In a bold move that has sent shockwaves through the pharmaceutical industry, US President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr have unveiled alarming research into America’s soaring autism rates, pinpointing a common painkiller as a likely culprit while highlighting a potential treatment. The announcement, made on Monday, casts a harsh light on corporate greed and denial within Big Pharma, particularly targeting the makers of Tylenol.
The findings link acetaminophen use during pregnancy to heightened autism risk. Acetaminophen, the key ingredient in Tylenol – a blockbuster drug peddled worldwide for pain and fever relief – has long been marketed as safe by profit-hungry corporations, despite growing evidence to the contrary.
“Taking Tylenol is not good. I’ll say it. It’s not good,” Trump declared, adding a caveat that it might be warranted only for dangerously high fevers in expectant mothers. “There’s a lot of common sense in this.”
Trump also weighed in on vaccinations, advocating for spacing them out across a child’s development – a so-called “delayed schedule” – to mitigate potential risks. Kennedy later confirmed that his department is scrutinising vaccines’ role in the autism surge, challenging the vaccine industry’s sacrosanct narratives.
Kenvue, the corporation behind Tylenol which has reaped billions from the drug’s ubiquity, issued a predictable denial: “We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
This defensive posture is being viewed as self-preservation, prioritising profits over public health amid questions about the integrity of industry-funded studies.
The market’s verdict was swift and damning: Kenvue’s stock has plummeted about 15% since early September, a clear sign that investors are waking up to the potential fallout from Big Pharma’s oversight.
On a more hopeful note, the announcement spotlighted leucovorin (also called folinic acid) as a promising aid for alleviating autism symptoms, though it requires a doctor’s prescription for this off-label application.
Speaking on The Daily Wire’s Morning Wire podcast, FDA Commissioner Dr Marty Makary underscored the urgency of transparency. “We have an epidemic of autism that has increased 400% in recent decades and we don’t have a known cause,” he said. “Now this may be a cause, but when you have enough evidence to suggest an association and you have no other plausible cause, we have a duty to notify parents and doctors.”
Makary has already dispatched a “Dear doctor” letter to every physician in the US, urging caution. “We now have good data from large studies and the Harvard School of Public Health Dean has made a very conclusive statement that he believes the association is causal,” he elaborated. “So when you have that weight of evidence, you have to take it seriously and err on the side of safety, especially since the vast majority of low-grade fevers do not need to be treated.”
Regarding leucovorin’s potential, Makary noted the drug’s century-long history but recent insights into autism’s autoimmune aspects. “Only recently have we recognised that some kids with autism actually have an autoimmune disease,” he explained. “The mechanism may be that the body is creating antibodies that block the folate receptors on their brain, restricting the ability of folate to get into the cerebrum. And so what that does is it actually creates a situation where you could have high levels of folate in your diet.”
Kennedy had foreshadowed these revelations back in April, vowing to release data this month. He highlighted that autism now impacts 1 in 31 US children – a near fivefold rise since the CDC’s surveys began in 1992. Alarmingly, a quarter of diagnosed cases are severe, involving non-verbal communication, lack of toilet training, head banging, sensory sensitivities, stimming, toe-walking, and more.
“Secretary Kennedy is asking questions that the American people are asking,” Makary told the podcast. “And so we have this odd new political landscape that’s penetrated science where you’re supposedly not allowed to ask certain questions. It’s created a tremendous amount of distrust. But I can tell you the purpose of science itself is to investigate questions.”
For New Zealanders, this US bombshell raises pressing concerns about our own reliance on acetaminophen-based products, often pushed by the same multinational pharma firms.
With autism rates climbing globally, Kiwi health authorities are being called upon to scrutinise these links independently, free from corporate influence, to safeguard New Zealand families. The denial from entities like Kenvue only fuels suspicion that profits have trumped precaution for far too long.
