‘A Fire Hose of Misstatements’
“It was just misstatement of fact after misstatement of fact. It was a fire hose of misstatements.” That’s how Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pediatrician and vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit described the White House’s Sept. 22 press conference about autism to CNN.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said the event was “filled with dangerous claims and misleading information that sends a confusing message to parents and expecting parents and does a disservice to autistic individuals.”
Four of our staffers wrote two stories about the false and problematic claims from the president and other executive branch officials.
There was the headline news: President Donald Trump’s announcement that taking Tylenol, or acetaminophen, “during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism.” But as Staff Writer Kate Yandell writes, the medication has not been established to cause autism, and some research indicates it likely doesn’t.
Trump told pregnant women “don’t take Tylenol” around a dozen times and said they should “tough it out” instead, wrongly adding, “There’s no downside to doing this.” There are limited treatments available for pregnant people experiencing pain or fever, which can be harmful to both mother and child.
Despite Trump’s rhetoric, the new recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services are in line with what expert groups have long said: Use acetaminophen in pregnancy in consultation with a doctor and in moderation. (HHS said that doctors should prescribe “the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration when treatment is required.”)
Trump, along with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., went beyond the Tylenol topic to put forth a host of inaccuracies about autism and vaccines. Staffers Jessica McDonald, Lori Robertson and Robert Farley wrote about nine claims, including Trump's misleading comparison of old estimates of autism prevalence with recent figures and Kennedy's dismissal of the idea that increased awareness and broader definitions of autism explain much of the higher observed rate today.
The president also urged parents to “break up” the MMR, or measles, mumps and rubella, vaccine and vaccinate their children with the shots individually, falsely claiming that it was safer. There’s no evidence to support that, and the individual shots are not even available for use in the U.S.
For more, read: “Trump Administration’s Problematic Claims on Tylenol and Autism” and “Repeated Falsehoods at Autism Press Conference.”
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