher on those trials, had a child, would you give that child leucovorin?” Oz said he asked of researchers studying leucovorin. “And when I asked the doctors on those trials, they said yes.”

Autism has become more prevalent in children born in the U.S. over the past 25 years, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but there is no scientific consensus as to why.

Oz said that when he, Makary and Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, were asked by the White House to examine the issue, they found two “clues,” not conclusions, that pointed to leucovorin as a possible treatment option for autistic children, and acetaminophen as a medication pregnant women should be cautious about taking.

“These are things that we believe, that if you’re fully transparent about, you’ll rebuild trust with the American people,” Oz said. “Just tell people what you know.”

Oz argued that Mr. Trump was right in pushing for the FDA to both approve leucovorin and make its Tylenol recommendation — even though there is no consensus in the medical community and no definitive evidence supporting either move — because he believes the FDA has an obligation to be transparent.

But Oz was clear that patients should consult their doctors first before making a decision.

“The Tylenol issue is whether or not we should warn moms, who are pregnant today, about a problem that we may not know fully the answer to — ‘Is Tylenol a problem during pregnancy?’ — for another five years,” Oz said. “Well, what about the kid today? Are you going to take the Tylenol or not. Well I think the answer is, the best prudent answer, of course take it if a doctor says you need it. But don’t take it on your own without thinking twice about it.”

Oz also indicated that he would not advise a pregnant family member to take Tylenol without talking to their physician first.

“We’re guarded in saying we don’t have all the answers,” he said. “But if it’s my family, I’m not going to have my pregnant daughter take acetaminophen if she doesn’t need to be on it without certainly talking to a doctor about it.”

Sara Moniuszko and

Dr. Céline Gounder

contributed to this report.

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September 25, 2025
Florida likely ‘in line’ with unproven Tylenol-autism link – Orlando Weekly

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Credit: via Joseph A. Ladapo/X

State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Florida isn’t ready to make recommendations on the use of acetaminophen by pregnant women.

But if one comes, Ladapo said it likely will follow Monday’s announcement from the White House that suggested a link between the common painkiller and autism.

“We’re still looking at it,” Ladapo said Wednesday during an appearance in Tampa. “So we may have some more guidance. But we would probably be very much in line with where the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) is.”

President Donald Trump, joined by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Mehmet Oz, said Monday the Food and Drug Administration would update drug labeling to discourage the use of acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol, by pregnant women. At the same time, the FDA is set to enable the use of leucovorin, a form of vitamin B, as a treatment for autism.

Ladapo said the White House and the FDA are “at a place that is more honest.”

“They acknowledge that not all the studies show harms, but some of them do show relationships,” Ladapo said. “And it isn’t a total explanation for autism by any means, but it does appear to be that it’s reasonable to conclude that it may contribute anything to the prevalence of autism in children. So, you know, not all the studies find that, but some of the studies do. Some of those studies are very good. So I think that their recommendation is the right place to be in terms of discouraging its use.”

But in a statement responding to the White House announcement, Steven J. Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said it was “highly unsettling that our federal health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of millions of people without the backing of reliable data.”

Tylenol-maker Kenvue disputed the claims.

“We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism,” Kenvue said in a statement.

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‘So, you know, not all the studies find that, but some of the studies do,’ Florida Surgeon General Ladapo said

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September 25, 2025
Science in the Spectacle

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On Monday, September 22nd, millions of Americans tuned in to watch our nation’s leaders announce a correlation between the common pain reliever acetaminophen (Tylenol) and autism. As no surprise, the language was unprofessional and accusatory. The press conference was chaotic, but behind the chaos, some good points were made.

The central claim was simple: studies have raised questions about whether prenatal use of acetaminophen may increase the risk of autism or ADHD in children. The reality is far more complicated. The science is not settled. Some research suggests a weak association, while others find no link. No causal connection has been proven. What is certain is that millions of pregnant women rely on acetaminophen as one of the few safe over-the-counter options. The stakes of this announcement were enormous.

Instead of offering clarity, it produced confusion. Pregnant women across the country were left wondering whether to throw away the only medication their doctors had long assured them was safe. Wondering if they were the reason their child has autism. Families who already distrust government health guidance now feel more justified in ignoring medical advice. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are demonized without evidence, as though medicine itself were the enemy.

This is the wrong way to communicate science.

