Already and this is this is the Daily OS.
This is the Daily ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the twenty fourth of September. I'm Emma Gillespie.
I'm Lucy Tassel.
One of the world's most common pain relief medications, has dominated headlines over the past twenty four to forty eight hours after recent comments from the Trump administration linking paracetamol to autism.
I want to say it like it is. Don't take dalanol, don't take it.
Warnings from the US about the use of Tailanol, a brand of paracetamol during pregnancy, prompted Australia's Health Minister Mark Butler to seek urgent advice from the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Today we are going to take you through what the US President and other officials said, the backlash, Australia's response, and what the science actually says about paraceta safety. But before we get into it, he is a quick word from our.
Sponsor, Emma. This story has evolved quite rapidly this week. Can you take me back to the start? What was said? How did this begin?
Yes? So, US President Donald Trump this week made what he's calling one of the biggest medical announcements in decades to confront what he has called, quote, the crisis of autism. Trump was joined by US officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior. RFK Junior, at a White House press conference on Monday, where he claimed that tylanol is a very big factor in autism. Now, just to clarify here for
our audience, thailanol and panadol. They are both brand names for the same active ingredient, paracetamol, which is also called acidaminifen, which you may have heard some American officials calling it that effective. Immediately, Trump said that the FDA will be notifying physicians, gps and doctors that the use of parasitamol during pregnancy quote, can be associated with a very increased risk of autism.
What do we need to know about the FDA.
Yeah, So the FDA is the Food and Drug Administration. They are America's equivalent to what we have here the TGA, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. So those bodies are both the medicine regulators for their respective countries.
Okay, before we go any further, we should probably touch on kind of can you give us like a broad brushstrokes. What is autism?
Yes, so, autism spectrum disorder is a condition diagnosed through developmental assessments and neurobehavioral observations. It is a neurodevelopmental condition, meaning if you are autistic, you are born autistic. That's what the evidence tells us. The support that autistic people need can vary because it's in the name a spectrum.
Autism is considered a spectrum, so it is often character rised by differences in communication styles, maybe some issues with sensory processing, but that disorder means that you know, no one autistic person is the same as the other. In the nineteen nineties, a study suggested that routine childhood vaccines might cause autism, but this study has been debunked its
author was deregistered as a doctor. Regardless, though, that sentiment that relationship between vaccines and autism remains in some communities.
And partly propagated by RFK Junior himself.
In exactly which we will get into in a little bit.
Yes, Now, does this mean that the US's FDA is advising against the use of paracetamol during pregnancy?
Not completely, but essentially so Trump's focus is on its use during pregnancy. He said that paracetamal use should be restricted to only in cases of an extremely high temperature in pregnancy.
In other words, a fever that's very, very dangerous, and so ideally you don't take it at all, but if you have to, if you can't tough it out, or if you's a problem, you're going to end up doing it.
I mentioned earlier obviously that Kennedy, the Health Secretary, has a history with suggesting various medicines could lead to certain neurodevelopmental disorders. But I have to say I was pretty surprised by the paracetamol of it all. That kind of to me anyway, came out of nowhere this week. Why were health officials even looking into this?
Yeah, so I think you're right, Lucy. It did come as a little bit of a surprise for us here in Australia. But there has been a focus within the Trump administration around autism diagnoses spiking within the US, so they've tripled in the past two decades. Paracetamol use has
remained largely steady over that time. But correlation does not equal causation, which we'll get into RFK Junior, specifically, as you flagged, has long promoted debunked theories around vaccines and autism, and both he and Trump have stated on previous occasions that they believe there's an autism epidemic in the US
attributed to this so called explosion in cases. When Kennedy was appointed to the Health Secretary portfolio, he promised earlier this year to identify the cause of autism by September.
Okay, so this month, this month, and.
Here we are. And he has pointed to everything from synthetic food dies to childhood vaccines as potential concern points. So from his perspective, I suppose paracetamol just falls into a bigger mission that he is on.
What is the kind of evidence that the White House is presenting? Have they explained any of the findings or evidence linking autism and paracetamol?
So specifically, the White House does say that it has evidence to suggest paracetamol use in pregnant women, especially late in pregnancy, may cause quote long term neurological effects in children. According to a statement, the findings of multiple large scale cohort studies link prenatal parasitamal exposure to altered brain development and adverse birth outcomes. That's what the White House has said, and that increased incidence in neurodevelopmental disorders also includes ADHD.
So a lot of the focus is about autism, but there is also a conversation here going on about ADHD. I do just want to point out, though, that while the White House has cited large scale studies, the language used in those studies include words like may, suggest, proposed. There is no absolute certainty about this link, and Trump has even conceded that himself this week.
It's not that everything percent understood or known, but I think we've made a lot of.
Strides despite that. Trump's advice is that pregnant women should quote, fight like hell not to take paracetamol.
Okay, is there any data to contradict these claims.
There have been some studies suggesting a potential link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and slightly higher autism rates. Yeah, but according to multiple other studies, it's a different story.
Okay.
