President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are playing doctor at the expense of the nation’s health. But while they’re manufacturing nonsense about what causes autism, actual scientists are doing actual science.
A new study, published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that when expectant mothers had a COVID-19 infection, the children they gave birth to showed a greater risk of having autism and other neurological issues.
Wait, are these pointy-headed scientists really not focusing on Tylenol as a cause of autism? How dare they not listen to Trump and Kennedy! Are they really saying that COVID, which we all know can be fixed by a combination of ivermectin, intravenous bleach, and leeches, is bad for mothers and fetuses?
A health care worker prepares a shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
The study, conducted by doctors and academics associated with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, reviewed over 18,100 births in Massachusetts during the early part of the COVID pandemic, from March 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021. They found that, of 861 women who tested positive for COVID while pregnant, 140 had children who would get a neurodevelopment-related diagnosis by age 3. When the mother had an infection during the third trimester, the risk for a child showing adverse developmental outcomes was even higher.
Among those developmental disorders were delayed speech, motor disorders, and autism. And the researchers said these kids may also be at a higher risk of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance later in life.
Now, because these are real scientists and not a weird nepo baby with a brain worm like Kennedy, their conclusions are tentative. They aren’t definitively stating that the study proves COVID causes autism or other neurodevelopmental issues. Their findings are more so that a maternal infection during pregnancy appears to increase the likelihood of those things happening. More research is needed to establish a causal link.
Tylenol products sit on a store shelf.
Okay, sure, but what about all those great studies showing that taking Tylenol while pregnant causes a kid to have autism? Yeah, about that: There are no conclusive studies that prove a causal link between taking Tylenol during pregnancy and a child being diagnosed with autism.
Meanwhile, since Kennedy both is confused about pregnancy and believes he’s the smartest guy in the room, he’s getting mad at one woman on TikTok making video in which he claims she was “gobbling Tylenol” while she had “a baby in her placenta”—which is, you know, not where fetuses are.
Also, please ignore the emerging research that the COVID vaccine may aid cancer patients in fighting tumors.
While all of this nonsense is going on, the administration has been rolling back access to the COVID-19 vaccine and has refused to make a formal recommendation for pregnant people to get the vaccine. So, rather than making sure people are safe from a deadly disease when pregnant, with the possible side benefit of decreasing the prevalence of autism, the administration is putting up to $50 million into research to determine what causes autism.
But you can tell by the way the administration is explaining this that they have some predetermined outcomes in mind and that they generally don’t understand how scientific inquiry works. To get a slice of that $50 million, you have to “support analysis of the new data resources to explore the contribution of a variety of health and other factors to the causes of autism.”
By trashing access to COVID vaccines and making weird hobgoblin noises about Tylenol, this administration is making us all sicker by the day.
