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Experts ‘Shocked and Appalled’ Over Trump, RFK Jr. Claims on Autism, Tylenol
"Don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine," said Britain's top health official.
Sep 23, 2025
Medical experts in the United States and abroad expressed shock Monday at US President Donald Trump's claim that acetaminophen, commonly known by the brand name Tylenol, is linked to autism spectrum disorders in developing fetuses when taken during pregnancy.
Trump made the claim during a press conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy where the president at one point made a broad statement about the prevalence of autism before checking to make sure it was correct.
"There are certain groups of people that don't take vaccines and don't take any pills, that have no autism," said the president before asking the health officials assembled at the event, "Is that a correct statement, by the way?"
Kennedy replied that "there are some studies that suggest" there are low autism rates in Amish communities, which tend to have low immunization rates—but do not uniformly shun vaccines or the use of over-the-counter medications.
The debunked myth that autism spectrum disorders do not exist in Amish communities was just one of Trump's claims aimed at linking the use of Tylenol to autism—an effort that left Helen Tager-Flusberg, a psychologist and the founder of the Coalition of Autism Scientists, "shocked and appalled."
"In some respects this was the most unhinged discussion of autism that I have ever listened to," Tager-Flusberg told The New York Times in a discussion with three other experts. "It was clear that none of the presenters knew much about autism—other than the mothers’ lived experience—and nothing about the existing science. This may be the most difficult day in my career."
"To hear from the most powerful office in the world that you should definitely not take paracetamol during pregnancy is alarming and will frighten women."
A central claim presented during the press conference was that the consumption of Tylenol during pregnancy is linked to autism in children—a potential connection that scientists have researched for years with inconclusive results.
Administration officials referred to a recent scientific review from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which did not conduct any new research on birth outcomes but compiled evidence from existing scientific studies of the use of Tylenol during pregnancy.
Andrea Baccarelli, the dean of the Harvard TH Chan School and a co-author of the review, said Monday after the press conference that—as doctors have already long warned—"caution" is warranted regarding the use of Tylenol in pregnancy, especially prolonged or heavy use, but that a causal link to autism has not been proven by the available research.
The president suggested the link has been proven, telling the public: "Don’t take Tylenol [during pregnancy]. Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it.”
"Don't take Tylenol!" -- Trump has said this about a dozen times during this press conference pic.twitter.com/eOcEsWXXnu
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2025
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists affirmed that "in two decades of research on the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy, not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that the use of acetaminophen in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children." The group added that fever during pregnancy "can be harmful to pregnant people when left untreated." Acetaminophen is an often-used fever reducer.
Trump and Kennedy also repeated the long-debunked claim that vaccines are linked to autism and said they would commit millions of taxpayer dollars to researching environmental factors, including vaccines.
The experts who spoke to the Times took issue with a central viewpoint presented at the press conference: that the rise in diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders represents a "crisis."
"If anything, the fact we now have increased diagnoses is a reason to celebrate," said Eric Garcia, the Washington bureau chief for The Independent and the author of We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation. "For the longest time, we overlooked autistic people of color and girls. Having data is good. It allows us to ask: 'What do we do with these people? How can we serve them?' Instead, we’re seeing their existence as a crisis."
Epidemiologist Brian K. Lee added that "increased awareness and changing diagnostic criteria" is behind the rise in diagnoses, and Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, noted that Trump incorrectly claimed that "one in 31" children is now diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
"That’s the prevalence for the full autism spectrum. The prevalence of profound autism is about one in 216," said Singer, who is also the mother of a child with autism.
In the United Kingdom, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was blunt in his assessment of Trump's comments on autism and acetaminophen, which is known in the UK as paracetamol.
"I’ve just got to be really clear about this: There is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children," said Streeting. "I would just say to people watching, don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine. In fact, don’t take even take my word for it, as a politician—listen to British doctors, British scientists, the NHS."
Sorcha Eastwood, a member of Parliament from Northern Ireland, added that Trump's unfounded claim was "wrapped in blame towards women and shaming women."
"To hear from the most powerful office in the world that you should definitely not take paracetamol during pregnancy is alarming and will frighten women. To hear that if you take paracetamol during pregnancy that you will give your child autism is completely unfounded and untrue," said Eastwood.
