Looking up the study (to get the exact numbers), it appears that this result is statistically significant (by a fair margin).
That said, I believe that this isn’t new news. As I recall, this is a known concern but acetaminophen might be given, for example, in cases where the mother’s experiencing a fever and her body is going to fry the baby, resulting in even worse outcomes.
It’s a calculated risk.
And, of course, the issue could be the thing that lead to the acetaminophen being prescribed - e.g. the raised temperature. I’m not sure that causality has been demonstrated.
Actually, yes, I see a Nature report on the subject. As they point out, the question isn’t whether the numbers are accurate it’s whether causality has been demonstrated and it hasn’t been. The current evidence would be that that the sorts of ailments that would lead to acetaminophen being prescribed are also the sorts of ailments that could raise the likelihood of autism.
It’s been noted that ice cream sales and crime rates both increase during the summer. It would be a grave mistake to think that one is causing the other.
Women who take a lot of Tylenol tend to have heath concerns during pregnancy. That certainly doesn’t mean that the Tylenol is causing the health issues in their children.
But, I would note the unspoken significance of this announcement: despite his best efforts, RFK Jr couldn’t show any connection between vaccines and autism. If there had been anything he could grasp onto, I’m certain that he would have been crowing loudly about the scientific evidence.
Instead, we get this easily debunked claim about headache medicine.
ETA: Today I learned that acetaminophen is called paracetamol in Europe.
It is a wonder to behold how stupid our president really is. I think that is Doc Oz on the right that proudly nods when his idol finally gets the pronunciation in the ballpark.
I’m probably as much against Oz as the average Democrat, or more, but I do not know that there is current evidence for the conflict of interest. From the New York Times: