Trump tells pregnant women to ‘tough it out’ without paracetamol, claims Amish have ‘no autism’ because they lack Tylenol

President Donald Trump on Monday (Sep 22) told pregnant women in the United States to avoid Tylenol and “tough it out,” even as doctors warned his sweeping advice was dangerous and unscientific. Speaking at a White House press conference, Trump tied the painkiller, which is known as paracetamol outside America, to autism — a link not backed by medical consensus — and called for major changes to the way babies are vaccinated. At one point, he claimed that Cuba “has virtually no autism” because it lacks Tylenol and pointed to the Amish as another group “with essentially no autism.”

'Fight like hell,' but don't take FDA-approved medicine?

In a speech that was reminiscent of his anti-vaccination push, Donald Trump repeatedly said, “Don’t take it (Tylenol),” adding that pregnant women should only consider acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, if battling an “extremely high fever.” He then told them to “fight like hell not to take it.”

The US president claimed that, “There's a rumour—and I don't know if it's so or not—that Cuba, they don't have Tylenol because they don't have the money for Tylenol. And they have virtually no autism.” He also contended that the Amish, traditionalist people known for their horse-drawn carts and rejection of modern technology, "have essentially no autism".

However, he admitted that all his theories were just theories. "This is based on what I feel," he said.

Doctors raise an alarm

Health experts immediately pushed back. This is "dangerous" and "full of misinformation,” said Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU. “I worry that pregnant women are going to feel guilty if they took Tylenol. They're going to feel they let down their babies. They're going to feel that they were unethical in terms of trying to treat fever. That's just not fair, and it's not anything that anybody should be feeling.”

The Food and Drug Administration was far more cautious, saying "a causal relationship (between acetaminophen and autism) has not been established", and debate in the scientific community is ongoing.