The White House on Monday made a sweeping and controversial announcement linking Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism.

Standing alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

and other top federal health officials, the president warned of a very increased risk of autism from acetamophene.

That's despite decades of research showing it to be the safest pain medication option for pregnant people.

The White House is now directing the Food and Drug Administration to revise warning labels and notify doctors.

So, they recommend women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary, like to treat a fever, according to the president.

But the administration didn't release new data or evidence to back the change.

And multiple studies, including one of over two million children, have found no causal link.

Here's the president.

Don't take Tylenol.

There's no downside.

Don't take it.

You'll be uncomfortable.

It won't be as easy, maybe, but don't take it.

If you're pregnant, don't take Tylenol.

Well, the announcement has sparked confusion among doctors and expecting parents along with backlash from some in the research and autism community.

For more, I'm joined by Dr.

Walter Zahardney, the director of the CDC sponsored New Jersey autism study at Rutgers University.

Dr.

It's good to have you back on the show.

Thank you so much for coming on.

I wonder um as someone who has done deep extensive research on autism for for years, how you interpret the president's claim that Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism.

Does that reflect current scientific consensus?

uh in my opinion uh it's not so simple to say uh autism is caused by acettoinophen or by any single uh environmental trigger.

Um it is however quite likely that uh prenatal use of acetaminophen does increase risk of autism.

It's not the cause of autism.

It's possibly one of many causes that occurs in context of a genetic background.

So I understand I think uh Mr.

Trump's uh motivation I interpret that to be that he thinks that autism prevalence has increased a long time and he wants to understand why.

And one thing that seems to have uh garnered sufficient research uh uh information is the hypothesis that acetaminophen causes sorry acetaminophen is related to autism risk.

Um there are very good studies which point to that.

And uh the after identifying a possible risk factor uh you also want to take uh steps to identify what the right interventions or treatments might be.

Uh I think the approach uh though controversial is basically positive because it's actionoriented and it accepts the fact that autism has increased significantly and that we don't understand the primary environmental drivers or triggers for autism.

Well, I know the last time we spoke just this past spring, um you and I talked a lot about how um you were encouraged by environmental factors um being more at the forefront of research now.

But I wonder I mean you mentioned some of those scientific studies.

There was a a JAMA study of about two million uh children which did not find a direct link and then another study uh from Harvard um found strong evidence of an association but not causation.

How do you reconcile those two findings?

And is it fair to say a causation as opposed to an association?

Yeah, I don't believe anybody has ever found the definitive evidence for anything causing autism.

uh rather some factors might increase the risk or the probability of autism.

One of those things I'm convinced based on the paper from uh Harvard and Mount Sinai is that the bulk of scientific evidence on this question supports the premise or the assertion that autism uh is associated with uh uh use prenatal use of acetaminophen.

uh there'll never be a single paper or a single report that that solves all the important questions uh for the final time finally but rather we to go with the basis of most of the evidence and I would say most of the evidence suggests that we should be suspicious of acetaminophen so is it an oversimplification then to single out one factor in this case Tylenol I mean if as you say there's a lot of factors it's a very complex complex um uh issue uh influenced by genetics, environment, um early brain development, the like.

I is it can it be traced to one source?

Is that a scientifically sound thing for the president to say?

It it probably is a great oversimplification to convey the impression that there's a single risk factor or a single cause for autism.

That's definitely not likely to be tr true.

In fact, there are probably multiple environmental triggers and that you also require a genetic substrate in order to be effective.

So, if we pick out one possible uh risk factor, we're probably overstating the likelihood that that one risk factor explains most of autism.

I would say that probably uh prenatal exposure to autism to acetammenophen does increase the likelihood of autism in in the children but this might be a matter of a number of degrees rather than a causal structure for most cases.

Uh folks from places like the autism science foundation said that this um type of messaging hearkened back to when mothers were blamed for their child's autism.

How do you see that and what type of conversations are you having now in light of this announcement with colleagues and and how you approach families?

Yeah, there definitely will be a a difference of opinion in this regard.

I don't know anyone or have never spoken to anyone who believed that uh mothers were responsible for autism.

uh rather there are probably a variety of factors in the environment which most which all of which uh were naive about which are active nonetheless and which should be understood and then uh for which there should be either interventions or preventive efforts.

It seems like you would rule out a whole category of understanding and exploration if you said that uh environmental factors would be uh indicative of something very simplistic like the role of the mother or the choice of a of an over-the-counter treatment during pregnancy.

I I wanted to get your your take very quickly, doctor, on the FDA also announcing approval for uh Loravine, the drug that's long been used in cancer treatment, but now for certain children with autism.

Um, are we overstating what this drug is able to do or what do we know uh about it as a potential treatment?

Yeah, I'm not a physician, but I would say that what I've read about lucavorin and autism is only suggestive.

Uh the number of studies that have been done are is small and the number of patients tried with luccoorin is small and what's indicated is that on the positive side lucorin has a positive safety profile.

Patients prescribed this medicine don't tend to get debilitating side effects.

uh and it's probably safe for use.

However, uh we're far away from having something close to definitive proof uh of it of its efficacy.

And I would recommend that we take what little prevailing uh positive information there is to sponsor larger scale conventional medical trials of Lucavor with randomization and double uh double blind assignment.

that hasn't occurred yet.

Very quickly, just before I let you go, any final thoughts on this on the announcement, this roll out from the White House.

It's a great beginning because it opens the door to the uh acceptance and the study of possible risk factors for autism.

It takes us a lot f farther than the position of uh we don't even know whether it's a true increase or not.

Dr.

Dr.

Walter Zahari, thank you so much for your time and your insight.

Thanks a lot.