United States President Donald Trump and his Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have come under fire after linking circumcision and the use of Tylenol to autism in children.

The pair made the claims during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, reviving a fringe theory that health experts have repeatedly dismissed as false.

“Don’t take Tylenol if you’re pregnant and when the baby is born, don’t give it Tylenol,” Trump said.
Kennedy backed him, adding: “There’s two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol.”

Experts swiftly pushed back, calling the claims misleading and dangerous. Helen Tager-Flusberg, a professor at Boston University and autism specialist, told AFP: “None of this makes sense. None of the studies have shown that giving Tylenol to babies is linked to a higher risk for autism once you can control for all the confounding variables.”

Medical associations also advise pregnant women to use acetaminophen (Tylenol’s active ingredient) in moderation, not to avoid it entirely. A 2024 study published in JAMA, which compared siblings, found no link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism.

The circumcision theory also falls apart under closer scrutiny. The most cited research, a 2015 Danish study, found a statistical association between circumcision in boys under 10 and autism diagnoses. But experts say the study was “riddled with flaws.”

David Mandell, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, explained that the study relied on a small sample of Muslim boys circumcised in hospitals instead of at home. Those boys were already hospitalized, meaning they were “likely medically compromised,” which could explain higher rates of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Later reviews found no causal link between circumcision and autism or any adverse psychological effects, contradicting the theory promoted by Trump and Kennedy.

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine conspiracy theorist, has made autism a key focus since joining Trump’s cabinet. He recently hired David Geier, previously disciplined for practising medicine without a licence and testing unproven drugs on autistic children, to investigate alleged vaccine links—claims that dozens of studies have already debunked.

Health experts warn that statements from political leaders can fuel misinformation and confuse parents seeking credible medical advice.