Unpacking Trump's Controversial Claims on Autism and Vaccines

Sat Oct 11 2025 05:54:39 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

An analysis of former President Trump's recent claims linking autism, Tylenol, and the MMR vaccine raises alarm among health experts. Learn more about the debate over these statements and their implications.

Former President Donald Trump's recent statements associating Tylenol with autism and suggesting that the MMR vaccine should be given separately from measles, mumps, and rubella has faced strong criticism from health professionals. Medical experts refute his claims, emphasizing that rising autism rates are primarily due to improved diagnostics rather than any pharmaceutical links. With misinformation about vaccines being particularly alarming, experts warn about potential repercussions that could undermine public health efforts.

US President Donald Trump has attracted condemnation from health experts, after he sought to claim there was a link between the widely used painkiller Tylenol and autism.

Accompanied by his Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump said doctors would soon be advised not to recommend the drug - called paracetamol in some other countries, including the UK - to pregnant women.

The claims have been attacked by medical experts. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the announcement was unsettling and not based on reliable data, while the UK's National Autism Society called Trump's statement dangerous, it's anti-science and it's irresponsible.

During the event, Trump listed statistics which he said showed autism diagnoses in the US have risen rapidly over the past two decades.

First, he claimed that incidence has increased from around one in 10,000…probably 18 years ago to one in 31 by 2025. The final statistic quoted by Trump - that autism rates have risen to one in 31 - is correct according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2022 which found that level of diagnoses among eight-year-olds across 16 US states.

However, while that rate has indeed grown from 18 years ago, it did not grow by anything like the figure cited by Trump. In fact, there was no figure for 2007, but in 2006 the CDC estimated the rate of autism in the US population to be one in 110 and in 2008 it was one in 88. Most experts believe the rising rates of autism can be attributed mainly to changes in diagnostic criteria as well as broader recognition of the condition.

Additionally, Trump asserted that California had a more severe problem with autism than other states surveyed by the CDC. The CDC data from 2022 showed about one in 12 eight-year-old boys in California were diagnosed with autism, the highest rate among the states surveyed. Yet, the agency attributed this to a local initiative funding which trains pediatricians to identify autism early, leading to higher reported incidents.

Another significant claim made by Trump was regarding the MMR vaccine. He suggested that the vaccinations should be taken separately rather than as a combined shot, claiming combined administration causes issues. Experts are concerned that if parents avoid vaccinations due to such claims, the risk of diseases like measles may re-emerge. The discredited notion linking vaccines and autism first emerged from a 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield, but extensive research dispelled this myth, with the latest being a 2019 study in Denmark involving over 657,000 children.

Furthermore, Trump cited the Amish community as having virtually no autism due to low Tylenol use, lacking substantial evidence and contrary to limited studies indicating autism exists within the community.

In light of these discussions, experts reiterate the importance of reliable information, stressing that misinformation around vaccinations and health poses significant risks to public health initiatives.