Earlier this year, Kennedy angered disability rights advocates with a proposal, described by National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya, to create a national registry for people with autism. The Health and Human Services Department later walked back Bhattacharya's comments.
But "the language and attitude displayed by Trump and RFK," said Eastwood, displayed "their blatant prejudice towards autism."
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Italy's Unions Lead General Strike for Gaza
"Meloni should take a stand with the facts against those who have slaughtered 20,000 children, rather than limiting herself to saying 'I do not agree,'" said one critic of Italy's right-wing prime minister.
Sep 22, 2025
Italian labor unions led a massive 24-hour general strike on Monday to protest Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, with estimates of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallying in dozens of cities across Italy.
Protesters took to squares, streets, transport hubs, ports, university campuses, and other spaces in more than 75 cities and towns, rallying under the call to "Block Everything." Places including schools, train stations, and retail stores were shut for the day.
"The strike is called in response to the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the blockade of humanitarian aid by the Israeli army, and the threats directed against the... Global Sumud Flotilla, which has on board Italian workers and trade unionists committed to bringing food and basic necessities to the Palestinian population," explained Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), a grassroots union confederation known for its militant stance on labor and political issues.
In Rome, tens of thousands of Palestine defenders rallied at the Termini rail station, Italy's largest, with many of the demonstrators occupying the building.
While protest activities snarled traffic in some parts of the Italian capital, many Roman motorists showed solidarity with the demonstrators by honking their horns and raising their fists into the air.
Watch: Pro-Gaza protesters who blocked a highway near Rome were met with visible solidarity from drivers. Regional news coverage of the paralyzed Central Station showed only people expressing support for the protest.Source: Paolo Mossetti on X (@paolomossetti)
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— Drop Site (@dropsitenews.com) September 22, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Milan saw an estimated 50,000 people turn out to locations including the central rail station, where some protesters damaged property and clashed with police, who said 10 people were arrested and 60 officers were injured.
“If we don’t block what Israel is doing, if we don’t block trade, the distribution of weapons and everything else with Israel, we will not ever achieve anything,” protester Walter Montagnoli, who is the Base Unitary Confederation's (CUB) national secretary, told The Associated Press at a march in Milan.
In Bologna—home to the world's oldest continuously operating university—students occupied lecture halls and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, including the Tangenziale, the ring highway around the city, where police attacked them with water cannons and tear gas.
Dockworkers and other demonstrators marched and blocked ports in cities including Genoa, Trieste, and Livorno.
Thousands of protesters also blocked the main train station in Naples.
Source: Potere al Popolo via X (@potere_alpopolo)
[image or embed]
— Drop Site (@dropsitenews.com) September 22, 2025 at 11:06 AM
In the Adriatic seaside resort of Termoli, hundreds of student-led Palestine defenders rallied in St. Anthony's Square and, with Mayor Nicola Balice's permission, draped a Palestinian flag from the façade of City Hall.
"Faced with such an important subject, the genocide in Palestine, we students... said this would be a nonpartisan demonstration because in the face of what is happening in the Gaza Strip—hospitals bombed, children killed every day—there can be no political ideology," said one Termoli protester. "We must all be united.”
Some participants in Monday's general strike pointed the finger at their own government.
"In the face of what is happening in Gaza you have to decide where you are," Italian General Confederation of Labor leader Maurizio Landini told La Stampa. "If you don’t tell the Israeli government that you have to stop and don't send them more weapons, but instead you keep sending them... you actually become complicit in what’s happening.”
While European nations including Ireland, Norway, Spain, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Luxembourg, and Denmark have formally recognized Palestine or announced their intent to do so since October 2023, Italy has given no indication that it will follow suit. More than 150 of 193 United Nations member states have recognized Palestine.
Although increasingly critical of Israel's 718-day genocidal assault—which has left at least 241,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza—right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been accused of complicity in genocide for actions including presiding over arms sales to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Meloni has rejected the ICC warrants and said Netanyahu would not be arrested if he enters Italy.