We’ve seen this play out before. From the mixed messaging during COVID to the ever-shifting vaccine guidance, Americans have been whiplashed by a stream of warnings and politically charged statements. Each time, trust erodes more. Announcing an unsettled scientific finding with the flourish of a campaign rally doesn’t inform people; it terrifies them.

To me, the CDC isn’t just a federal agency; it’s my neighbor. I walk past its gates on my way to class. Inside those buildings, scientists are undertaking some of the most challenging work in the world. Outside those gates, their voices are drowned out by politicians who treat public health like a prop. That disconnect, between the science and the show, is exactly why trust in health institutions is in freefall. To be clear: it is right for the government to investigate potential risks to maternal and child health. It is right to be cautious, to study the data, to give families the best information available. But how we share that information matters. Panic is not prevention.

Warning without context is not protection.

So what should have happened? First, the announcement should have come from scientists. The CDC and FDA should be leading these conversations, explaining clearly what we know, what we don’t, and what research is underway. Second, the message should have included practical guidance for patients: Talk to your doctor. Don’t stop medications abruptly. Watch for further updates as studies progress. Finally, the rollout should have modeled humility, the courage to say, “We’re still learning.” That kind of honesty builds trust, not fear.

Millions tuned in hoping to learn whether Tylenol is safe. What they got instead was another reminder of how fragile trust in public health has become. We deserve better than a circus.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the The Atlanta Voice.

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Caroline Rubin

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September 25, 2025
What to know about Tylenol’s 2017 tweet

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When Tylenol’s parent company addressed President Donald Trump’s warning this week about a link between Tylenol and autism, it said the active ingredient, acetaminophen, is the safest pain reliever available for pregnant women.

Two days after Trump’s news conference, social media sleuths found an old tweet from the company that they said undermined the company’s message.

“We actually don’t recommend using any of our products while pregnant,” Tylenol wrote March 7, 2017, replying to another post. “Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns today.”

The post Tylenol replied to has since been deleted, so it’s impossible to know what comment prompted this reply nearly eight and a half years ago.

Some social media users questioned its authenticity.

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“How can this be real?” sportscaster Samantha Ponder wrote on X. “Every doctor I had, for all three pregnancies, told me it’s totally fine to take Tylenol. What is going on?!”

The Trump administration touted the 2017 post as proof that prenatal use of Tylenol isn’t safe.

RELATED: Research doesn’t show using Tylenol during pregnancy causes autism. Here’s what else you should know

The White House X account reposted Tylenol’s 2017 post and shared a photo of Trump holding up one of his signature red hats that said: “Trump was right about everything.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also weighed in, sharing a screenshot of Tylenol’s post and writing, “No caption needed.”

The White House and Department of Health and Human Services shared Tylenol’s 2017 post on Sept. 24, 2025. (Screenshots from X)

Trump allies including Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., also cast the old post as the brand’s current position.

“To all Democrats with Trump Derangement Syndrome, your TDS is putting kids lives at risk,” Mace wrote. “Here is @tylenol’s warning for pregnant women: Don’t use tylenol.”

Melissa Witt, a spokesperson for Tylenol’s parent company, Kenvue, told PolitiFact the 2017 post was “being taken out of context.”

“We do not recommend pregnant women take any medication without talking to their doctor,” she said. “This is consistent with the regulations and product label for acetaminophen.”

Here’s context for the confusion.

Tylenol’s other social media posts and drug label encourage pregnant patients to seek medical guidance

Other posts Tylenol issued around the same time instructed people to consult clinicians before taking Tylenol products.

“If you are pregnant/nursing, seek the advice of your healthcare professional before using Tylenol or any other medication,” Tylenol wrote in late 2016.

In February 2017, it advised another social media user — who had praised Tylenol “for being pregnancy safe” — to seek a clinician’s advice: “Thanks for the shout out Carrie!” Tylenol wrote. “Just make sure to talk to your doctor before taking Tylenol while you’re pregnant.”

On its own, the March 2017 post is at odds with more recent public statements from Tylenol and its parent company.

Kenvue told PolitiFact on Sept. 22 that acetaminophen is “the safest pain reliever” option available throughout an entire pregnancy.

“Without it, women face dangerous choices: suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially harmful to both mom and baby or use riskier alternatives,” the company’s statement said. “High fevers and pain are widely recognized as potential risks to a pregnancy if left untreated.”

On Sept. 22, Tylenol posted an Instagram video highlighting Tylenol’s label, which encourages people who are pregnant or breast feeding to talk to a health professional.

