We Watched Trump's Autism Press Conference So You Don't Have To

Hosts Julianna Scott and Kelley Jensen dissect the recent presidential press conference linking Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism. They analyze the hyperbolic claims made versus the more measured official HHS statements, exploring how this continues the harmful pattern of blaming mothers for autism. The hosts examine the actual science behind acetaminophen research, discuss the problematic vaccine misinformation shared, and highlight the concerning gap between political rhetoric and medical reality. They emphasize the importance of following medical professionals' advice rather than political statements when making healthcare decisions during pregnancy.

Key Takeaways

• The official HHS statement is much more measured than the press conference rhetoric, acknowledging conflicting studies and lack of clear causal evidence.
• Current medical guidelines already recommend using acetaminophen at the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration when treating fever during pregnancy.
• Untreated fever during pregnancy poses known risks to both mother and fetus.
• Claims about mercury in vaccines are outdated—it was removed from most childhood vaccines in the 1990s.
• The folate treatment mentioned only applies to children with specific cerebral folate deficiency, not all autistic children.
• Autism rates in populations like the Amish are similar to general population rates when properly studied.
• The increase in autism diagnoses is largely attributed to better recognition, expanded diagnostic criteria, and increased access to evaluation.
• Genetic research continues to provide valuable insights into autism's causes and potential treatments.
• Parents should consult healthcare providers rather than politicians for medical advice.
• The blame-the-mother narrative continues to harm families affected by autism

Creators and Guests

Guest

Julianna Scott

Guest

Kelley Jensen

What is Refrigerator Moms?

Born from 20 years of friendship, during which they navigated the trenches of autism parenting and advocacy, the Refrigerator Moms is Kelley Jensen and Julianna Scott’s way of reaching out to parents waging the same battles they were.  Their purpose with this podcast is to clear the fog, silence the noise, and find a path through neurodivergence for parents that are stuck between bad choices. They tackle parenting topics such as mom guilt, tantrums, pathological demand avoidance, siblings, medication, comorbidities, social media, and much more. 

[Kelley Jensen] (0:10 - 0:22)
So, Julianna, did you get a ton of phone calls and texts yesterday asking you if you are irate and furious and what do you think about Tylenol and did you take Tylenol when you were pregnant?

[Julianna Scott] (0:23 - 0:49)
Yes. Well, nobody has come out and asked me if I took Tylenol because I think they know that they would get a pretty brutal response. Well, well, everybody in my family, did you take Tylenol?

Okay, but that said, and we're going to unpack it a little bit, but that said, I hated the fact that I still thought, like, oh my God, did I take a lot of Tylenol? And that was one of my first reactions to this a couple of weeks ago when it was leaked about the Tylenol.

[Kelley Jensen] (0:49 - 0:50)
Yes. Yes.

[Julianna Scott] (0:50 - 0:55)
I hated that one of my first responses was, was it my fault?

[Kelley Jensen] (0:55 - 0:55)
Yes.

[Julianna Scott] (0:55 - 1:48)
And that goes back to the whole refrigerator moms. I mean, we're right back in the 50s where people are saying, it's your fault, it's your fault. Right.

And, you know, we are so prone to take responsibility for something like that. And there's no one more vulnerable than a pregnant mom and you're thinking, oh my God, did I do everything? I took folic acid, I didn't take Tylenol, I never had a fever, I never had any need to take Tylenol.

I had with my autistic son, I felt great through that pregnancy. So I don't, I know I didn't have any aches or pains. So, but again, the gold standard protocol for taking Tylenol when pregnant was still take with take sparingly and only when necessary, which is the official HHS position to get into that.

[Kelley Jensen] (1:49 - 2:05)
I just want to say to everybody that asked me, no, I was not a rate. No, I did not give it that energy because it was nothing new. I mean, like you said, it's just another day, another old white man telling a mom she probably caused autism.

Right.

[Julianna Scott] (2:05 - 2:23)
I was, well, I was a rate because I had to listen to the whole press conference because I felt a responsibility to hear all of it because often I just, I can't stand it and I will just read articles about it. But I wanted to hear all of the crazy.