"Meloni should listen to the voice of those who are peacefully protesting and asking her to act, rather than curling up to Washington to protect her friend, the war criminal Netanyahu," Giuseppe Conte, who leads the independent progressive Five Star Movement, said Monday on social media. "Meloni should take a stand with the facts against those who have slaughtered 20,000 children, rather than limiting herself to saying, 'I do not agree.' And she should stop running away from the debate in Parliament."
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Supreme Court to Weigh 90-Year-Old Precedent and Let Trump Fire FTC Commissioner
"Rest in peace to the presidency, and long live the king," quipped one attorney.
Sep 22, 2025
As US President Donald Trump faces mounting accusations of authoritarian conduct, the Supreme Court's right-wing majority on Monday empowered him to proceed with firing a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to review a 90-year-old precedent that restricts executive power over independent agencies such as the FTC.
Trump in March fired the FTC's two Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, without cause. Slaughter fought back, and US District Judge Loren AliKhan allowed her to return to work while the case continued. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld that decision, but it was halted Monday by the nation's top court.
Monday's decision was unsigned, though the three liberals collectively dissented, led by Justice Elena Kagan. In addition to letting Trump move forward with ousting Slaughter, the majority agreed to reconsider the precedent established with Humphrey's Executor v. United States, a 1935 case that centered on whether the Federal Trade Commission Act unconstitutionally interfered with the executive power of the president.
In Humphrey's Executor, the high court found that Congress' removal protections for FTC members did not violate the separation of powers. Along with revisiting the precedent established by that landmark decision in December, the justices plan to weigh whether a federal court may prevent a person's removal from public office.
The court's stay allowing Trump to fire Slaughter was granted as part of the court's emergency process, or shadow docket. In a short but scathing dissent, Kagan noted that it is part of a recent trend: "Earlier this year, the same majority, by the same mechanism, permitted the president to fire without cause members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Merits Systems Protection Board, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission."
"I dissented from the majority's prior stay orders, and today do so again. Under existing law, what Congress said goes—as this court unanimously decided nearly a century ago," she wrote. In Humphrey's Executor, Kagan continued, "Congress, we held, may restrict the president's power to remove members of the FTC, as well as other agencies performing 'quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial' functions, without violating the Constitution."
"So the president cannot, as he concededly did here, fire an FTC commissioner without any reason. To reach a different result requires reversing the rule stated in Humphrey's: It entails overriding rather than accepting Congress' judgment about agency design," she argued. "The majority may be raring to take that action, as its grant of certiorari before judgment suggests. But until the deed is done, Humphrey's controls, and prevents the majority from giving the president the unlimited removal power Congress denied him."
More broadly, Kagan declared that "our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars. Still more, it should not be used, as it also has been, to transfer government authority from Congress to the president, and thus to reshape the nation's separation of powers."
Kagan, of course, is correct that the Supreme Court will soon overturn Humphrey's Executor and allow the president to fire leaders of any independent agency (other than the Fed—maybe?!). She's also right to bemoan the fact that SCOTUS effectively overruled Humphrey's on the shadow docket already.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) September 22, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute, slammed the court in a Monday statement.
"Today, in a one-paragraph order, the Supreme Court authorized President Trump's illegal firing of Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and his ongoing destruction of the independent, bipartisan Federal Trade Commission," Vaheesan said.
"As Justice Kagan wrote in her dissent, Commissioner Slaughter was fired without cause and is clearly entitled to her position under the FTC Act and controlling Supreme Court precedent," he added. "The court could override Congress' decision to create an independent FTC on specious constitutional grounds but until it takes that step Commissioner Slaughter has a right to her job.”
While the justices agreed to take Slaughter's case, they turned away petitions from two ousted Democratic appointees referenced by Kagan: Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board. According to SCOTUSblog: "The court did not provide any explanation for its decision not to take up Harris' and Wilcox's cases at this time. They will continue to move forward in the lower courts."
The New York Times noted that "the justices are separately considering the Trump administration’s request to remove Lisa Cook as a Federal Reserve governor. The Supreme Court has yet to act, but has suggested that the central bank may be insulated from presidential meddling under the law."
However, as Law Dork's Chris Geidner highlighted on social media, the second question the justices will consider in the Slaughter case, regarding courts preventing removals from public office, "would have implications even for the 'Fed carveout' exception that the court suggested exists."
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