00:00Donald Trump is at the centre of the latest health scare in the United States.
00:03He's repeated a claim that paracetamol, sold under the name of Tylenol in the United States,
00:10is linked to autism in children.
00:12The US president has gone as far as advising pregnant women not to take the drug.
00:17Now, no doctor backs Trump's claim.
00:20In fact, American gynecologists and obstetricians say that it is safe to take.
00:26Thank you very much.
00:27In a move that shocked many medical experts, US President Donald Trump issued new guidelines,
00:33advising pregnant women to avoid Tylenol, also known as paracetamol or acetaminophen,
00:38asserting that it causes autism.
00:41I just recommend strongly that you don't use Tylenol.
00:45It's absolutely necessary.
00:48But there's a very strong recommendation, maybe stronger for me than from the group,
00:52because they're waiting for certain studies.
00:55I don't, I just want to say, I want to say it like it is.
00:59Don't take Tylenol.
01:00Don't take it.
01:01Much Bobby, please.
01:02The decision was backed by the US Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy,
01:06who's known for his controversial medical views, including an anti-vaccine stance.
01:11Trump ordered Kennedy to determine the cause of autism,
01:14which is a complex condition that's been researched for decades, within five months.
01:19After re-evaluating existing studies, the US administration now claims that paracetamol use
01:26during pregnancy is to blame.
01:29But many doctors are sceptical, saying that it's difficult to prove a causal link from the data,
01:35as any correlation between its use in pregnancy and autism could be caused by the condition
01:40prompting a woman to take the medication.
01:43There are so many reasons people take acetaminophen in pregnancy.
01:46So is it the acetaminophen, or was it the fact that the patient developed a fever from something else
01:51that led to the problem?
01:53Is it the fact that the patient has potentially maybe an autoimmune disorder that causes pain,
01:58and so they take acetaminophen for pain?
02:01Guidelines already exist, advising women to take the drug sparingly during pregnancy.
02:06And the World Health Organization has reputed the US president's claims.
02:10The evidence remains inconsistent.
02:13Several studies that have done, after that, have found no such relationships.
02:19It is important that every woman continues to follow the advice of their doctors or health workers
02:26who can help assess individual circumstances and recommend necessary medicine.
02:31The organization also dismissed claims that vaccines can lead to autism,
02:35saying that no link between the two has been found through scientific research.
02:42Let's get more on this.
02:43I'm bringing in Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborative Centre on Global Health Law.
02:48Lawrence, thanks for being with us here in France 24.
02:50We appreciate your time.
02:51Is the president of the United States, then, disregarding science completely in what he's saying?
02:56I think it's an utterly reckless set of comments that the president and the health secretary made.
03:07There have been many, many studies of both the link between vaccines and autism
03:15and also acetaminophen and autism.
03:20And there's been no causal connection demonstrated.
03:24In fact, although some studies show a weak correlation,
03:29at least two high-quality studies have demonstrated that there is no known causal relationship.
03:39And the president just seems to be making it up as he goes along.
03:46Politicians shouldn't be doing science.
03:50That's for scientists and public health professionals.
03:53And this has great implications for global health security, clearly,
03:56because what the U.S. president says doesn't just play in the United States.
04:00It goes around the globe, doesn't it?
04:02And lots of people in lots of countries listen to what the president of the United States says.
04:06So when Trump says this, it could have a much wider effect further afield.
04:12Yeah, I mean, just think back to COVID during President Trump's first term,
04:19where he would just get up and say things that were just silly, like, let's try bleach for COVID-19.
04:29This is not much better and very, very dangerous.
04:35He's just shooting from the hip.
04:38And when Trump says to pregnant women, for instance, they should just tough it out rather than take the drugs,
04:44you mentioned COVID, of course.
04:45When Trump had COVID, he received something like, I think the ballpark figure was $800,000 worth of treatment
04:53in order to get himself better against something which you said was just like a cold.
04:58One day, it'll just go away.
05:00Yeah.
05:01Well, yeah, he did get the state-of-the-art treatment that most Americans at that time could never have gotten.
05:09Now, here's a bizarre thing.
05:13The National Institutes for Health in the United States just announced a $50 million research grant
05:22to study the causes of autism.
05:25It seems to me the president and the health secretary got it backwards.
05:29You're supposed to do the research first and then come to the conclusions later.
05:34You don't come to the conclusions and then launch the research.
05:38I really do feel, and I don't say this lightly, that the White House, the health secretary,
05:47can no longer be trusted in terms of matters of public health and health care and science.
05:55And it seems, again, I'm a layman, so I'm just putting this out there
05:59and you can give us an assessment of what I'm saying.
06:02It seems this comes from the same kind of playbook as the vaccine sceptic.
06:08And obviously, sort of, don't get vaccinated against measles, that kind of thing,
06:11which leads to a sort of growth of outbreaks of cases.
06:16Yeah, a lot of this is disinformation, misinformation.
06:19It borders on and probably are related to conspiracy theories.
06:26But if you look back, particularly at the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
06:32he was the world's leading vaccine sceptic.
06:36He made tens of millions of dollars knocking vaccines.
06:41He ignores science, and as head of the Department of Health and Human Services,
06:47he's fired all the credible scientists and hired loyalists and people who have known records
06:56of really ignoring science and evidence.
07:01It's a very, very sad day for us in the United States,
07:05and I think around the world, as you say, when it comes to science and public health.
07:10I wish I could put this to Trump, but I can't.
07:12I'll put it to you, sir.
07:14Where are they getting this from?
07:16Because he has people who are advising him, people behind him.
07:19You mentioned RFK Jr.
07:21But there are people there who have a voice.
07:24Where are they getting all this from?
07:28You know, I really think they're getting it from social media and hunches and long-held ideologies.
07:36If you really want to find out what the state of the science and art is in relation to autism,
07:48ask pediatricians, ask scientists at CDC, ask the American College of Gynecology and Obstetrics
07:58or the National Academy of Sciences.
08:00I don't know where he's getting his information, but it's certainly not from people who have knowledge
08:08and expertise in science and public health.
08:12Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborative Centre on Global Health Law.
08:16Thank you, sir, for joining us.
08:17Thank you for sharing your thoughts very frankly with us about Donald Trump's claim
08:21that paracetamol sold under a particular name, Tylenol, in the United States,
08:26could be a cause of autism.
08:28Lawrence Gostin, thank you for joining us.
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