But he didn't say that. He cited the studies that said increased Paracetamol during pregnancy correlates with higher rates of autism, and people should know that and be careful.
Whenever we discover a link between two things, it's important to share that in a responsible way. It takes years or a decade of research to prove causation, but we should issue warnings once a link is established. A lot of people can be harmed if the government does not publish when it finds harm that correlates with a substance.
With serious studies showing the opposite. You also seem to ignore that fever is a major, and well-proven cause of birth defects and these kinds of fake announcements based on no solid proof could lead part of the population to simply not take any fever-reducing medication by not being knowledgeable on which medicines are NSAID or not.
All of this because of a promise that in the first 6 months of the mandate RFK would find "the great cause of autism", this was not because of a new study suddenly discovered.
I mean he literally said this, without any citation(!): "There's two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It's highly likely because they are given Tylenol" [1]
He is continuously spouting non-sense not including aggresive anti-vaccine stance, hydrochloroquine curing COVID-19 and that pesticides makes kids go transgender [2]. Yes, you definitely should know all of that and be careful, because the secretary of health has said so.
> He cited the studies that said increased Paracetamol during pregnancy correlates with higher rates of autism, and people should know that and be careful.
Don't mealy mouth it. He didn't say anything so nuanced as "be informed and careful".
He actually said it should be "minimized or avoided". Point blank. And then he said it should be "avoided entirely during pregnancy". It was only over a month later, when the WHO was clarifying that there was no conclusive evidence, and that acetaminophen is the safest pain relief to use during pregnancy, that he started suggesting "working with your physician".
Don't present RFK Jr's takes as reasonable. They're not.
> He cited the studies
He cited one fringe study that was discredited because it didn't consider confounding factors.
Not to support this particular but most doctors would advise "minimized or avoided" use of any medication during pregnancy, including OTC meds. Not that there aren't good reasons to sometimes use them, but you probably should not think it's OK to chug Nyquil every time you get a runny nose if you're pregnant.
I personally avoid all meds that aren't prescribed. I haven't taken a Tylenol or Advil or Sudafed or anything like that in years. I take some vitamin supplements and occasionally (but rarely) will use aspirin for a headache.
If you believe there might a real issue there, you've been misled. That's the danger of having people like RFK in a position of authority: it makes people who don't understand the issues much more likely to listen to them. Which is bad for everyone.
But he didn't say that. He cited the studies that said increased Paracetamol during pregnancy correlates with higher rates of autism, and people should know that and be careful. Whenever we discover a link between two things, it's important to share that in a responsible way. It takes years or a decade of research to prove causation, but we should issue warnings once a link is established. A lot of people can be harmed if the government does not publish when it finds harm that correlates with a substance.
> He cited the studies
A preprint citing 2 studies.
With serious studies showing the opposite. You also seem to ignore that fever is a major, and well-proven cause of birth defects and these kinds of fake announcements based on no solid proof could lead part of the population to simply not take any fever-reducing medication by not being knowledgeable on which medicines are NSAID or not.
All of this because of a promise that in the first 6 months of the mandate RFK would find "the great cause of autism", this was not because of a new study suddenly discovered.
> and people should know that and be careful
This implies a causal relationship.
It think it implies uncertainty.
1 reply →
I mean he literally said this, without any citation(!): "There's two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It's highly likely because they are given Tylenol" [1]
He is continuously spouting non-sense not including aggresive anti-vaccine stance, hydrochloroquine curing COVID-19 and that pesticides makes kids go transgender [2]. Yes, you definitely should know all of that and be careful, because the secretary of health has said so.
[1] - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-circumcision-linked-auti... [2] - https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/01/politics/rfk-jr-fact-chec...
> He cited the studies that said increased Paracetamol during pregnancy correlates with higher rates of autism, and people should know that and be careful.
Don't mealy mouth it. He didn't say anything so nuanced as "be informed and careful".
He actually said it should be "minimized or avoided". Point blank. And then he said it should be "avoided entirely during pregnancy". It was only over a month later, when the WHO was clarifying that there was no conclusive evidence, and that acetaminophen is the safest pain relief to use during pregnancy, that he started suggesting "working with your physician".
Don't present RFK Jr's takes as reasonable. They're not.
> He cited the studies
He cited one fringe study that was discredited because it didn't consider confounding factors.
Not to support this particular but most doctors would advise "minimized or avoided" use of any medication during pregnancy, including OTC meds. Not that there aren't good reasons to sometimes use them, but you probably should not think it's OK to chug Nyquil every time you get a runny nose if you're pregnant.
I personally avoid all meds that aren't prescribed. I haven't taken a Tylenol or Advil or Sudafed or anything like that in years. I take some vitamin supplements and occasionally (but rarely) will use aspirin for a headache.
1 reply →
If you believe there might a real issue there, you've been misled. That's the danger of having people like RFK in a position of authority: it makes people who don't understand the issues much more likely to listen to them. Which is bad for everyone.