I wanted to quote some comments from James Cusack. He's the chief executive of a UK autism research and campaigning charity called Autistica. He's quoted in the scientific journal Nature as saying there is no definitive evidence to suggest that parascetamol use in mothers is a cause of autism, and when you see any associations, they are very, very small. He said. At the heart of this is people trying
to look for simple answers to complex problems. The biggest and most comprehensive study to date on this also tells a different story to the latest FDA advice from Trump and RFK Junior. So, a Swedish study published last year actually looked at data from two and a half million children born between nineteen ninety five and twenty nineteen.
Wow, that's a huge sample size. That's a sample size that I dream about when we when we get reports here at the Daily OS, I'm always looking what's the sample size exactly? People did they talk to? Two point five million is incredible.
I knew you would like that one.
Let's see, thank you.
So, what this study found was that when researchers compared siblings, so where one was exposed to paracetamol in utero and where one wasn't, any apparent link to autism completely disappeared. So that suggests that other factors like genetics or underlying maternal health conditions better explain any associations that we might see. Okay, I think it's also really important to note here from a public health perspective, paracetamol is considered the safest pain
and temperature medication for pregnant women. Pregnant women don't have a lot of options when it comes to medications while they are carrying a fetus, and so you know, this medication,
paracetamol is sometimes their only safe option. It is used by roughly half of all pregnant people worldwide, and high temperature during pregnancy, if left untreated, is actually a known risk factor for a raft of issues, including neurodevelopmental disorders in children, but also miscourage, blood pressure issues, and you know anxiety and mental health concerns that come with the pain of being untreated.
So does that mean that there could be kind of unintended consequences from this US announcement.
That's pretty much what global experts are now warning. Yes. So, doctor Lyndon Stocker is from the University Hospital Southampton, that's a really large teaching hospital in the UK, and that doctor warned that suggesting paracetamol is unsafe will cause much anxiety to women who already feel vulnerable. So that kind of speaks to you know, that pregnant women don't have that many options on the table if they are unwell while they're pregnant, and paracetamol is really important.
Yeah, we've heard from the US and now from the UK. We are the Daily OZ. So what has Australia said in response to this announcement.
There's been a really strong reaction here in Australia. Shortly after the FDA updated its advice, and shortly after that Trump press conference, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler reached out to the TGA, our FDA, you could say, our drug regulator for urgent advice on this announcement out of the US. Then, in a press conference on Monday evening, Butler urged pregnant women not to take action on these reports without seeking
medical advice first. The Health Minister also reiterated that crucial point that we've mentioned, paracetamol isn't just for pain relief. It's a really important treatment against high temperatures. Then the TGA released a statement on Tuesday rejecting claims linking paracetamol to autism or ADHD. It's said there is robust scientific evidence to support the safety of this medication and quote several large and reliable studies directly contradicting the claims out of the US.
Before this week. What was the TGO's advice on paracetamol during pregnancy.
Yes, so, paracetamol is classified as a Category A drug for pregnancy. That means that it's been taken by large numbers of pregnant women without any proven increase in birth defects or harmful impacts on the fetus. So basically regulators here have given it the greenest green light possible for use during pregnancy.
Have we heard anything else from Australia's medical community, like from Australian doctors.
Yeah, so the Australian Medical Association has come out really strongly against Trump's claims. The AMA's New South Wales president, doctor Catherine Austen called the announcement incredibly dangerous. She said this claim is medically inaccurate and quote effectively spreads health disinformation at a time when people are incredibly concerned about
their child's health. Austin emphasized that autism has an incredibly complex causal pathway and it isn't caused by common medications like panadol.
Okay.
James Cusack from Autistica in the UK, who I mentioned earlier, he noted that even when studies do show associations, they are very, very small, and I think, you know, we should address the fact that genetics are thought to play a major role in autism. These genes that are associated with autism are highly hereditary. In fact, around eighty percent of autism cases can be linked to inherited genic mutations.
According to data from UCLA. Autism develops during early brain development, and there is no evidence that children can develop autism after early fetal development as a result of exposure to vaccines or toxins, So there is no evidence that autism is developed from that point. Okay, And just to round out the response here in Australia, the Australian Association of Psychologists has criticized Trump's claims for contributing to autism stigma.
So this is the peak national body for psychologists, and its Chief Services Officer Amanda Curran said quote, these unsubstantiated claims seem to be placing the blame on parents for taking an everyday medication that has proven it to be safe. She said, autism is a neurodevelopmental difference, not a disease or deficit to be feared or prevented.
So for the TDA audience, people who may be listening to this, who are pregnant or might know someone who's pregnant, what do they do with this information?
So really important to listen to the Australian government's advice on this. I think it has cautioned pregnant women not to follow Trump and Kennedy's advice without first seeking medical guidance. The Health Minister Mark Butler said the government is working with the TGA to provide advice. But Butler said paracetamol is not obviously just a painkilling medication. It's an important treatment for fever, which can also be dangerous if left untreated.
I think the translation of all of this, Lucy is not to panic, to wait until we hear otherwise. But for now everything is as it was before when it comes to paracetamol used during pregnancy, which is that it is completely safe.
Well, thank you so much for diving into that for us, Emma, a pleasure packing all of it, and thank you so much for joining us today. We'll be back again this evening with the headlines and once again tomorrow with another deep dive. Until then, have a great day. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bugelung Calcoton
woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.