“Your doctor is the best person to advise whether taking medication is right for you based on your specific health needs,” the video said.

Since 2021, Tylenol has used its account on X — the platform where the 2017 post originated — only to reply to other users.

Doctors say using Tylenol during pregnancy is safe, while untreated pain and fever pose health risks

Medical professionals and researchers — not just brands like Tylenol that sell acetaminophen products — have long advised pregnant patients that Tylenol is the safest option to reduce fever or pain.

Maternal and prenatal care groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, support the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy — and have reaffirmed their support in recent days.

The Trump administration’s recent effort to discourage the use of Tylenol during pregnancy rests on the unproven idea that acetaminophen use during pregnancy increases a child’s risk of autism — and it’s based on conflicting science, experts told PolitiFact.

Some studies have found that children exposed to acetaminophen during pregnancy were more likely to have autism symptoms or be diagnosed with autism, but other studies found no such association. Association is not the same as causation, however. All that to say: Research showing an association between Tylenol and autism doesn’t prove the medication caused autism.

As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Sept. 22 it had “initiated the process” to change acetaminophen labels, it also acknowledged the drug isn’t a proven cause of autism.

“It is important to note that while an association between acetaminophen and neurological conditions has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature,” it said.

Finally, there’s one more detail to keep in mind: Avoiding Tylenol during pregnancy might have negative consequences.

Research has linked untreated fevers during pregnancy to an increased risk of birth defects and other pregnancy complications, particularly if they occur during the first trimester. Untreated pain can lead to maternal depression, anxiety and high blood pressure.

“Maternal fever, headaches as an early sign of preeclampsia, and pain are all managed with the therapeutic use of acetaminophen, making acetaminophen essential to the people who need it,” said Dr. Steven J. Fleischman, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists president. “The conditions people use acetaminophen to treat during pregnancy are far more dangerous than any theoretical risks and can create severe morbidity and mortality for the pregnant person and the fetus.”

PolitiFact Staff Writer Samantha Putterman contributed to this report.

RELATED: Trump is wrong: There are downsides to avoiding Tylenol, not treating fever while pregnant

RELATED: Fact-checking Trump’s claims on Tylenol, autism and vaccines

RELATED: RFK Jr.’s statements about autism and environmental toxins conflict with ample research

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September 24, 2025
Doctors still recommend Tylenol for fevers, pain in pregnancy, say Trump’s “tough it out” comment could be harmful

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Many doctors and public health officials are taking issue with President Trump’s claim that there’s “no downside” to avoiding acetaminophen during pregnancy and his suggestion that expecting mothers should “tough it out” when it comes to fevers.

Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and many cold and flu medications, is used to reduce pain and fever in pregnancy.

“Don’t take it. There’s no downside in not taking it,” Mr. Trump said during an announcement Monday that linked the use of the drug during pregnancy to an increased risk of autism in children without giving new evidence and ignoring data that shows there is not a causal relation.

The Food and Drug Administration is “strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary,” he said. “That’s, for instance, in cases of extremely high fever that you feel you can’t tough it out, you can’t do it. I guess there’s that. It’s a small number of cases, I think. But if you can’t tough it out, if you can’t do it, that’s what you’re going to have to do. You’ll take a Tylenol.”

In an open letter to physicians released after Mr. Trump’s announcement, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary was more cautious than the president, writing, “clinicians should consider minimizing the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy for routine low-grade fevers.”

But doctors worry the suggestion to “tough it out” will harm women and their babies, as high fever and pain can be dangerous during pregnancy.

“The messaging of ‘tough it out’ is something that unfortunately we have said to women in health care in this country for far too long,” Dr. Lucky Sekhon, an OB/GYN and infertility specialist in New York City, told CBS News.

There’s also a concern patients may turn to other pain medications that are proven to be unsafe during pregnancy. Makary noted in his letter that “acetaminophen is the safest over-the-counter alternative in pregnancy among all analgesics and antipyretics.”

The risks of fever during pregnancy

Medical experts warn that fevers during pregnancy can cause problems for a developing baby.

Especially in early pregnancy, fevers are associated with cardiac issues, cleft lip, cleft palate and central nervous system abnormalities, Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told CBS News after Mr. Trump’s announcement.

“The idea that we’re going to let someone with a fever ‘tough it out’ may have much worse implications for a pregnant woman than taking a dose of acetaminophen to bring that fever down,” he said. “I think that’s not really an appropriate way to handle medical issues in pregnancy.”

Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, echoed it’s important to not let fevers go untreated due to the risk of brain development issues in the baby.

“Fever and infections during pregnancy can cause neurodevelopmental disorders including potentially autism,” she said. “I worry that this will scare women and that pregnant women may avoid Tylenol even when it’s entirely appropriate, for example, to treat a fever.”

Internal medicine physician Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider said science does not support the administration’s claims.

“What’s far riskier is leaving a fever untreated during pregnancy which can harm both mom and baby, so Tylenol remains the safest option we have in those situations,” she said.

Why Tylenol or acetaminophen is advised

Gounder said she’s concerned that expectant mothers with a fever or pain may turn to other options that would be less safe.

“Will women end up taking other medications like aspirin or ibuprofen during pregnancy? Those actually can be dangerous, especially in the third trimester, you can end up with kidney issues, cardiac issues in the baby,” she said.

Fleischman agreed that acetaminophen is the safest option.

“You should not, under any circumstances, avoid taking acetaminophen if you have a fever early in pregnancy, if you have a headache, if you have some other condition in pregnancy, we want you to take that medication,” he told CBS News. “The overwhelming evidence that we have seen over the last 20 years does not show causation for acetaminophen causing autism.”

That research, he explained, includes a large study published last year which analyzed data on 2.5 million pregnancies and found no increased risk of autism in children whose mothers took acetaminophen.

The lead author of that study, Viktor H. Ahlqvist, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, said in an interview that acetaminophen continues to be “the recommended option” for use during pregnancy.

He shared the concern that “alternatives to acetaminophen in the U.S. might be other medications with less-safe profiles, such as opioids or other things to manage pain. We do know that these have serious consequences when used in pregnancy, both for the mom and for the baby.”

These doctors are not alone. Health experts from around the world have pushed back against the Trump administration’s claims about acetaminophen and autism.

The European Union’s European Medicines Agency said Tuesday there is “no new evidence” that would require changes to the current recommendations for use of acetaminophen, also called paracetamol outside the U.S.

“Paracetamol remains an important option to treat pain or fever in pregnant women,” Steffen Thirstrup, EMA’s chief medical officer, said in the statement. “Our advice is based on a rigorous assessment of the available scientific data and we have found no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children.”

What should pregnant women do?

Pregnant patients should consult with their doctor on what’s the best for them, but Fleischman pointed out that acetaminophen is only used when necessary.

“You don’t take Tylenol just for fun. … It’s not like a [daily] vitamin, and we would never treat it that way,” he said. “Patients are told to use acetaminophen when they have a fever, when they have a headache or other pain symptoms in pregnancy which require treatment.”

The medication is generally recommended for a fever above 100.4, Fleischman explained.

“We know that higher fevers are definitely associated with more issues but if your temperature is above 100.4, taking acetaminophen to bring that down is definitely advised,” he said.

A single extra-strength dose, which is 500 mg, should be “more than adequate,” he added, but said it can be repeated if needed.

“As always, we want our patients to consult with their health care provider before using any medications, but all of the data shows that it’s safe and there is no data that shows Tylenol causes autism,” Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, told CBS News.

She shared concerns over the FDA initiating a label change on Tylenol and acetaminophen to warn of a possible association with autism.

“I think it will make our moms scared to take Tylenol, and the repercussions, again, for those moms that are having fever and those moms that are having pain, those repercussions can be very detrimental. And it’s really shameful when we know that Tylenol is safe and again we have no studies showing that it causes autism,” Gillispie-Bell said.

Ramy Inocencio

contributed to this report.

More from CBS News

Sara Moniuszko

Sara Moniuszko is a health and lifestyle reporter at CBSNews.com. Previously, she wrote for USA Today, where she was selected to help launch the newspaper’s wellness vertical. She now covers breaking and trending news for CBS News’ HealthWatch.

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September 24, 2025
Video: Trump Pushes Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism

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new video loaded: Trump Pushes Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism

By Azeen Ghorayshi, Claire Hogan, Theodore Tae and June Kim•September 23, 2025

Top U.S. health officials urged pregnant women not to use acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, claiming it could cause autism, though studies have been inconclusive. Azeen Ghorayshi, a science reporter for The New York Times, explains.

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Azeen Ghorayshi, Claire Hogan, Theodore Tae and June Kim

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September 23, 2025