In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.
A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion. The Monday White House news conference was a firehose of lies.
Much of what Trump said during his press conference was untrue. Here’s a fact-check.
Vaccines: The president said that the childhood immunization schedule “loads up” children with too many vaccines — as many as 80 different shots.
The truth: Children generally receive roughly 30 vaccine doses before the age of 18, according to the C.D.C.’s schedule. And there is no evidence for the idea that vaccines overwhelm their immune system or lead to conditions like autism.
Hepatitis B: Trump said the disease was sexually transmitted — and that children should not be vaccinated against it until they are 12.
The truth: The virus is transmitted sexually. But it can also spread through drops of blood on surfaces or skin, and it is highly transmissible during delivery, so doctors recommended the vaccine at birth.
Tylenol: Speaking about the risks for pregnant women, Trump said, “There is no downside to not taking it.”
The truth: Doctors already advise pregnant women to take Tylenol sparingly. But there are some important uses. A high fever, for example, can endanger both the mother and the baby.
Patrick Oppmann at CNN:
But even though information about how Cuba’s healthcare system treats autism is available to anyone savvy enough to write “Cuba” and “autism” into Google, Trump on Monday made the bizarre and false claim that the island’s poverty has spared Cubans from the condition.
“I mean, there’s a rumor, and I don’t know if it’s so or not, that Cuba, they don’t have Tylenol because they don’t have the money for Tylenol. And they have virtually no autism, OK. Tell me about that one,” Trump said at an event on Monday where he urged pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol, which he claimed – despite a lack of scientific evidence – could cause autism in their unborn children.
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While Cuba has reported much lower instances of autism than many developed countries – 0.36 cases per 10,000 people – the island’s health professionals concede that may in part be the result of the lack of resources needed to more widely diagnose the condition.
According to the World Health Organization, in 2021 about 1 in 127 people had autism. But the WHO cautioned, “the prevalence of autism in many low- and middle-income countries is unknown.”
Despite increasingly scant funds, Cuba’s beleaguered health sector is making autism a priority, officials said.
The Trump administration is hailing a medication called leucovorin for reducing some autism symptoms, but experts who research or treat autism almost uniformly agree the medication should be studied further before it’s rolled out to children or adults.
Leucovorin, also referred to as folinic aid, is a synthetic form of vitamin B9 that requires a prescription. It’s often administered to cancer patients alongside chemotherapy in the form of an IV.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that it's in the process of approving a tablet version for certain autism patients.
Several experts told NBC News that the FDA’s approval could give false hope to families, since not all children with autism may qualify for a prescription and, even if they do, the likelihood of seeing results is uncertain.
Scientists have searched for decades for a drug that can meaningfully reduce autism symptoms, but few have met the rigorous threshold for safety and effectiveness that’s typically set by the FDA. Before Monday, the agency had approved two drugs to treat irritability associated with autism, but none that addressed autism-related communication difficulties, social challenges or repetitive behaviors.
“It’s not like scientists have just been staring at their belly buttons for 20 years, not looking at autism treatments. They have, but the standards have been very high to get it approved,” said Alycia Halladay, chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation. Her organization, which funds evidence-based autism research, does not recommend leucovorin as a treatment and says more studies are needed.
Leucovorin “doesn’t have the criteria to meet FDA approval, but yet this administration is just doing it anyway. So I wouldn’t exactly call this a win,” Halladay said.
She added that the way the medication was touted at a White House briefing on Monday — as a breakthrough for autism families — doesn’t reflect the details of the FDA’s approval.
The FDA said in a news release that the drug is being approved for patients with cerebral folate deficiency, a rare neurological condition characterized by low levels of vitamin B9 (folate) in the brain. Some researchers suspect the condition is associated with autism, though not all autism patients have it.
(Halladay estimated 10%-30% of autism patients have the condition.
