Are Tylenol and Autism linked?

Izayah Morgan Opinions Editor Last Monday President Trump stood tall next to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as information was presented on factors that may contribute to the uptick in autism diagnoses. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “[Autism] is a neurological developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave.” Additionally, this can be diagnosed later in life but generally symptoms tend to appear early in a child's development so medical professionals can diagnose patients early. Many have called these claims from Trump into question such as Mikhail Varshavski, a board-certified family physician (also known as Doctor Mike on social media), and Alok Kanojia, a psychiatrist with over 3 million subscribers on YouTube. Additionally, U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he trusted experts more than President Trump in this case. Even former President Barack Obama criticized the Trump administration's comments stating the claims have been disproven many times. He said, “what's being trumped by these massive increases, actually has to do with a broadening of criteria on that spectrum.” Trying to solve why autism has seen a massive increase in diagnoses over the years is an admirable goal and is important. However, I have problems with how the data was interpreted by Trump and his cabinet. As an undergraduate student, I don't offer medical advice - I trust the experts. However, as a psychology major, I have taken multiple research, statistics, and math courses where I learned to conduct research, analyze data, and read studies. One of the most important things we learned when conducting research is to watch out for confounding variables. Confounding variables can be defined as variables that cause conflict between the dependent and independent variables in a study. Often these can be the reason people think a correlation is larger than what it actually is. The first example I learned was that as ice cream sales increase, shark attacks increase as well. It's not because rightfully people consume more rocky road ice cream, so sharks want to attack more. Rather, as ice cream sales go up, what else changes? The weather. With an increase in temperature so does beach going, which inevitably results in more shark attacks. These are exceedingly rare, according to the Florida Museum that investigated 88 cases worldwide, with only four fatalities a year. However, certain media outlets fuel the belief that sharks are more dangerous than they are. With that being said, autism has no single cause as it is partly genetic and possibly environmental. However, trying to associate the increase in autism diagnoses doesn't make sense to me. Think about the reason pregnant women even take Tylenol during pregnancy - they are facing possible sicknesses and Tylenol provides relief. The National Library of Medicine did a thorough review of over 100 research papers where they found “most of the literature agreed on the possible effects of the viral infection during the critical period of development on the risk of developing autism.” Pregnant women are not just popping Tylenol for fun, there is a specific health issue they are trying to relieve. What was touted as groundbreaking information just feeds misinformation, distrust in experts and fuels anxiety in expecting and new parents. Silence is violence against the unseen, but these words, as former President Obama said, are “violence against the truth.” Talk with your general care practitioner about the risks and possible side effects of the medicine you are taking. Trust the experts and get your child diagnosed.