Fact-checking three claims Trump made about autism

US President Donald Trump has attracted a condemnation of health experts, after he sought to claim that there is a link between the pain reliever, which is widely used and autism.

Robert F. Kennedy Junior, Trump said that doctors would soon advise not to recommend the drug – called Paracetamol in some other countries, including the United Kingdom – for pregnant women.

Claims were attacked by medical experts. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that the advertisement was “worrying” and did not depend on “reliable data”, while the National Autism Society in the United Kingdom described Trump’s statement, “that it is hostile to science and irresponsible.”

BBC looked at some allegations that Trump and Kennedy made during their White House press conference.

During this event, Trump has included a number of statistics that he said that autism diagnoses in the United States had rapidly increased over the past two decades.

First, the American president claimed that the injury had increased “one in every 10,000 … perhaps 18 years ago” to “one in 31” by 2025.

The final statistics conveyed by Trump – that autism rates have risen to one in 31 – correct. Data from Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2022 I found this level of diagnostic between eight years from the age of 16 American states.

Although this rate has grown 18 years ago, he did not grow anything like Trump’s number. While there was no number for the year 2007 – the year that Trump cited – in 2006, the Center for Disease Control was estimated at the US population 1 out of 110. In 2008 it was 1 in 88.

Most experts say that high rates of autism can primarily be attributed to changes in how to diagnose the condition, as well as the greatest recognition of the condition and more people who are tested.

On Sunday, Trump claimed that California suffers from a “more severe problem” with autism from other states included in the Disease Control Center.

The Disease Control Center estimated that in 2022, about 1 out of 12 years old was eight -year -old in California suffering from autism – the highest rate of children in studying in 16 American states.

but The agency noticed that the state funded a local initiative Training hundreds of local Paediatrics doctors “to examine children and refer them to evaluation as soon as possible, which may lead to a higher” of autism.

There is another claim made by Trump about the effects of the mumps, measles and measles vaccine (MMR). The American president claimed that the vaccinations “should be taken separately” instead of a common snapshot and that “it seems that when mixing it, there may be a problem.”

Experts fear that if parents refrain from vaccinating their children as a result of their baseless demands, they risk re -appearing for diseases such as measles.

The doubtful idea gained that childhood vaccines are linked to autism for the first time on the prevailing interest after a paper published in 1998 in the medical journal The Lancet by British doctor Andrew Wickfield.

Wickfield was later found on financial conflicts in interest – including some of his test patients associated with a lawsuit against vaccine companies – and the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) found that he forged its results. The search paper was pulled and hit the Wakefield by GMC in 2010.

Since then, multiple studies have not found any link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The latest study – a high -quality study of Denmark in 2019 viewed 657,461 children, and concluded that the data did not support the MMR vaccine that causes or leads to autism.

On its website, CDC recommends in the United States to give two doses of the MMR vaccine combined to children, starting from the first dose in 12-15 months and the second between the age of four and sixth.

According to the UK government, there is no “evidence” that the control should be taken separately. Notice Any decision to do this “will be experimental”.

This year, the United States has witnessed the highest cases of stiffness in more than three decades. According to the Center for Disease Control, 1,491 cases have been confirmed so far. Three people died.

“President Trump has not provided any evidence that the current fortification schedule in the states was harmful and there is no evidence that giving a combined MMR vaccine was not safe,” said David Iliman – Associate Professor of Children’s Health at the University of London at the University of London.

“Supporters of the relationship between the MMR vaccine and their unification are citing the resolution of research in 1998 in Lancet, whose first author Andrew Wickfield was,” he added. “In fact, the authors of the paper clearly stated in the paper that they were not proven to be linked, but they suggested that more research be done. This research has been conducted, and no evidence was found that there is a link.”

Experts also say that allowing time between strikes means that children are more likely to shrink diseases in the meantime or are likely to miss the appointments if there are multiple shots.

Trump cited Emish as a group inside the United States, who “has no illness” within their community.

Amish usually lives in remote societies and refuses to adopt many features of modern life, which can include doubts of modern medicines. Trump suggested – without providing evidence – that the decrease in the rate of Tilanol within the group could lead to a decrease in the autism rate.

There are relatively few studies on autism rates within the Amish community. Many children are diagnosed at school-but most of the Amish leaks from school after eight degrees, about 14 years.

“I think it is very unlikely that there are no people with autism between amshi,” Eva Lith, a cognitive professor at King’s College College London told BBC.

“The question is how many population studies conducted with Al -Amish? Is it possible that Amish is likely to ask the diagnosis? Therefore, there are a number of reasons that make the numbers report low, but this does not mean that there are no cases.”

In one study for the year 2010, a team of genetics found that autism occurred in about one in every 271 children of Amish. The search examination is 1,899 children across two large gathering of Amish in Ohio and Indiana.

However, it should be noted that researching this topic is limited, and we have not found any studies that indicate a link between low fortification rates and the diagnosis of autism between the people of Amish.

Trump made a similar claim about the low levels of autism in Cuba – claiming that Tilanol supplies are low on the island as a reason.

It is not clear that President Trump was based on emphasizing. BBC Invidify cannot find any official Cuban census, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has noted that “the spread of autism in many low -income countries is unknown.”

Trump has intermittently expressed concern about the high rates of autism in children in the United States for nearly 20 years. In 2007, he publicly suggested first that he believed that there is a link between vaccines and increased spread.

The president expressed interest in Kennedy’s work since at least 2017, when Kennedy said that Trump asked him to lead the vaccine safety team. Seven years later, Kennedy – who was then a poll at about 5 % – dropped his offer to the presidency and Trump’s support.

In an invitation that leaked with Kennedy during the election campaign, in which the Republican tried to persuade the independent to support him – Trump heard of discussing credible claims about the health risks of childhood vaccines. After the elections, Trump announced that he was choosing to lead the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services, with an authorization to “make America healthy again.”

However, during his first term, Trump supported some vaccine campaigns. During the outbreak of measles for the year 2019 in the United States, he said that people “have to get the shots. The vaccines are very important”, and his administration has supervised the rapid development and early operation of Covid-19 vaccines.

Additional reports: Joshua Chetham