[Kelley Jensen] (2:24 - 2:47)
All right. So tell me the crazy. And then I know what happened.

What's so typical is that we get these bombastic statements off the cuff free willing. And then of course, when you read the official statement, it's much more tempered and really there's not much there. So we're going to, we're going to read the, the tempered version of the thing that you were going to tell us some of the crazy statements.

[Julianna Scott] (2:47 - 3:58)
But before I do, I want to acknowledge that autism knows no political boundaries. So people who have, who have children who have autism are across the political spectrum. And that obviously includes those who are fans of the Trump administration.

And while we are going to be critical of this press conference and the non science that came out of it, we're all still in the same boat. We all have children with autism and we're all trying to do the best for these kids. And that doesn't change.

And that isn't different. So we're all trying to do the best we can whether we agree on what caused autism or anything. The fact of the matter is we have children with autism and we want to find the best interventions for them.

And the refrigerator moms are all about helping you learn to live with it. And doing your own research, well, but doing your own research, looking at science based evidence based things.

[Kelley Jensen] (3:58 - 4:33)
So maybe that's where, you know, people are going to do crazy things because you're crazy with worry. And if you think that there's some way that you can spare your child the suffering, when you watch a child suffer every day, it changes who you are molecularly and you will do anything it takes and inevitably you're not going to be happy with the results. I hope I hope I hope everybody follows their dream cure and if and when it doesn't work and you need to know how to live with autism, that's what we'll be here once you've reached acceptance level, because there is no cure.

[Julianna Scott] (4:33 - 4:42)
There is no reversal where we're here for you when you've reached acceptance and everybody that, you know, autism should never be political.

[Kelley Jensen] (4:42 - 5:32)
No, it should never be politicized. That's one of the most disappointing things is that using it as an opportunity to get political is a low blow. Certainly, we were not going to let it divide the autism community because we would never do that to another parent in that situation.

But what I want to say, there's a lot of questions on social media in the autism community is about why are people not giving him any credit for this? Why is it just that they will not accept anything that he does? That's not the question.

The question is why are you giving him so much credit because there was nothing new in there. We have all been hearing about Tylenol. We have all been hearing about folate.

There's some pretty decent grants that are going to be given, but, you know, okay, so that's what we can agree on.

[Julianna Scott] (5:32 - 6:53)
Yeah, and let's see where those go. I'm very curious, but we'll put a pin in that one. Okay.

So to the press conference, right out the gate, President Trump started. So it was interesting in and of itself because Bobby Kennedy didn't start the press conference. President Trump did calling it, you know, autism a horrible, horrible crisis, which again, I take a little umbrage because it is dehumanizing to call this, you know, everything about autism horrible and it all needs to be prevented and all of these things.

It's really not great for autistic people to keep hearing that they're horrible, that they're, that what they're, you know, who is, what is kind of core to who they are is horrible. So I didn't love that. He also mentioned the numbers, of course, you know, the increase in numbers.

And it called out California. We are in California called out that he said that for some reason for boys in California, it's one in 12 have autism where for some reason they have more a more severe problem. It's not for some reason.

So there is a reason and it's diagnostic. Um, we, we know this. It's, it's not a mystery.

[Kelley Jensen] (6:53 - 7:15)
And yes, it's largely more diagnosis. I think it's, what's interesting is if you really dig into the numbers and you dig into the levels of autism and where the increase is, you won't find these outrageous spikes, which you find is more diagnosis, more different levels being called out to take more populations, the opportunity to have a diagnosis.

[Julianna Scott] (7:15 - 7:47)
We won't go into the weeds now of, of the DSM and the criteria changes and all that, but it's not a mystery. But so, and then he did say when the numbers go up, there's something artificial. They're taking something.

They are the mothers. There are some people who take no vaccines and no pills and they have no autism. And then he looked around and said, and asked the doctors if that's correct.

And RFK Jr, not, not a doctor steps up and says, yes, there's some studies that say that about the Amish.

[Kelley Jensen] (7:49 - 7:55)
So, yeah, I mean, it's beyond parody. I know. And so, do Amish people experience autism?

