A Labour minister has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that there is a link between paracetamol use during pregnancy and autism. The US president made the comments at the White House on Monday, despite being unable to provide any evidence to back them up.
Trump noted that there has been a meteoric rise in cases of autism and suggested that paracetamol, which is called Tylenol in the US, is a potential cause. He claimed, “There are certain groups of people that don’t take vaccines and don’t take any pills, that have no autism.”
The president also stated that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be notifying all US doctors with new guidance advising mothers-to-be not to use paracetamol during their pregnancy.
Responding to these allegations, a Labour minister emphasized the importance of evidence-based policy. “In any policy decision, I do this in my own department, you’ve got to be led by the evidence. The fact is that any such link at the moment is unproven, and it’s really important, more generally, when talking about children with autism, that we get the right support in place,” the minister said. “But on the president’s suggestion, let’s be led by the science.”
Medical experts on both sides of the Atlantic have criticized Trump’s comments. Dr Monique Botha, associate professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University, accused the president of fearmongering. She pointed to a Swedish study of 2.4 million births published last year, which found no relationship between paracetamol use during pregnancy and autism.
“There is no robust evidence or convincing studies to suggest there is any causal relationship,” Dr Botha said. “Any conclusions being drawn to the contrary are often motivated, under-evidenced, and unsupported by the most robust methods to answering this question.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-minister-rejects-trumps-unproven-claim-that-paracetamol-use-is-linked-to-autism_uk_68d23e2ae4b03fb4d933f0d1
