Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a gastroenterologist who chairs the Senate’s health committee, is challenging President Donald Trump’s announcement baselessly linking Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism and calling on the Health and Human Services Department to release any evidence it has on the subject.
Cassidy first addressed the president’s words on X, saying studies don’t back up the claims he made at a clunky press conference on Monday.
“The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case,” Cassidy wrote. “The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy. We must be compassionate to this problem.”
He added that HHS, helmed by vocal health conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “should release the new data that it has to support this claim.”
Cassidy’s urging came shortly after Trump instructed pregnant women at least a dozen times: “Don’t take Tylenol,” a brand name for the generic drug acetaminophen. The remarks weren’t prompted by any significant new research but are in line with Kennedy’s crusade against vaccines and other forms of modern medicine in his search to explain autism, which has no single known cause.