[Julianna Scott] (7:56 - 8:09)
Yes, they just, yes, so then President Trump says again, Bobby wants to be careful about what he says and he should, but I'm not so careful with what I say. Oh. And I think that's sort of a fundamental problem.

[Kelley Jensen] (8:09 - 8:11)
I'm never careful with what I say.

[Julianna Scott] (8:11 - 9:24)
I'm not so careful with what I say. And then he continues to go for the rest of the time. He talks saying that Tylenol is not good.

And then he says, it's bad. And then he says, and then there was this whole thing. And then he could not pronounce a seat of minifand.

But he says, you, you have to tough it out. So, pregnant women need to, need to tough it out. He's like, you shouldn't take it.

Ideally, you don't take it at all. And then he veered into the vaccine topic, which was not, I think, on the agenda. It definitely seemed like he was going off script.

He said, they'll maybe say it at a little bit later date, but I'll say it. When you go for the shot, you spread it out. So, he kept saying, so then he's veered off topic and talking about the MMR vaccine.

So he says, he kept saying, go three, four, five visits. And then he says, they pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies. It's a disgrace.

It looks like they're pumping it into a horse. You have a little fragile child and you get a vat of 80 different vaccines. I guess 80 different blends and they pump it in.

[Kelley Jensen] (9:24 - 9:24)
Oh my God.

[Julianna Scott] (9:25 - 9:44)
So, yeah, not 80. As you do listening to it, where you use a little brutal. And I was looking for a transcript, because I wanted to be accurate.

And so I had to go back and put it on, even like half speed sometimes, which was really rough.

[Kelley Jensen] (9:46 - 10:00)
It was the lack of grammar. Well, that was hard, but yeah, it was all a little hard. Just knowing you, how I know you, I just, I can't believe you got through it.

It was how much you care.

[Julianna Scott] (10:00 - 10:39)
It was punishing. This episode of Refrigerator Moms is brought to you by Brain Performance Technologies. Brain Performance Technologies is a specialty mental health clinic that offers magnetic e-residence therapy or MERT.

For autistic people aged three or older, MERT is a transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol that utilizes an EEG diagnostic to deliver personalized magnetic pulses to stimulate the brain and build neural pathways effective in managing autistic symptoms. It's great imagery. I'm going to give them points for imagery, right?

Like pumping in all this vaccine, like a horse, 80 of that of 80 different vaccines.

[Kelley Jensen] (10:40 - 10:41)
There is nobody better hyperbole.

[Julianna Scott] (10:41 - 11:18)
Yeah, so, yeah, no. I mean, a quick fact check. That doesn't happen now.

No, and then he did reiterate, you know it's artificially induced. And he said, I don't know structurally, a country can afford it. And it's the least of the problems because it's the family is being destroyed.

So it's kind of interesting that he veered into a country can't afford it. Right. So I'm kind of curious where that's going to go.

Okay. And then he brought up, we want no mercury in the vaccine, and we want new aluminum in the vaccine. So what do you say about that?

[Kelley Jensen] (11:19 - 11:27)
But isn't there already? No, it's it's simerasol, right? That they had a vaccine many years ago?

Yes, yes.

[Julianna Scott] (11:27 - 11:38)
So he also talks about that later. He said, talked about the mercury and the aluminum in the vaccines, and that they're taking it out. But we all know it's already been taken out.

[Kelley Jensen] (11:38 - 11:39)
It's been out. It's been out.

[Julianna Scott] (11:39 - 12:02)
It's been out debunked. Yes. Again, we all know this.

So then he said back to the Tylenol, he said that there's no bad side. He kept reinforcing that there's no harm in going quicker with this recommendation because there's no bad side. And he said, it might not have much of an impact or it might have a big impact.

[Kelley Jensen] (12:02 - 12:08)
Which is always good about how that's going to lose it. Yeah, so maybe, maybe not.

[Julianna Scott] (12:08 - 12:13)
Yeah, and he even said maybe in the future they'll come back and say no, but there's no downside.

[Kelley Jensen] (12:14 - 12:15)
Unless you have a fever.

[Julianna Scott] (12:15 - 12:16)
Unless you have a fever.

[Kelley Jensen] (12:16 - 12:17)
It's known to damage a fetus.

