Experts debunk claim of paracetamol-autism link

Acetaminophen is the name of the drug prevalent in the US and Japan, while Europe and rest of the world, including India, know it as paracetamol

Many doctors and scientists were reeling after President Donald Trump went on TV to insist that pregnant women should never take Tylenol, the brand name for paracetamol in the US, and revive debunked theories about vaccines and autism.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks at U.S. President Donald Trump while he makes an announcement linking autism to childhood vaccines and to the use of popular pain medication Tylenol for pregnant women and children, claims which are not backed by decades of science, at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 22, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (REUTERS)

Trump went beyond his own Food and Drug Administration’s more modest advice that doctors “should consider minimising” the painkiller acetaminophen’s use in pregnancy — amid inconclusive evidence about whether too much could be linked to autism. His comments came as the administration