Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) articulated his apprehensions over President Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Providers Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims linking Tylenol to autism in kids, regardless of a transparent lack of scientific proof.
“I’m obviously very concerned about that. I am a father and a grandfather and just have, as of about seven months ago, a newborn grandson,” Thune mentioned on CNN’s “Inside Politics” Wednesday to host Dana Bash.
Noting that “science ought to guide these discussions, these conversations and our decision making around our health,” Thune indicated that Trump and Kennedy alluded to sure “studies out there” displaying a hyperlink between autism and Tylenol.
“I think there are an awful lot of people in the medical community who come to a different conclusion about the use of Tylenol,” he mentioned.
Medical specialists have known as out the Trump administration’s announcement as false, together with the American Faculty of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which deemed the unproven steerage “irresponsible” and “unsettling” in a press release Monday.
Thune continued to induce others to train warning with this sort of info.
“I think that — obviously, my view is we ought to be very guarded in making broad assertions and make sure that they are well grounded in science and medicine, and where we’re taking the consultation advice of experts in the field and ensuring that these things are all well documented,” Thune added.
On Monday, Trump stood beside Kennedy, a widely known well being conspiracy theorist, and the nation’s prime public well being officers to announce that the usage of Tylenol throughout being pregnant could also be linked to an elevated threat of autism and that pregnant girls ought to restrict their use.
The White Home has cited a number of research that it claims present proof that “acetaminophen use in pregnant women, especially late in pregnancy, may cause long-term neurological effects in their children,” regardless of a long time of proof stating that it’s secure.
Trump admitted that his feedback weren’t precisely based mostly on scientific proof, which solely fueled extra concern.
“You know, I’m just making these statements from me,” he mentioned. “I’m not making them from these doctors, because when they talk about, you know, different results, different studies, I talk about a lot of common sense. And they have that too. They have that too, a lot.”
Many, together with Tylenol itself, have criticized the Trump administration’s announcement. Tylenol states on its web site that it “strongly disagrees” that acetaminophen (generally generally known as Tylenol) causes autism and is “deeply concerned about the health risks and confusion this poses for expecting mothers and parents.”
“Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy,” the corporate’s mentioned. “Without it, women face dangerous choices: Suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially harmful to both mom and baby or use riskier alternatives.”
The corporate added, “High fevers and pain are widely recognized as potential risks to a pregnancy if left untreated.”
Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) has additionally known as on the Trump administration to “release the new data that it has to support this claim.”
“The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case,” Cassidy wrote in an X publish Monday. “The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy. We must be compassionate to this problem.”
Watch Thune’s look on “Inside Politics” beneath.
