On Monday, Sept. 22, President Donald Trump and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a much anticipated speech on autism in front of the press at the White House. Both the President and the Health Secretary warned of the dangers of the over-the-counter pain reliever Tylenol and vaccines, linking both to autism, with the President saying, “The FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of…acetaminophen, which is basically commonly known as Tylenol, during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism.” Kennedy and Trump both promised an additional $50 million million across 13 research projects focused on the mechanisms and potential treatments of autism.
Kennedy and Trump’s announcement also included allusions to potential future research into a link between vaccines and autism, something that has been floated by vaccine skeptics for decades. Despite many studies on the topic, no correlation between vaccination and autism diagnoses has been found. Vassar Associate Professor of Psychological Science Bojana Zupan said that while the initial studies were beneficial and conducted due to actual concern, current research in the field can be unproductive: “Now it becomes this conspiratorial pseudoscientific cross that they will bear forever.”
Similarly, Vassar Associate Professor of Sociology Catherine Do Tan said that the purported link between Tylenol and autism is a dangerous characterization. Referencing decades of research, Tan said in an interview with The Miscellany News, “There isn’t any sound scientific evidence to support the claim…It’s really harmful to come out and say that [Tylenol] is something that is dangerous.” Tan cautioned of a public health disaster, where people become anxious to take common, safe medications and vaccines.
This announcement also comes as speculation around research has increased, and as research funding has been broadly cut. These funding cuts have led to concern among students majoring in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The recent cuts to research funding have prompted conversations and inquiries among Vassar students, including Ryan Santos ’29, a prospective pre-med student, who questioned the use of the excess money: “If research funding is cut, then how will that money be repurposed?” Santos also expressed concern about where government controlled research could be focused: “The direction in which research is being guided is not one that has the common person in mind.”
In the second part of his speech, Kennedy incorrectly claimed that more than half of all parents of autistic children are convinced that vaccines were the culprit. He stated, “Some 40 to 70 percent of mothers who have children with autism believe that their child was injured by a vaccine.” According to a 2021 study published in the Journal of Child Neurology, this statistic is actually about 28.4 percent.
The Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Jay Badacharia, also spoke during the event on Monday. He co-announced the 13-project, a $50 million initiative to study autism. “The NIH peer reviewers chose the 13 best projects focused on root causes and therapies with replication and validation studies to guarantee gold standard science,” he said. While Tan suggested that pushing money towards research projects into autism may be a good idea, she cautioned that top researchers may be looking for data and correlations where there are not any: “They’re going to crawl out of their project with something to show.” Tan also felt the studies were driven in part by economic incentives: “People are trying to make money off of this myth.”
Zupan shared a similar opinion in an interview with The Miscellany News, saying, “Any talk of giving more money into research, I welcome that.” She cautioned that while $50 million may seem like a large amount of money for researchers, “gold standard science” requires much more. Zupan explained that such a standard would potentially involve thousands of patients and could cost millions of dollars: “It’s a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, meaning no one knows what’s being treated and how, not the physicians, not the subjects to eliminate any potential for bias and placebo effect.” Despite the dangers of inaccurate scientific and medical information, Tan argued that a vaccine–autism link may give parents a path forward. She suggested that for such a link, “It offers them a pathway forward, a way of treating autism.”
Trump also falsely claimed that newborns and infants receive as many as 80 different vaccines all at the same time. In fact, the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) own childhood vaccine schedule only lists 36 total recommended vaccine doses through age 18, with some vaccines needing as many as five doses spread over several years.
The childhood vaccine schedule has been thought out by scientists and experts and revised over decades. The schedule undergoes annual reapproval by a board of experts, helping to ensure efficacy and safety. Trump, who has no medical background, asserted the following suggestion for parents: “Wait until the baby is 12 years old and formed and take Hepatitis B.” Trump continued, “I’m making these statements from me. I’m not making them from these doctors.” Tan found these statements alarming, saying, “People are not making these vaccine recommendations off of vibes.” Tan added that all of the recommendations were well-studied and thought through.
Zupan had a similar opinion, referencing research conducted by the American Medical Association. She said of a reduced vaccine schedule, “There is no reduced purported relationship to any neurodevelopmental condition, but what they do do is actually increase risk of communicable infectious diseases.” Zupan continued, “Because children are not vaccinated at a time that precedes greater exposure or potential exposure to those pathogens.”
Both Trump and Kennedy brought these issues to light for a specific reason. Failing to recall decades of research opposing their opinions, Tan said of the speech, “It’s a desperate search to blame something.”