Senate Majority Leader John Thune made a rare break from President Trump on Wednesday and cautioned against pregnant women following the president’s advice not to take Tylenol.
“I’m obviously very concerned about that,” Mr. Thune, South Dakota Republican, said of the president’s advice in an interview with CNN.
“I think that science ought to guide these discussions, these conversations and our decision-making around our health,” he said. “There are studies out there that they reference. But again, I think there are an awful lot of people in the medical community who come to a different conclusion about the use of Tylenol.”
Mr. Trump on Monday urged pregnant women not to take Tylenol unless they have an extreme fever as he suggested the painkiller’s key ingredient, acetaminophen, is linked to autism.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaking alongside Mr. Trump, said clinical and laboratory studies found a potential link between acetaminophen and later diagnoses of both autism and ADHD. He said the Food and Drug Administration will develop a safety-label change for Tylenol and launch a public-awareness campaign.
The FDA confirmed it would initiate the label change process “to reflect evidence suggesting that the use of acetaminophen by pregnant women may be associated with an increased risk of neurological conditions such as autism and ADHD in children.”
But the FDA noted that while many studies have found an “association” between acetaminophen and neurological conditions, “a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature.”
“It is also noted that acetaminophen is the only over-the-counter drug approved for use to treat fevers during pregnancy, and high fevers in pregnant women can pose a risk to their children,” the FDA said.
Mr. Thune said the government and public health officials should be “very guarded in making broad assertions and make sure that they are well grounded in science and medicine.”
He said several GOP senators are physicians “who have pretty strong views about this” and have made clear that Mr. Kennedy and HHS need to provide documentation of scientific evidence for the Tylenol decision and any other public health directives.
“The secretary has a responsibility and obligation to restore and return the trust of the American people and the decision-making process there,” Mr. Thune said. “There needs to be oversight, there needs to be accountability, and there needs to be transparency into this decision-making process and ensure that it is governed by science.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate health panel, said HHS should release the new data that it has to support its claim that Tylenol use is linked to autism.
“The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case,” he said. “The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy. We must be compassionate to this problem.”
Mr. Thune, during the CNN interview, also was asked if Mr. Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr went too far in threatening Disney-owned ABC to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
In his answer, Mr. Thune was more cautious in breaking from the president.
“I don’t think they made a mistake,” he said. “They were making statements.”
However, Mr. Thune said he is a “big believer in free speech” and that programming decisions should be made by the broadcasting companies, not the FCC.
If Mr. Trump wants to pursue litigation against ABC, as the president suggested in a social media post on Tuesday, “obviously that’s his prerogative,” Mr. Thune said.
“My view is, when it comes to the FCC, when it comes to governing authorities and governmental power, it shouldn’t be used in a coercive way when it comes to the First Amendment,” he said.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.