CBS News – Dr. Mehmet Oz told CBS News the Trump administration is not advising pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol under any circumstances — as President Trump’s announcement this week about an alleged link between the painkiller and fever reducer and autism draws pushback from medical experts.
Oz — a former surgeon and television personality who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — said that if a pregnant woman develops a high fever, a doctor will likely encourage her to take acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, because fevers can pose health risks.
“The concern here is that I believe most women get low-grade fevers, they stub their toe, they have little aches and pains, and they think it’s perfectly safe to throw a couple paracetamol or acetaminophen or Tylenol when they’re pregnant, and I don’t think that’s the case,” Oz said.
On Monday, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary released an open letter to physicians that said acetaminophen use during pregnancy “may be associated with” an increased risk of conditions like autism.
The letter noted that “while an association between acetaminophen and autism has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established.”
Makary’s letter was also more tempered than Mr. Trump’s comments during a news conference earlier this week in which the president said there’s “no downside in not taking” Tylenol.
“Acetaminophen is the safest over-the-counter alternative in pregnancy among all analgesics and antipyretics,” Makary wrote in his letter.
There is concern among the medical community that, as a result of the FDA’s announcement Monday, that some patients could turn to other pain medications that are proven to be unsafe during pregnancy …
