Trump’s Ex-Surgeon General Trashes RFK Jr. Linking Tylenol to Autism: ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Irresponsible’

Dr. Jerome Adams, President Donald Trump’s Surgeon General during his first term, trashed the claims of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linking Tylenol usage to autism.

Adams, on Sunday, appeared on CBS News’s Face the Nation, where host Margaret Brennan brought up Kennedy’s marathon testimony before Congress last week.

“I want to play this one exchange, because the secretary was asked a few times about past statements both he and the president of the United States have made linking Tylenol use in pregnant women to autism in their children,” Brennan said. “A Republican lawmaker, Blake Moore of Utah, told Kennedy that his own 10-year-old son Winnie is neurodivergent, and he said that Kennedy’s remarks were hurtful.”

Brennan than rolled tape of Moore.

“I was underwhelmed with what we ultimately put out,” Moore said of the administration’s autism report. “My wife was hurt. And she felt for a split second, until she came to her senses and we talked about this, that there was any way she was responsible. We don’t even know if she took Tylenol during her pregnancy. But that was a hurtful moment for her.”

“But on this, Kennedy did not give ground,” Brennan said. “He is still saying that studies showing there is no linkage are, quote, ‘garbage.’ What is the reality?” she asked Adams.

“Well, the reality is that for pregnant women dealing with fever or significant pain, Tylenol remains one of the safest and most studied options we have. And suggesting otherwise without evidence is dangerous and it’s irresponsible,” Adams said.

“And as you heard the congressman say, it is extremely stigmatizing toward parents and risks real harm to moms and babies. The science moves forward with data, not with dogma and with dismissal. And the ‘garbage’ he was referring to was a Danish study of 1.5 million children that came out and it presents clear, high-quality evidence that pregnant women who use Tylenol do not have an increased risk of autism. In fact, in that study they had a lower risk of autism,” Adams said.

Last September, Trump and RFK Jr. held a major news conference to claim that taking Tylenol, or generic acetaminophen, during pregnancy may contribute to increased cases of autism in children.

Trump advised pregnant women that they should never use Tylenol, even if it means “toughing it out” when they have a headache or fever. That assertion was later debunked by Trump’s own Medicaid administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Tylenol’s parent company immediately discounted any relationship between the drug and autism rates.

Watch the clip above via CBS News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!