[Julianna Scott] (12:18 - 12:49)
Absolutely. So again, we're not doctors, but we do know that having a fever while pregnant is dangerous. So no, you don't want to tough it out.

And this notion of toughing it out and he's like, you've got to fight like hell not to take it. That is really again, like putting it square like, oh, well, I just can't take my pain. So it's my fault.

[Kelley Jensen] (12:49 - 13:20)
If you couldn't take your pain, then it's your fault your child has autism in it. Right. So you're being selfish.

Right. Well, listen, if you are pregnant and you choose to listen to a politician over your doctor and you have a very high fever while pregnant, I don't know what to tell you. You should follow the advice of your doctor.

Call your doctor, the second your fever starts, and try to forget that this is hyperbole and not good medical advice. No. Not intended to be medical advice.

[Julianna Scott] (13:21 - 13:44)
No, and that's the thing is like a few times he'll say that, but he is also standing at a podium that says the President of the United States saying, don't take it. So he also mentioned some things about there are parts of the world that don't take Tylenol and he mentioned the Amish. But he said, there's a rumor and I don't know if it's so or not.

Which I love having that.

[Kelley Jensen] (13:44 - 13:45)
I'm just going to put it out there.

[Julianna Scott] (13:45 - 14:00)
I'm going to throw it out. That Cuba, they don't have Tylenol because they don't have the money for Tylenol. And I think he got a little giddy about that.

And they have virtually no autism. And as he's talking, I'm doing a little fact-checking. I bet you are.

Yeah, they do have autism.

[Kelley Jensen] (14:00 - 14:01)
They do.

[Julianna Scott] (14:01 - 14:35)
Yeah, they do. They do. I'm shocked.

So then it switches to RFK Jr. He gets up there and that nails on a talkboard too. It's a little rough. And I don't mean to get personal about it, but his voice is a little rough.

Damaged. It's damaged goods. Yeah.

So he said, so he immediately took it into the political. Of course. So he said, historically, NIH has focused almost solely on politically safe and entirely fruitless research about the genetic drivers of autism.

So let that sink in for a second.

[Kelley Jensen] (14:35 - 14:41)
Wow. That's just crazy. That's a crazy thing to say, because some of the best work is being done by genetics, right?

[Julianna Scott] (14:42 - 14:47)
We just talked about the four different subtypes and the links to genetics.

[Kelley Jensen] (14:48 - 14:52)
And the whole thing about folate that we're going to get to came from genetics. The studies of genetics.

[Julianna Scott] (14:53 - 15:43)
So he talked about, again, the cataclysmic impact of the epidemic on our nation's children. And he said, we're replacing the institutional culture of politicized science and corruption with evidence-based medicine. Tylenol.

So again, to hear basically the exact opposite of what's true, right? Spoken so plainly was as jarring as hearing the president's off-the-cuff remarks, these prepared remarks was to me very upsetting. But even he said the FDA is acting on laboratory studies that suggest a potential association between acetaminophen used during pregnancy and autism.

[Kelley Jensen] (15:43 - 16:18)
So just a potential- Right. I boldface that is just a potential. The worst language for someone so sure of themselves that is unbelievable.

And again, if you want to know why some people in the autism community were so offended by all this, that you go out there with a Tylenol, something that has been debunked, has been out there for a long time. It's certainly nothing new. And then you say a potential association.

That's all you got?

[Julianna Scott] (16:18 - 16:33)
Right. That is weak. Okay, we'll wait for the next part.

You're going to like this. So then he says, and again, I love the numbers that get thrown around, 40 to 70% of mothers. That's a big range.

[Kelley Jensen] (16:33 - 16:34)
Wow, that's a lot.

[Julianna Scott] (16:34 - 16:44)
That's a lot of plus or minus. 40 to 70% of mothers who have children with autism believe their child was injured by a vaccine.

[Kelley Jensen] (16:48 - 16:50)
I don't know where that number comes from.

[Julianna Scott] (16:50 - 17:25)
I don't know, but 40 to 70%. Yeah. I mean, you could pretty much apply that to most.

Yeah. But also, okay, so but he said, President Trump believes that we should be listening to these mothers instead of gaslighting and marginalizing them like prior administrations. This is my favorite problem.

