OPINION:
President Trump sparked a global backlash by advising the women of America to stop taking Tylenol while pregnant because its main acetaminophen ingredient may cause autism. He also expressed concern over the number of vaccines babies and toddlers are given, saying the massive flow of chemicals into such small bodies could be hazardous, and for the sake of children’s health, these shots should be administered over a longer span of time.
Notice Trump didn’t dictate; only advised. And yet the world has reacted as if he’s condemned the youth of the globe to certain death.
“International health agencies hit back against Trump’s claims about Tylenol and autism,” CNN reported.
“’Highly concerning’: Major medical groups react to Trump’s claim that Tylenol is linked to autism,” ABC News reported.
“Trump blames Tylenol for autism,” NPR reported. “Science doesn’t back him up.”
“Trump’s escalating attacks on vaccines shock public health leaders,” The Washington Post reported.
But here’s where “follow the money” becomes crucial. It’s not always the best health practice for the individual to defer to the medical community at-large.
“The Trump Administration does not believe popping more pills is always the answer for better health,” said Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary.
Automatically, such a viewpoint sets Big Pharma on edge. How could it not?
So when Trump comes out and cites medical reports such as the Boston Birth Cohort and the Nurses’ Health Study II that show “associations between in utero exposure and later diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,” the beneficiaries of ADHD and autism therapeutics get a little bit nervous. The pharmaceutical companies and health bureaucrats and medical professionals who take lobby dollars, and the health lobbyists themselves, and the politicians they also pay — they all start to wonder about the potential for lawsuits; they start to figure on the cuts in their medical treatment revenues; they start to see the long-term dwindling that could result in sales of their long-time accepted treatments.
They enter defense mode and automatically launch a pushback.
This isn’t to say that all medical doctors have money on their minds when they scoff at Trump’s call to slow-roll the vaccines for kids and Tylenol usage for pregnant women. Some may indeed believe wholeheartedly in the years and years and years of science that have shown these vaccines to be safe, and that have found acetaminophen to be safe. But as with any medical treatment — as with any scientific discovery — the science can change. As more information is collected and as more data becomes available, the science — the conclusions — the best practices — can evolve to the point where what was once generally accepted truth is no longer true. The earth was once thought flat. Bloodletting was once a common practice for a wide variety of illnesses. Cocaine was once an ingredient in Coca-Cola.
Another fact: Diagnoses of autism over the past 20 years “have increased by about 300 percent,” according to a post at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Why?
Health bureaucrats would have us believe more attention has been paid to the disorder, resulting in better and more accurate medical diagnoses of those showing symptoms. They also say the definition of autism itself has been broadened, and nowadays, a scale, not a single label, of autism is used so that those exhibiting certain behaviors are not given a “yes” or “no” diagnosis of autism but instead chalked up as having a certain level of autism.
More autism, more autism, more autism.
Americans — parents — should be gravely concerned, not to mention curious. It’s only right to ask questions. True scientists welcome questions. Truthful tellers know that money is often an influencer — yes, even in the field of medicine.
The autism spectrum disorder therapeutics market size was valued at $1.93 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow … to $3.42 billion by 2030,” Fortune Business Insights reported in September.
The projected growth stems in part from a Centers for Disease Control & Prevention estimation from 2020 that found 1 out of 54 children was diagnosed with autism in the United States, and more would likely follow. It’s big business.
“[G]rowing investments by key players in Research and Development initiatives for the launch of effective drugs to treat autistic disorders are expected to fuel the global market growth,” Fortune Business Insights continued. It’s being banked upon as even bigger business.
The pertinent players are setting global sights on autism treatments — and that’s not to develop an overnight cure. There’s no profit in that.
It’s foolish to think the medical community doesn’t care about money; that medical professionals and the people they partner with are somehow “above” the money.
The Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America spent $31.7 million on lobbying activities in 2024, according to Open Secrets. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association spent $17.6 million; the biotech company Amgen, $11.7 million. Merck and Pfizer, both about $9.1 million; Bayer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson, between $8.2 million and $8.4 million each — and more, for a total in 2024 from the pharmaceutical industries of $388 billion. That’s billion with a “b.”
Trump is right when he says the so-called medical experts who issue the reports on medical issues and treatments to politicians and hospitals and parents and media are often compromised. So, too, the local family physician.
“More than half of doctors receive industry payments, with some making millions,” Lown Institute reported in April 2024. From the article: “A recent study in JAMA finds that 57 percent of physicians received a payment from pharmaceutical or medical device companies over the past ten years.”
That is a fact that can’t be discounted when trying to determine the best medical practice for self and family.
So trust Trump, don’t trust Trump — whatever. But know this: The members of his administration have far fewer conflicts of interest in investigating the links between vaccines and Tylenol and autism and other disorders than the medical bureaucrats, Big Pharma folks and the health lobbyists and their friends-in-politics added all together. There’s much money to be made from a sick population.
And the willingness of this White House to challenge science in the face of changing data only benefits the patient and would-be patient in the long run. Anyone who disagrees is either a MAGA hater and MAHA hater — or a biased beneficiary of the medical disorder market.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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