'Paracetamol actually limits the damage' - Luke O'Neill slams Trump's unfounded autism claims

US president Donald Trump and his secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr are facing huge backlash from health experts all around the world as his latest advice in the medical sector has caused quite the stir.

Trump claimed that there could be a link between the use of paracetamol in pregnancy and the development of autism. He claims the drug known as Tylenol in America could be the reason behind the rise in cases and stated that doctors in the US will be advised to tell pregnant women to avoid it at all costs.

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Trump is offering no evidence behind the claims. Speaking on Monday night, Trump said: "Taking Tylenol is not good, it is strongly recommended that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary".

He continued: "Effective immediately the FDA will be notifying physicians against the use of acetaminophen which is commonly known as Tylenol during pregnancy, it can be associated with the increased rise of autism".

Health experts in Ireland have quickly disputed these claims including the HSE who have said paracetamol is in fact safe to and pregnant women can take it if they need to.

Speaking on Newstalk FM on Thursday morning, Professor Luke O'Neill slammed Trump's unfounded allegations and said that paracetamol can actually reduce the risk of autism in unborn babies.

"Pregnant women listening in who have taking paracetamol are probably now worried that they might increase the risk of their baby having autism, and there's no risk of autism if you take paracetamol," said Professor O'Neill, "That's what's very clear, so we're very surprised as lots of studies have looked at links including one study in Sweden where 2.5 million children were measured just on this single issue, and there was no risk found.

"In Japan 200,000 kids were studied with their mothers and they knew which mothers were taking paracetamol, and there was no evidence found, so we're scratching our heads wondering why this has happened."

Host Ivan Yates asked what million of other people are thinking - What is the basis of RFK saying this?

"There is a tiny basis," Professor O'Neill replied, "There were one or two studies carried out correlating paracetamol with autism, but correlation doesn't mean causation. RFK and Trump have made a rookie error here, in science, you never say correlation  is the same as causation.

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"What it means is, you can correlate but it mightn't cause...a great analogy is people who smoke carry matches, it doesn't mean matches cause lung cancer - and we suspect that's where this idea has come from. When you look at it properly though, for example, a woman may take paracetamol because she has a fever, fever increases the risk of autism, so I think they're messing up correlation and causation."

Professor O'Neill went on to say that whoever is advising trump and RFK on these findings are "not advising him appropriately", and it's convenient how RFK told Trump a few months ago they were gonna "crack" autism by September, "Interestingly, September comes around and he goes 'hey, it's Tylenol, and then Trump doubles down'.

"If you have an infection as a woman who's carrying a child, there's a risk of that child having autism," Professor O'Neill continues, "That's one of the risk factors, infection during pregnancy, paracetamol actually limits the damage potential, so the advice here could actually increase the risk of autism in the population by telling women not to take it."

"Looking at ADHA and autism, is it nature or nurture?" asked Ivan.

"When the baby's developing, the brain develops a bit differently for some reason that we don't fully understand, and that brain when the baby is born will have features of autism," said Professor O'Neill

"Is it genetic or environmental?" Ivan asked.

"Yes, it's both, that's the challenge," answered Professor O'Neill, "So it's partly genetic and it's partly environmental, and it's probably both.

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"Now we know there's about 100 genes in the woman that carry a risk of autism in the baby, but just because you have those genes doesn't men you'll get autism, it' got to be something else.

"There's a chance that paracetamol might combine with the genes, increasing the risk of autism, but that's not the case in this case...but it's partly genetic and there's something in the environment as well, the trouble is, we don't know what that environmental factor is."