Monday news conference, President Trump joined by RFK Junior and federal health officials linked Tylenol use during pregnancy to rising autism rates in children.

Trump urged avoiding the longtime household staple during pregnancy and warned against giving it to infants.

The announcements have drawn sharp pushback from many in the scientific and medical communities which dispute the claims as unproven.

Joining us to discuss more are Dr.

It should Cheema Hassan founder and CEO of Corrales Health developmental Pediatrics and behavioral health provider in Chicago.

Doctor Kristen assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago.

And joining us via Zoom, Dr, Melissa Simon, vice chair for research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University.

Thank you all for joining us.

We appreciate your time Dr.

Simon, I'd like to start with you, please.

What does the research say about taking acetaminophen during pregnancy?

>> Research actually shows that acetaminophen are the active ingredient.

Allen all remains widely considered the safest over the counter choice for treating fever and pain in pregnancy.

There's been decades of clinical research, all kinds of different types of studies and that research supports that is in a minute.

Then is the primary option for pain fever relief right now.

>> Are there reasons to limit acetaminophen consumption during pregnancy?

>> You shouldn't take any medication and pregnancy over more than what you really need.

And so that's what we give advice obstetrician.

We give advice all the time take that those that you need for the time that you need it and then be done.

>> It will DRA.

So what's your reaction to Trump and other federal health officials explicitly linking Tylenol with autism in children.

>> Well, what we do in medicine as we return to the evidence, we turn to the research and at this point today, there have been no studies that have definitively linked acetaminophen, too.

Autism.

There have been both positive and negative study is the problem is the methodological approaches to those studies.

So when you look at the power, it's a very low number of individuals in the studies and they're also retrospective the nature, which means we have a diagnosis of a child with autism.

And then we asked the parents to look backwards and we find out some of the things that they've spoke exposed to.

And from there we make links.

But today there is nothing that says definitively and we need to remember not to confuse correlation with causation.

Yeah, that's exactly what was going to say that even if there is.

>> You know, studies that indicate some sort of an association, it's by no means definitive and shouldn't be guiding clinical choices.

Absolutely.

doctor, she was assigned, you know, you see as many as 20 or 30 young people a month in your practice.

What have you seen?

And more importantly, what does the research say about just the wide variety of factors that lead to an autism diagnosis?

So, you know, the debate in rise of autism as Multifactorial.

>> The it's genetics.

Early screening.

you know, better identification, better classification and and then in my mental factors.

So it's not one thing to oversimplify this and identified just one single cause does not do justice to this complex issue.

>> it runs the risk of people thinking it's just this one thing.

I can cut that out and prevent the risk.

Yeah.

Well, Monday's press conference, President Trump repeatedly warned of the risks of Tylenol.

He also downplayed the risks of avoiding the medication.

Let's listen to some of that.

>> But here's the thing is no downside.

To doing other than a mother will have as they say, tougher that a little bit.

There's no downside to doing this.

It's not like, oh, if you do this, you're going to die.

There's no downside.

>> Dr.

Simon, what are the risks of pregnant people or of infants?

Not taking Tylenol?

Is it accurate to say that there are no downsides?

>> It's misleading, inaccurate.

I and medical organizations such as the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

We warn that not treating pain or fever can actually result in health risks for both the mom and the baby or babies.

And that includes increased risk for birthday facts.

the safest approach to taking acetaminophen or Tylenol is judiciously right and not to avoid it completely.

And and it's especially important to understand that alternatives for pain, medicine or for fever reductions, such as ibuprofen is it is contra, indicated and pregnancy and can have harmed with well documented well-researched risks to the baby.

So tough thing it out and is is really problematic.

Statement.

>> so, you know, Trump officials are also now pushing luego horn as a possible autism treatment.

What is that?

What is the research?

Tell us about that.

A possible treatment.

>> I get this question a lot, especially recently, as you can imagine.

I'm not going to get into the weeds of the science, born is really interesting.

Luka Boren is actually an activated farm of folate.

barn is full casted fully does vitamin B 9.

And the reason that fully it is relevant to autistic individuals is because there is a cerebral folate deficiency.

So lower levels of of fully in the brain.

And we've done whole genome sequencing, looking for, you know, genes involved and within the fully metabolism and transport pathway.

They've identified 2 different genes.

And one is metabolizing Floyd into the active form fully.

And the other one is a transporter that's actually moving forward into the brain and individuals with autism.

There are problems with the so the metabolism into the active form is problematic and also the transport into the brain is problematic for when asked being active form doesn't have to go through the enzyme.

That's converting it to the active form and it can actually bypass that transporter be transported across the blood brain barrier, blood brain barrier differently.

And so this is one of the things there have researchers that have looked fry and colleagues have look to next have actually found that individuals that have auto antibodies to this receptor that I talked about in the brain, the fully receptor alpha.

shows improvement when we get full in a full in a gas.

And so the bulk of our own.

So there's improvements in receptive and expressive language and just kind of overall sentimentality.

So it seems promising.

But the issue is what we need more data.

We need to look at it more.

And it's also very unlikely that it's going to be a one size fits all because autism is such a heterogeneous disorder and DR team has on its my understanding that you have some experience using the card with patients with.

What's your reaction to the idea of advocating for this treatment?

>> So when I talked to families, I discuss all the risks were says benefits for all the therapies.

>> That are available.

And then as a as a fan, you know, as as a group, we come to it.

decision whether this would be beneficial for this specific their specific child.

So it's important to keep that in mind that it does.

It's a small study which showed that it may help in communication.

>> We need, you know, more robust research.

It doesn't work for all.

It is off-label use.

So there has to be standardized protocols that are followed and, you know, family should seek out professionals that have experience with working with children with autism.

>> Dr.

Simon, you concerned that providers might shy away from recommending acetaminophen either for pregnant people are children out of fear of backlash given these new recommendations.

>> I'm very concerned about and the potential for a slippery for other medications and vaccines and things like that.

Basically what this does is it generates confusion and anxiety amongst both providers clinical care officers set Rick's providers, but also amongst expectant parents.

And there has been a surge in questions and fears regarding safety the and that's going to lead to potential under treatment of pain, fever conditions that actually >> pose a greater risk if left untreated for pregnant individuals and also for babies.

And so these mixed signals and dramatic messaging and fear of retaliation or retribution from the clinicians standpoint can really undermine confidence and specifically maternal confidence.

confidence in in, you know, evidence-based care and it can worsen health care disparities.

It can stigmatize the mothers who end up taking Tylenol.

So really I encourage health care leaders to really sit down, talk to their patients provider.

Guided medication is really important in terms of use and it continued focus on pace in safety and well-being is so critical right now.

So any person out there, any parent concerned, whether that because they're pregnant or they have a young child about Tylenol use, I encourage them to please speak to health care provider.

>> All right.

Well, much more to say on this topic, but I'm afraid that's where we'll have