On Monday, President Donald Trump issued an advisory for pregnant women to refrain from taking Tylenol or at the very least cut back on their intake of it as a precaution due to a possible link between acetaminophen (Tylenol) and autism.
The reaction to this announcement by the Associated Press that same day displayed an obvious animus that Science was dying. This fury was reflected in the headline of the AP story by Ali Swenson and Lauran Neergaard: "Trump makes unfounded claims about Tylenol and repeats discredited link between vaccines and autism."
The anger in that headline was fully reflected in the body of the AP story right from the get-go:
President Donald Trump on Monday used the platform of the presidency to promote unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.
“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump instructed pregnant women around a dozen times during the unwieldy White House news conference, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen in the U.S. or paracetamol in most other countries. He also fueled long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing any medical evidence.
The rambling announcement, which appeared to rely on existing studies rather than significant new research, comes as the Make America Healthy Again movement has been pushing for answers on the causes of autism.
This anger is not entirely based on Science. Science is "not conclusive," even if AP is. So one section of their story actually began like this:
Evidence for potential link between Tylenol and autism is not conclusive
Some studies have raised the possibility that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy might increase the risk of autism — but many others haven’t found that concern, said autism expert David Mandell of the University of Pennsylvania.
Huh? So AP admits there are "existing studies" showing a possible link between Tylenol and autism which they declare should be ignored in favor of "significant new research" which counters the finding of the previous studies. The Trump administration wants more research into the causes of autism, which has increased dramatically in the last few decades.
Some studies suggesting a link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism might be enough reason for pregnant women to err on the side of caution, at least limiting its use. But AP feels it imperative to produce what is really an angry political diatribe against Trump.
When the leftist media get upset about Science and politics, we can remember how the Science about Covid evolved, especially about mitigation methods like masks, and claims that vaccines would end Covid transmission (which was false). Ali Swenson's next AP story was headlined "YouTube to start bringing back creators banned for COVID-19 and election misinformation."
Swenson kept an adversarial tone, and there was no way she would explore any specifics where where Team Fauci on down may have been political with their Science:
The move is the latest in a cascade of content moderation rollbacks from tech companies, who cracked down on false information during the pandemic and after the 2020 election but have since faced pressure from President Donald Trump and other conservatives who argue they unlawfully stifled right-wing voices in the process.