RFK Jr.’s Autism Claims Spark National Backlash — What Really Happened Behind the Scenes

During the Cabinet meeting, Kennedy repeated a claim he has made for more than a decade: that the popular pain reliever acetaminophen (widely known by the brand name Tylenol) might somehow contribute to autism in children.

Even though countless scientific reviews have found no causal link, Kennedy reintroduced the idea with fresh confidence, suggesting that the administration should investigate it further. The room reportedly grew tense as Trump listened, advisors exchanged glances, and staff began to anticipate the public fallout such claims could create.

But Kennedy didn’t stop there. Instead, he introduced new claims he had never publicly emphasized before — claims that immediately prompted alarm from medical professionals.

This included an assertion that boys circumcised in infancy allegedly had “double the rate of autism,” a statement he tied to the idea that they received Tylenol afterward. To many listening in the room, the leap from a surgical procedure to a developmental condition sounded both dramatic and deeply unsettling.

Experts who later reviewed Kennedy’s remarks emphasized that correlation does not equal causation. Even the authors of the one small Danish study Kennedy referenced years ago warned that their research did not show circumcision causes autism — nor did it document whether the children studied ever received Tylenol at all.Continue reading…