Trump's Expected Autism Announcement: 'It's Just More Smoke and Mirrors'

Donald Trump is scheduled to speak from the Oval Office on Monday with a "major" announcement about autism: a link appears to exist between Tylenol and a vitamin B9 deficiency in pregnant women with autism. Many believe this announcement will be "smoke and mirrors."

• Also read: Link between autism and Tylenol during pregnancy: “It’s beyond imagination,” laments a scientist

• Also read: “I believe we have found an answer to autism”: Donald Trump will announce “major discoveries” on Monday

This is what host Charles Lafortune, also the father of an autistic child, maintains.

"It's still a bit of smoke and mirrors. The saddest thing about it is that it's giving parents false hope," he said in an interview with Benoît Dutrizac on QUB radio and TV, broadcast simultaneously on 99.5 FM Montreal on Monday.

The presenter also believes that these are "quick solutions and theories" that are being put forward.

"There has been research going on for years and years...and we still haven't really found a specific cause for autism," he stressed.

On the same show, Diane Francoeur, Executive Director of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, echoed the same sentiment: autism is not linked to a single cause.

"Autism is often said to be multifactorial," she explained. "That means it can have many causes: broken chromosomes, exposure to toxins. There are also many toxins in the environment that we can't always identify."

No link between Tylenol and autism

According to Ms. Francoeur, there are always risks, and it is false to believe that taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) during pregnancy is linked to autism.

"We recently brought together our experts across Canada to review all the scientific studies to see if anything new had been published, and the answer was no. Tylenol is not currently dangerous," she said.

Ms. Francoeur wanted to emphasize that it is not the taking of Tylenol itself that can present a danger, but that any medication must be used with caution during pregnancy.

"First of all, when you're pregnant, you take as little medication as possible, even if you don't always see the impact," said the executive director. "Sometimes it takes 20 years before you notice anything. So, that's why we're extremely rigorous. We don't take medication for nothing when you're pregnant."

And no link with vitamin B9 deficiency either.

Regarding folic acid, autism researcher and assistant professor at the University of Montreal, Valérie Courchesne, confirms that its ingestion is beneficial for pregnant women, but refutes any link with autism.

"It's recommended, even cereals are enriched with folic acid, precisely to prevent a lot of neural tube defects, which are at a very early stage of fetal development. [...] But not necessarily to prevent autism. It's good for fetal development, but there's no proof," she explained in an interview on Mario Dumont's show on Monday.

Dangers of such announcements

She therefore remains skeptical about Trump's "major" announcement on autism, which he is expected to make in the presence of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial health secretary known for his anti-vaccine stance.

Ms. Courchesne warns, in particular, against this type of discourse from politicians who claim things without having credible sources or data to support them.

"This type of discourse is extremely dangerous for public health [...] it leads to significant abuses and then impacts on public health that will be major when people start listening to it, because there is a certain authority, because they will believe what they say," she added.

Watch the full interviews with host Charles Lafortune, Diane Francoeur, Executive Director of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, and autism researcher Valérie Courchesne in the video and audio clips above.