President Donald Trump made baffling remarks during a Monday press conference, claiming that pregnant women should avoid Tylenol, the brand name of acetaminophen, arguing that it was associated with a “very increased” risk of autism.
It was a new low for the Trump administration, leading to widespread outrage and incredulity among experts.
Then things got even sketchier when the New York Times revealed that the researcher behind the studies cited during Monday’s press conference had a financial interest in warning users against the use of Tylenol.
I work in behavioral health, and most of my kiddos have a diagnosis. There are a handful of junk studies around this topic that have the same group of people with conflicting financial interests, have shit methodologies, or confounds (such as other therapies) etc.
By who? Advil? 😂
Andrea Baccarelli, the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, received at least $150,000 as an expert witness during several lawsuits aimed at Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, federal court filings reviewed by the newspaper show.
It’s a glaring conflict of interest, and a worrying example of how the Trump administration is using quack science to further a pseudoscientific agenda. Worse yet, it’s using baseless evidence linked to civil litigation to justify its claims.
A federal judge dismissed the suits aimed at the Tylenol maker, which were filed by families who claimed their children developed autism or ADHD after using Tylenol during pregnancy. The judge cited a lack of reliable scientific evidence and agreed with the defendants that Baccarelli had “cherry-picked and misrepresented study results,” according to the NYT.
Thank you for the summary.
“The US should do something against their opioid crisis.”
…
“NOT LIKE THAT!”
