Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. further added to the Trump administration’s problematic claims about Tylenol and autism on Oct. 9, alleging during a Cabinet meeting that circumcision-related studies provide evidence that the drug causes the condition when given to children. The studies, however, do no such thing.
Amid confusion over this year’s updated COVID-19 vaccines, we explain what’s different this year and who experts say should get vaccinated.
On Sept. 18, the vaccine advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to change its recommendation on the combined vaccine for chickenpox and measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMRV vaccine. We spoke to experts about claims made at the meeting as well as the implications of the vote.
In a Sept. 22 press conference that he had billed as “one of the biggest [medical] announcements … in the history of our country,” President Donald Trump touted an unproven link between autism and the use of Tylenol, or acetaminophen, during pregnancy.
News reports have indicated Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may point to Tylenol and folate deficiency in his promised announcement on the causes of autism. But neither Tylenol nor folate deficiency has been shown to cause autism. Some evidence has pointed away from Tylenol as a risk factor.
A large Danish study recently provided reassurance that aluminum-containing vaccines are not associated with increased rates of chronic health conditions in children, including autism. But Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. misrepresented the study’s findings, claiming that the paper’s supplementary data “shows calamitous evidence of harm.”
The Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings this week on its effort to undo the legal foundation for its regulation of greenhouse gases, the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change. In a major policy shift announced in late July, the Trump administration EPA said it would rescind the so-called “endangerment finding,” which allows the agency to regulate such emissions, arguing that legal and scientific developments justify a reconsideration.
In justifying the government’s termination of $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine projects, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed mRNA vaccines “fail to protect effectively” against COVID-19 and suggested they are unsafe. The mRNA shots saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and have shown promise against influenza.
In recent months, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary has amplified unfounded concerns about the safety of seed oils, a subset of vegetable oils used in infant formula. There isn’t evidence these fat sources are harmful to infants.
Unfounded rumors linking an extreme weather event to human attempts at weather modification are again spreading on social media. It is not plausible that available weather modification techniques caused or influenced the July 4 flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas.