\n<\/p>\n
M<\/span>edical professionals, pregnant people and readers with a relationship to autism are furious about Monday\u2019s announcement from the Trump administration involving Tylenol and its alleged connection to autism.<\/p>\n Within hours of the Guardian publishing a call for responses to the announcement, hundreds sent in their thoughts. Many of these individuals noted that the announcement had fascist undertones and was largely disconnected from the realities of science and the experience of being pregnant. A number of respondents suggested that this announcement was a bad-faith ploy to distract voters from issues that Trump wants removed from the discourse.<\/p>\n \u201cTylenol can ease the pain of Epstein?\u201d wondered one Georgia-based reader who preferred to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n A Shropshire-based reader who chose to be anonymous said: \u201cLike much that exits Trump\u2019s mouth, one needs to consider the timing and purpose of his utter nonsense. Trump is like a criminal fleeing the scene, pulling down the furniture to create obstacles for his pursuers.\u201d<\/p>\n Dorian, a New Orleans-based retired therapist, also pointed to the intention of the announcement.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that this is yet another deplorable red herring to divert attention from what could result in impeachment: the truth about Epstein. So far, it appears to be working,\u201d wrote Dorian.<\/p>\n Several readers criticized the Guardian for even continuing the conversation. Jon of Dorset wrote: \u201cConsidering my wife doesn\u2019t take paracetamol and we have two autistic children, this is yet more utter rubbish from Trump et al, designed to once again deflect attention from the Epstein files,\u201d adding, \u201cYou are equally complicit by spreading this garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n Scientists and medical professionals who responded said they were angry about the lack of scientific foundation for these claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe association is utterly spurious,\u201d said Dr Paul Kiff, a reviewer of medical research based in Suffolk, adding that Trump has no understanding of true research outcomes.<\/p>\n A Colorado-based reader who worked as a receptionist at a longterm-care facility said they \u201cresent the president giving medical advice that is being panned by the experts in this field, and think he should be removed due to his lack of knowledge of all things \u2018women\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about control. This is about conditioning followers to believe that anything he does is the right thing,\u201d wrote Trish, a nurse based in North Carolina.<\/p>\n Some pregnant readers were also frustrated with the announcement, given that their options for managing pain and illness are already extremely limited.<\/p>\n An anonymous reader from Virginia wrote: \u201cWhen I was pregnant I most definitely took acetaminophen. Growing a human inside you is kind of painful, dear leaders. My two children have no signs of autism. Maybe learn to read scientific journals instead of Facebook posts?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 35 weeks pregnant and currently in the middle of a terrible cold,\u201d wrote Morven, a 37-year-old in Warwickshire. \u201cThe only thing the pharmacy are safely allowed to recommend is paracetamol \u2026 To say \u2018Just don\u2019t take it, there\u2019s no downside\u2019 isn\u2019t just harmful scaremongering about autism and its causes; it\u2019s also blithely ignorant of pregnancy healthcare options. Why am I not surprised by that from Trump?\u201d<\/p>\n Others pointed out that the announcement is in line with Project 2025\u2019s larger agenda of exerting more control over women\u2019s bodies. Other policies that align with this agenda include the state department\u2019s classification of common contraceptives as \u201cabortifacients\u201d, meaning they end rather than prevent pregnancies, directly contradicting the science of how these methods work.<\/p>\n Sophie, a 34-year-old pregnant woman based in Hertfordshire, said she\u2019s \u201cdisgusted by the misinformation and misogynistic narrative being spread by Trump and his regime. This is a slippery slope towards The Handmaid\u2019s Tale becoming reality.\u201d<\/p>\n An anonymous reader based in East London added that Trump\u2019s goal is \u201cmore coercion and control plus inducing a sense of helplessness and suspicion of scientific experts \u2026 distrust of science\/experts is a trademark of autocratic rule. All power must converge on the leader.\u201d<\/p>\n Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy and Francisco Franco of Spain each systematically sowed distrust in the scientific consensus of their day to instead forward politically motivated theories of racial purity and eugenics.<\/p>\n Several readers who are either autistic themselves or have autistic family members chimed in to point out how distressing it is to repeatedly hear your own condition discussed as though it should be avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n A Surrey-based reader with an autistic grandchild wrote: \u201cI am repulsed by the non-scientific, mother-bashing arguments emanating from the White House and the supremely unqualified Kennedy,\u201d adding that neurodiversity should be celebrated, not eradicated.<\/p>\n \u201cMany people on the spectrum are intelligent, creative, \u2018left-field\u2019 thinkers,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThey do not need a cure. Rejecting neurodivergence in its many forms seems closely related to fascist thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n A UK-based autistic reader wrote: \u201cI am fed up of the negativity and constant suggestion that autism is awful, debilitating, a tragedy, etc\u201d adding, \u201cAll this railing against autism and all these conspiracy theories about causes. At what point does it sound like a call to eugenics?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Medical professionals, pregnant people and readers with a relationship to autism are furious about Monday\u2019s announcement from the Trump administration involving Tylenol and its alleged connection to autism. Within hours of the Guardian publishing a call for responses to the announcement, hundreds sent in their thoughts. Many of these individuals noted that the announcement had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[12166,1723,964,9300,14409,7417,81,71,14126,10355],"class_list":{"0":"post-23628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-announcement","9":"tag-backlash","10":"tag-donald","11":"tag-furious","12":"tag-incurs","13":"tag-rubbish","14":"tag-trump","15":"tag-trumps","16":"tag-tylenol","17":"tag-utter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}