Trump says his administration will recommend women limit Tylenol – or acetaminophen – use in pregnancy
“Effective immediately the FDA will be notifying doctors that the use of acetaminophen,” Trump struggled to pronounce the drug name, “or Tylenol, can be associated with a very increased risk of autism,” Trump said.
“So taking Tylenol is not good.”
“For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary,” he added.
Key events
Kennedy says that the FDA has announced a new treatment for autism: leucovorin, a form of folic acid.
The FDA published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the treatment, it cited “patient-level data on over 40 patients, including both adults and pediatric patients” to support the finding that the drug can improve symptoms from cerebral folate deficiency, which it says has been reported in some patients.
Health and Human Services will announce a nationwide public service campaign to spread knowledge about the agency’s Tylenol announcement, Kennedy said.
Robert F Kennedy Jr is speaking now at the president’s White House press conference. He’s begun by describing changes at US health agencies.
“We are now replacing the institutional culture of politicized science and corruption with evidence-based medicine,” Kennedy said. “NIH research teams are now testing multiple hypotheses with no area off limits.”
Trump has also announced that the National Institutes of Health will be announcing 13 major grant awards from the autism data science initiatives.
“Nothing bad can happen, only good can happen,” he said.
Trump is speaking unclearly about his vaccine recommendations, saying his team wants mercury removed from vaccines and recommending that vaccines be taken separately, such as the MMRV vaccine, which a CDC panel recommended last week.
He’s also saying that babies should not receive Hepatitis B vaccines, because it is sexually transmitted.
Trump is also talking about vaccines, though which ones were not immediately clear, recommending that babies receive vaccines over a period of years.
“They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he said. “It looks like they’re pumping into a horse.”
He described “a vat of 80 different vaccines” that doctors “pump” into babies.
He went on to recommend that vaccines are done “four times, five times” instead of “one visit where they pump the baby and load it up with stuff.”
Trump is also describing working with “these great doctors,” referring to his cabinet members Robert F Kennedy Jr and Mehmet Oz.
Oz is in fact a medical doctor. Kennedy is not.
Trump says his administration will recommend women limit Tylenol – or acetaminophen – use in pregnancy
“Effective immediately the FDA will be notifying doctors that the use of acetaminophen,” Trump struggled to pronounce the drug name, “or Tylenol, can be associated with a very increased risk of autism,” Trump said.
“So taking Tylenol is not good.”
“For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary,” he added.
Trump begins press conference
Donald Trump has begun speaking at his White House press conference, joined by Robert F Kennedy Jr and Mehmet Oz.
“I’ve been waiting for this meeting for twenty years,” Donald Trump said. He then went on to describe first meeting Robert F. Kennedy Jr and bonding over their shared concern about autism twenty years while still working as a developer in New York City.
“Since 2000, autism rates have surged by much more than 400 percent,” he said.
While we wait for the president’s presser to begin, we’re beginning to see statements on Disney’s announcement that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to television tomorrow.
Here’s one from Summer Lopez, interim Co-CEO and chief program officer for free expression at PEN America:
Jimmy Kimmel’s return is a vindication for free speech: both remedying his unjustifiable suspension, and reminding us that when people speak out to hold the powerful to account — it matters. We must all channel the same energy to fight the many assaults on free speech underway, including against those with less reach and resources.
Trump and RFK Jr to hold press conference
We’re currently waiting for Donald Trump to begin speaking at a White House press conference where he’ll be joined by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and director of the Centers of Medicaid and Medicare Services, Dr Mehmet Oz.
The president and his cabinet members are expected to tie pregnant women’s use of the popular medicine Tylenol (known as paracetamol elsewhere in the world) to the development of autism in children.
In the meantime, here’s a helpful summary of the research and medical recommendations around Tylenol use during pregnancy:
Trump to meet with top Congressional Democrats this week – report
We’re getting word that the president is due to meet with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries this week in DC, according to Punchbowl News. This comes as members of Congress are on a recess this week.
Last week, the top Democrats wrote a letter to Trump, asking for meeting after a short-term funding bill failed to pass in the Senate.
Now, a government shutdown is looming, with government funding set to expire at the end of the month.
Disney announces that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return on Tuesday
In a statement, the Walt Disney Company, said that Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show would return to television on Tuesday, 23 September.
This comes after it spent almost a week off the air, after ABC suspended production.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” Disney said in a statement. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
The update from ABC’s parent company comes after 400 Hollywood stars signed an open letter by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) condemning Disney’s indefinite suspension of Kimmel’s show, after the Trump administration pressured the network to take action or risk their affiliates losing their broadcast licenses, issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Edward Helmore
Earlier, we reported on Republican senator Rand Paul’s pushback on the Trump administration putting pressure on the justice department to investigate the president’s opponents.
In the same NBC News interview on Sunday, Kentucky’s junior senator broke with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr for seemingly putting his finger on the scale in the ongoing dispute between suspended talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel and his employer, Disney-owned ABC.
Carr recently threatened to pull ABC affiliate broadcast licenses if Disney did not take action against Kimmel over his comments suggesting that Republicans were trying to characterize the alleged killer of far-right commentator Charlie Kirk as “anything other” than part of the president’s “Maga gang”.
Paul told Meet the Press that Carr’s comments were “absolutely inappropriate” and the FCC chair “has got no business weighing in on this”.
“Any attempt by the government to get involved with speech – I will fight,” Paul added.
But Paul also qualified his comments, saying Disney and ABC had no obligation to employ Kimmel. On-air media contracts typically have a morals clause against behavior that is offensive or reflects unfavorably on the company.
“People have to also realize that despicable comments – you have the right to say them,” Paul said. “But you don’t have the right to employment. Virtually everybody employed, probably including yourself, has a code of conduct in your contact that you have to adhere.”
