Harvard Scientist's Tylenol-Autism Study Cited by Trump Faces Conflict, Expert Testimony Dismissal

President Donald Trump recently warned pregnant women against using the painkiller Tylenol, linking it to increased risks of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, citing a study co-authored by Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. However, Baccarelli was previously a paid expert witness in a 2023 unsuccessful lawsuit against Tylenol's manufacturer, where his testimony was dismissed by a federal judge for being "incomplete, unbalanced and at times misleading." Critics, including Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding and Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-Vanderweele, have challenged Trump's claims, pointing to rigorous studies from Sweden and Norway that found no significant association between prenatal acetaminophen use and autism or ADHD. The FDA Commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, supported the warning based on the cited research, but experts caution that further research is necessary to confirm any causal link. The controversy highlights ongoing debates about the scientific validity of the purported link and the potential influence of political narratives on public health messaging. Appellate proceedings related to the dismissed lawsuit are still ongoing, underscoring the unsettled nature of the evidence.