Some of our friends like to say that we should believe all women. Some of these same people have been silencing and demonizing these mothers for three decades because research on the potential link between autism and vaccines has been actively suppressed in the past. It will take time for an honest look at this topic by scientists.

[Kelley Jensen] (17:25 - 17:28)
The only good science that has is about vaccines.

[Julianna Scott] (17:29 - 18:45)
But I love some of our friends like to say that we should believe all women. Is he equating me too? Wow.

With this, is he saying, well, you say we should be listening to women. All these women who are coming forward about me too. And so if we're little listening to them, we got to listen to these moms who are saying vaccines are hurting their kids.

I don't understand this. After Kennedy's remarks, Trump comes back and he must have been during Kennedy's remarks. He must have been really like, I need to get up there and really make it plain.

You know, don't take it. Don't take, don't take Tylenol. Fight like hell.

You have to work it out for yourself. And he brought it up again. This is another one about the vaccines.

He swung back, see the doctor four times or five times for a vaccine. Don't let them pump your baby up with the largest pile of stuff you've ever seen in your life. Go into your delicate little body of a baby.

We've already taken out, and we're in the process of taking out mercury and aluminum. Who the hell wants that pumped into a body? There were rumors about both of them for a long time, but we're having them taken out.

I like how there's rumors. So we're going to take them out, but they're not there.

[Kelley Jensen] (18:45 - 18:47)
They're not there. They weren't there. They have been there for 19 days.

[Julianna Scott] (18:48 - 18:49)
And they didn't cause anything, right?

[Kelley Jensen] (18:50 - 18:52)
Like those levels, but okay. They're gone. Yeah.

[Julianna Scott] (18:53 - 19:19)
And he says, I'm just making these statements from me. Again, I'm not making them from these doctors, but they're all standing behind them. Like, you know, just no reaction.

They talk about different results, different studies, but I talk about a lot of common sense, and they have that too. So this is just common sense. It's common sense.

You don't want, you know what mercury is? You don't want that in your body. But that's just common sense.

So, but it's not in the vaccine.

[Kelley Jensen] (19:19 - 19:28)
No, but it hasn't been in the vaccine for over two decades. No. Does everybody know that?

So we had a press conference to talk about something that hasn't been in the vaccines for 20 years. Yes.

[Julianna Scott] (19:29 - 20:04)
Yes. So then he said he was talking about breaking up the visits into five for the MMR shot. And he says, it's inconvenient.

You're going to have to go back another year later. You're going to go back each year for four years, five years, three years. Break it up because it's too much liquid.

Too many things are going into that baby at too big a number, 80 different vaccines. So again, I'm so confused. And because yeah, we take our kids annually.

Like that's not inconvenient. That's an annual checkup.

[Kelley Jensen] (20:04 - 20:07)
Oh, annually. Yeah, every couple of weeks.

[Julianna Scott] (20:07 - 20:11)
I don't want their babies. You're there more frequently. Oh, my God.

[Kelley Jensen] (20:11 - 20:13)
Obviously not the father of the year there.

[Julianna Scott] (20:13 - 21:28)
So, I mean, I understand a lot of dads don't go to those wellness checks or the annual visits. But maybe, you know, you had a chat with your partner about the kids or visits. Yeah, I was like, you've got to know that your kid goes annually, right?

That's not weird. So it's not inconvenient. Happy to do it.

But I'm not going to take vaccine schedule advice from this. Just like, it's common sense. Just break it up.

So then he told a story about a woman that he knew that was struggling with someone with autism, a woman who worked for him at Trump Tower. He said she worked at the reception desk. And he saw this beautiful little boy who, you know, had been running around.

And then one day he sees her and she's crying like he's never seen anyone cry before. And he asks her what's wrong. And she's like, oh, my boy, my beautiful boy.

And he's like, what's wrong? What's wrong with your boy? And she tells him that she took him for a vaccine.

And the next day he developed and then he developed 107 or 108 fever. And it got up very high and it's fried. He said, they get fried.

[Kelley Jensen] (21:28 - 21:29)
They get fried.

[Julianna Scott] (21:29 - 22:10)
They get fried. And so he said, that was the following day. First, why is this woman at the reception desk?

If her son has a hundred and seven hundred and eight fever, which is death. Yeah, like, I mean, I'm like, take a sick day. I mean, what organization are you running?

Right. Like if I, my response wouldn't be like, oh, what cause it would be like, you want to go to the air, why are you here? So anyway, I like how it's like the fever fried.

I'm trying again. I'm using my common sense based on these facts. Use that common sense.

So, okay, I guess, I guess the fever fried the child's brain. And now he's autistic. Got it.

[Kelley Jensen] (22:11 - 22:18)
But she shouldn't have taken Tylenol when she was pregnant. Right. She had a favor.

Because that would have fried brain.

[Julianna Scott] (22:18 - 22:19)
Right. Right.

[Kelley Jensen] (22:20 - 22:21)
So interesting.

[Julianna Scott] (22:21 - 22:22)
So it was an interesting anecdote.

[Kelley Jensen] (22:23 - 22:27)
Yeah. Especially given that fevers are one of the main treatments for fevers.

[Julianna Scott] (22:28 - 22:34)
Tylenol at all. Yes. I mean, I didn't even get into it, but he said he went on a whole thing about, you should never give your child Tylenol either.

[Kelley Jensen] (22:34 - 22:42)
Oh, yes. Because that was some of the people were getting that confused in the social media group. Because people do when such, you know, because they're saying, do not give your child Tylenol.

[Julianna Scott] (22:42 - 23:34)
And he also conflated that with vaccines. He's like, when your child goes in for a vaccine, they obviously here take a cup of Tylenol with it. And he's like, don't take that.

Yeah. Something tells me that Tylenol is going to have the last word on this. He did talk about some motivations and the money.

But oh, we also want to talk about, oh, the other thing I wanted to mention, because we wrote an op-ed about this. Yes, we did. Kennedy also mentioned that he doesn't believe it's better recognition or diagnosis, because then you'd see it in 70-year-old men.

And he did mention it again. Again. So he said, I've never seen this happening in people my age.

I've never seen a case of full-blown autism. I mean profound autism, headbanging, stimming, toe-walking, nonverbal, non-toilet train. I've never in my life seen a 70-year-old man who looks like that.

You're only seeing it in kids.

[Kelley Jensen] (23:35 - 23:35)
Unbelievable.

[Julianna Scott] (23:36 - 23:51)
So again, that's the soul that seems to be, I mean, I'm going to have to again use my common sense here. It's the only reason he's given publicly for why he doesn't believe in the uptick in numbers.

[Kelley Jensen] (23:51 - 23:53)
Because he's never been around.

[Julianna Scott] (23:53 - 24:22)
He's never been to a mall or never seen people out and about his age headbanging and stimming. So that's why he's been getting all this. But they did talk about the $50 million going into this.

And we looked at the studies a little bit, but I do want to say what striking is, after all this hyperbole and this off-the-cuff stuff, I did go to the HHS website.

[Kelley Jensen] (24:23 - 24:47)
Yes. So let's read that, because let's read that since, of course, what always happens, a big hyperbolic, bombastic announcement, like they have really done something, and then it's walked back behind the scenes that nobody's going to, when I say nobody, I mean. I did.

Yes, of course. A person that's not measured. It's not going to read, right?

[Julianna Scott] (24:47 - 25:30)
Yeah, so I wanted to see what the actual language is on the HHS website. And it's quite different. It's quite different.

So these are excerpts from the main points of the press conference. So first, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, will act on potential treatment for speech-related deficits associated with ASD. So the FDA today is publishing a federal registered notice outlining a label update for folate.

Okay. So it's lukevorin, which has been associated with autism. This action establishes the first FDA-recognized therapeutic for children with cerebral folate deficiency and autistic symptoms.

Okay. That's important to know. Yes.

Because it's only for those with autistic symptoms that have this cerebral folate deficiency. Yes.

[Kelley Jensen] (25:30 - 26:09)
So it's not going to do your kid any good to take folate if you don't know. No, they have a deficiency. So, and you might want to be careful if they don't have a deficiency and you're giving them high levels of it, it might have an unintended consequence.

