Trump’s “criminal” medical disinformation | EUROtoday
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Lhe American president, Donald Trump, promised a giant announcement in September on the causes of “the epidemic of autism”, based on the favourite expression of his Minister of Health, Robert Kennedy. During a press convention, the 2 politicians due to this fact appointed a big perpetrator it based on them: paracetamol (or acetaminophen within the United States).
Their statements, along with unnecessarily anxious {couples}, provoke the priority and anger of scientists and docs who face a mountain of utterly unfounded inaccuracies and theories.
An “epidemic” of autism?
According to INSERM, there are 700,000 folks in France with an autism spectrum dysfunction (TSA), and eight,000 autistic youngsters are born annually, a beginning in 100. In the United States, a report revealed in late March 2023 by the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) broadcasts a prevalence of 1 beginning out of 36. “The methods of calculating one country to the other and these figures are not necessarily Comparable, warns Franck Ramus, CNRS researcher in cognitive sciences at the École normale supérieure in Paris. What is certain is that for the past twenty years, the trend has been increasing. »»
Several factors explain this increase. “It is commonly interpreted as adjustments in consciousness and enhancements in detections,” confirmed to Point Matthew Maenner, the main author of the CDC report. The diagnostic criteria of a TSA have been extended since 2013 with the update of the DSM-5, the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, the reference of doctors.
“This has mechanically increased the number of cases. In addition, healthcare professionals and families know autism better today, which leads them to identify certain children who would have passed under radars before, ”adds Franck Ramuz. There is also a substitution phenomenon: the diagnosis of autism replaces other labels such as that of intellectual impairment. “There can also be a rise in circumstances on one aspect and a lower on the opposite,” says Franck Ramus.
Paracetamol, the big culprit?
The hypothesis has been debated for a little decade. “What we will say is that Donald Trump refers to contradictory information and research which are insufficiently based,” says Professor Benoît Marin, director of the Reference Center on Teratogenous Agents (Crat). These studies have methodological weaknesses and can be biased by confusion factors. “For instance, ladies who take essentially the most paracetamol typically have extra medical issues, and it’s maybe these different issues that represent a danger issue for autism, not the drug itself,” said the specialist.
Thus, fever, against which paracetamol is administered, is associated with the risk of autism. “The extra the revealed work seems to be on the sources of error, the much less they discover an affiliation between paracetamol and neurodevelopment problems,” says Professor Marin. Thus, a Japanese study on 80,000 pregnancies, published in September 2025, first highlighted a small increase in the risk of neurodevelopment disorders, but the additional analysis of results with taking into account socio-economic, environmental and family factors, has not confirmed this association.
Another study published the previous year in Sweden from 2.5 million children’s medical records, made it possible to compare children from the same mother, some of whom had been exposed to paracetamol during pregnancy and others not. Confusion factors linked to the mother (genetics, family environment, lifestyle, etc.) were thus eliminated. “This refined methodological method due to this fact makes it doable to conclude far more reliably that the causal hyperlink between paracetamol and autism,” concludes Franck Ramuz
Verdict: “Paracetamol stays analgesic and antipyretic of selection in pregnant ladies”, insists the Marin Professor before recalling “crucial factor to recollect isn’t any self -medication throughout being pregnant. The use of any treatment, no matter it’s, have to be carried out on the minimal efficient dosage and for the shortest period as doable and at all times underneath medical supervision. The specialist fears the misdeeds of medical disinformation pushes ladies to “give up treating their fever” or “refer to other drugs that present them well established during pregnancy. »The typical example? Ibuprofen, formally contraindicated from the sixth month of pregnancy because responsible for cardiovascular and renal fetal toxicity with dramatic consequences.
The old rumor of vaccines, the return?
In his speech, Donald Trump also attacked infant vaccinations. “They inject so many things into these beautiful little babies, it’s a shame. I think it’s really bad. It looks like they are injections to a horse, “mentioned the American president. Remarks that arouse the indignation of Professor Christelle Gras-Leguen, pediatrician on the Nantes University Hospital and spokesperson for the French Pediatric Society. For the specialist, these statements are “criminal”. “Vaccination is probably what has saved the most lives of children since the beginnings of medicine,” she mentioned. “Installing doubt within the heads of younger mother and father is to show themselves to having once more deaths avoidable. “The French vaccination calendar today includes fifteen compulsory vaccines for toddlers, all directed against” ailments that kill, or make it very sick “. Rumors on a supposed link between vaccines and autism are not new.
To uncover
The kangaroo of the day
Answer
“It dates back to the late 90s, with the publication of a study in the Lancet “Recalls the pediatrician. Led by a British physician, Andrew Wakefield, on a collection of 12 circumstances, this work turned out to be fraud as demonstrated later British Medical Journal In 2011. Andrew Wakefield made false outcomes to attain a hyperlink between ROR vaccination (measles-eraillons-rubole) and autism.
The creator was additionally on the middle of a serious battle of curiosity since, two years earlier than the publication of this text, he had been employed by a lawyer to organize a trial towards producers of the measles vaccine. The examine has since been withdrawn from scientific publication. “There is no link between vaccination and autism,” says Franck Ramus. Dozens of research, carried out in lots of international locations in tens of tens of millions of kids, have since demonstrated it. Wakefield’s fraudulent examine motivated intensive and strong analysis which has undoubtedly refuted the speculation. »»
https://www.lepoint.fr/sante/paracetamol-et-autisme-la-desinformation-medicale-criminelle-de-trump-23-09-2025-2599458_40.php