Trump ties autism to widely used over-the-counter drug

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00:00All right, welcome back. You're watching Live Now. I'm Austin Westphal, a live look at the

00:05White House on this Monday evening, 10.09 in the nation's capital. President Trump announcing

00:11that taking the common pain relief drug Tylenol during pregnancy can lead to an increased risk

00:18of autism for unborn babies due to the drug's active ingredient. We have been following this

00:27all day. Of course, this has been causing some scientists and researchers to say that they're

00:33highly skeptical of some of the verbiage that was used from the White House today.

00:38Fox's Rich Edson with the story. The Trump administration is warning women to avoid a

00:44popular medication during pregnancy. With Tylenol, don't take it. Don't take it. And if you can't

00:51live, if your fever is so bad, you have to take one because there's no alternative to that.

00:57Sadly. Federal health officials are advising pregnant women against taking acetaminophen,

01:02the active ingredient in Tylenol, unless they have a fever. This follows research from Harvard

01:06and Mount Sinai that suggests a possible link between use of the drug in early pregnancy and

01:11autism. They are paying attention to studies and the gold standard of science and research that

01:16many in this city for far too long have turned a blind eye to. The company that makes Tylenol

01:20maintains more than a decade of rigorous research endorsed by leading medical professionals,

01:25says there is no credible evidence linking acetaminophen to autism and that without Tylenol,

01:30quote, women face dangerous choices, suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially

01:34harmful to both mom and baby, or use riskier alternatives. President Trump's first FDA

01:39commissioner says doctors will still recommend pregnant women use Tylenol if needed.

01:44And there's been some small studies suggesting that there could be a correlation. Again,

01:48worthy of further study, but there is no clear evidence that it causes autism for women who take it

01:54during pregnancy. Following on encouraging early trials, the administration is also suggesting

01:58the drug lucavorin to treat children with autism.

02:05And that was Fox's Rich Edson bringing us the story. We do have standing by here Dr. Evan Nadler.

02:11He's a pediatric surgeon and researcher. Let's just start with the basics here. What's the basis of

02:18this decision, doctor? What does the science say about, and I got to ask you also, we're talking

02:26about Tylenol, but we're talking really about the active ingredient in Tylenol, as Rich was alluding

02:32to, acetaminophen. What does the research say about the drug and what does it say about its relationship

02:39with pregnancy? Yeah. Thanks, Austin, for having me. And this is an important discussion, obviously,

02:45because there's still some confusion out there about what this really means. And you correctly point

02:51out that it's acetaminophen, which is the generic name of Tylenol. And if you go to CVS and you buy

02:59acetaminophen, that doesn't necessarily have any different effect than if you buy the brand name of

03:05Tylenol. So it is important to use the generic name acetaminophen. So what the data show is that

03:15in one study, there was what we call an association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy

03:23and an end result of people with autism or autism spectrum disorder. But there are other studies that

03:34don't show that association, which is why a lot of the scientific community isn't particularly sold

03:42on this recommendation that women during pregnancy avoid acetaminophen. And I think what's really

03:50important for people to understand in science is that an association doesn't mean a causation.

03:59So it might be that pain causes autism and people take acetaminophen because they have pain,

04:07but the acetaminophen has nothing to do with the cause of autism. Or like others have said, the fever,

04:14a low grade fever might be something that triggers some genetic susceptibility that then leads to a

04:21patient with autism spectrum disorder. But the acetaminophen that someone might take for that low

04:28grade fever has nothing to do with it. So there is a suggestion, at least in one study, that there's an

04:36association, but there's far from any data that shows a causation.

04:41So I'm going to put up a statement here from the president of the American College of Obstetricians

04:48and Gynecologists. They said earlier today that suggestions that Tylenol use in pregnancy causes

04:54autism are, quote, irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant

05:00patients, unquote. Also saying today's announcement by Health and Human Services is not backed by the

05:06full body of scientific evidence and dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of

05:11neurologic challenges in children. Final paragraph saying it is highly unsettling that our federal

05:17health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of

05:22millions of people without the backing of reliable data. I've read that the reality is that autism is

05:31multifactorial in origin. How do we know that it is multifactorial in origin?

05:39Well, that's actually a great question. And multifactorial can sometimes be a vague term. So

05:47what the science suggests, the strongest science suggests that there is a genetic component to the

05:53development of autism spectrum disorder. What we don't know is how that genetic susceptibility manifests

06:02itself. So there probably is some other trigger of some sort, which likely happens during pregnancy.

06:10And it certainly could be a fever or some other environmental exposure that we don't know about.

06:19And then the thing that makes it actually the most difficult is that it usually has to have the

06:25patient with the person with the genetics susceptibility has to have the right environmental exposure,

06:31but then it also has to happen at the right time. There's only a certain period, like the brain develops in

06:37the first trimester of pregnancy. So that might be where that environmental trigger has to happen.

06:45And so anytime you have a disease that has a bunch of different ways of expressing itself,

06:52so like some people have severe autism, some people have mild autism, those types of diseases generally

07:00have multiple different causes that show up in multiple different ways once people develop symptoms.

07:07Why is acetaminophen the only pain medicine that's usually used during pregnancy? And

07:14what would eliminating its use mean for pregnant women?

07:19Right. So I think, well, first of all, the sort of other generic medicine that people know about is

07:27ibuprofen, which is Advil or Motrin. And the science behind that medicine being

07:34more harmful to the developing baby is much stronger. Kidney problems, among others, for

07:43babies whose parents take what's called a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine or an NSAID

07:52during the final after 20 weeks gestation. So those data are stronger, and we don't know what exactly

08:00the risk is if you take ibuprofen before 20 weeks, but we think there's probably risk there too.

08:08So that's why acetaminophen has been the one that's been most commonly recommended. And I think what's

08:16likely to happen isn't that people are going to stop using it based on the announcement today. I think there

08:21will be people who go to their physician and ask about it before they might have normally just taken

08:29it at home. But now they're going to ask their OB before they do that, maybe. And most likely the OB is

08:36going to say, go ahead and take it. So I'm not sure there's going to be a huge, you know, a huge number of

08:45pregnant women who are going to just suck it up and suffer through the pain. I don't think that's likely.

08:49So I think, you know, there might just be maybe a smaller percentage of usage, but I think more

08:56likely it's just going to be that folks have to talk to their obstetrician and then they'll make

09:02a decision between the patient and the provider that will likely end up in a recommendation for

09:09Tylenol unless there's, you know, unless the person who's the pregnant woman doesn't want it.

09:14Dr. Evan Nadler is a pediatric surgeon and researcher. Thanks for coming on.

09:19My pleasure. Anytime.

09:20All right. So what we're going to do is we'll show you this real quick. This is a

09:27statement from Tylenol's maker, Kenview, responding to what the White House said today. They say,

09:35we believe independent sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism.

09:43We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the

09:48health risks that this poses for expecting mothers.

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