Donald Trump assumed the role of obstetrician Sunday as he doled out bonkers medical advice for women in a recycled Truth Social post.
The 79-year-old president, who is currently overseas in Malaysia, rattled off a list of purported health directives in an all-caps post at 4:19 a.m. local time.
“Pregnant Women, DON’T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON’T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON,” Trump wrote. “BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS [sic] B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS! President DJT”
Trump’s post is a verbatim copy of one he made exactly a month ago, save a link to an article by the right-wing Daily Caller website titled, “FDA Stayed Silent As Internal Reports About Potential Tylenol Risks Piled Up,” which highlights his September announcement with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blaming pregnant women’s Tylenol use for an increase in autism among young children.
Trump’s Tylenol claims were immediately debunked by nearly every major government and health organization. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that the drug is one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant women.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Tylenol is safe for young children when taken correctly under the guidance of a pediatrician, and that children younger than 12 weeks of age should not be given the medication unless instructed by a doctor.
The commander-in-chief’s other health recommendations in the Truth Social post even contradict the CDC’s own guidance.
While Trump, who has no background in medicine, recommends giving the Hepatitis B vaccine to children aged 12 and older, the CDC website says “all infants at birth” should get the shot.
Moreover, the meaning of Trump’s instruction to “TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS” is unclear; the Hepatitis B vaccine is a series of two or three shots, according to CDC.
Public health experts have also pushed back against Trump’s call to separate the combination measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) into individual shots, arguing that it would not make the vaccine safer while making it less likely to be used.
Trump is no stranger to dispensing dubious medical advice, having once suggested injecting disinfectant into the body to treat COVID-19 while serving as president during the pandemic in 2020.
But the vast majority of Americans are skeptical about his claims linking Tylenol to autism in newborns, according to a KFF poll. Just 4 percent of Americans believed the claim was “definitely true,” while 35 percent said it was “definitely false.”