So again, we have covered folate. We have, as a promising treatment, which it is, very small study. Very small study.

And again, nothing new. There are all kinds of groups that you can find out there that talk about folate and folate deficiency and how to test for it. Like everything else with autism interventions, the results are mixed.

And some kids are doing better and some kids aren't in it, and it's nothing new.

[Julianna Scott] (26:09 - 27:39)
But to put it out there as this groundbreaking new therapeutic that almost imply that this is what you should all be flocking to. And they're going to put a label on there. So it says the NIH will launch confirmatory trials and new research into the impact of it, including safety studies.

While promising, it is important to note that leukovorn is not a cure for ASD and may only lead to improvements in speech-related deficits for a subset of children with ASD. Furthermore, this treatment must be administered under close medical supervision and in conjunction with other non-pharmacological approaches for children with ASD, for example, behavioral therapy. So that is a much more tempered.

Again, not new. No, no. So second, the FDA is responding to prior clinical and laboratory studies that suggest a potential association between acetaminophen, use during pregnancy, and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.

FDA also recognizes that there are contrary studies showing no association, that there can be risks for untreated fever in pregnancy, both for the mothers and fetus. Given the conflicting literature and lack of clear causal evidence, HHS wants to encourage clinicians, clinicians, not even just the moms, to exercise their best judgment and use of acetaminophen for fevers and pain and pregnancy by prescribing the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration when treatment is required.

[Kelley Jensen] (27:39 - 27:40)
Which is already with it.

[Julianna Scott] (27:40 - 28:47)
This is not, it's bad, tough it out, don't take it. That is not the same message. Unbelievable.

So then the third point that they made in the press conference was about the ADSI, the Autism Data Science Initiative, the funding of 13 projects totaling more than $50 million to transform autism research. So again, autism research, they defunded a lot of it. So now they're putting some back in, and we did, we clicked several links into it.

And it looks like, I mean, those are all, they're all good institutions. John Hopkins, UCLA, these are all good, good institutions. So I'm curious to see what comes of it.

That to me was really buried and kind of tossed off as like, okay, you know, and there's some, some things, I think it's not quick enough for, for this group. This group wants to get to it and they want to, you know, fast track, don't take vaccines and all that.

[Kelley Jensen] (28:47 - 28:50)
Don't take Tylenol, don't take vaccines, fast track, fast track.

[Julianna Scott] (28:50 - 29:01)
So and they, and you know, and a lot of talk was said in three years time by the end of this administration, if everybody stops taking Tylenol right now, we're going to see decreased numbers. Like that's the hope.

[Kelley Jensen] (29:01 - 29:11)
A lot of the social media groups, a lot of women, including his own supporters were saying, I never took it. Right. So, right.

You know, that's, right.

[Julianna Scott] (29:11 - 29:23)
And again, I mean, there's lots and lots of studies that don't show, yeah, this, this evidence. But in a lot of them were, you know, when, when you look at the data with siblings, it immediately negates, right. Right.

[Kelley Jensen] (29:24 - 30:08)
So, and, and again, so I guess what we have to say is, yesterday, no, we were not outraged because we expect success. I was a little outrageous, but I was like, whatever. Another day, another blame, right.

We didn't learn anything new. If you follow autism, and if you've tried everything for your child, and if you've been doing this for over 20 years, you didn't hear anything you haven't heard before. But again, not your fault, not your fault.

And again, when you need help managing a child that is autistic, if your miracle interventions don't have the effect you had hoped, and you need to learn how to manage life with autism, come talk to us.

[Julianna Scott] (30:10 - 30:37)
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Refrigerator Moms. We have a free download that includes a full list of practical to-dos we shared in this episode on our website. Our refrigerator paper, our version of the white paper, includes additional what would we do, and background information on everything we talked about today.

Find it on our website refrigeratormoms.com, where you can also sign up for our newsletter. We'd also love to hear your questions. Send them in along with future podcast topics by connecting with us on your favorite social media.

[Kelley Jensen] (30:38 - 30:39)
Thanks for listening.

[Julianna Scott] (30:39 - 31:23)
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