WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday his administration would make an announcement about its autism findings on Monday, declining to offer specifics.
“We’re going to have an announcement on autism on Monday,” Trump said at a dinner hosted by the conservative American Cornerstone Institute. “I think it’s gonna be a very important announcement. I think it’s gonna be one of the most important things that we will do.”
The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that use of Kenvue’s popular over-the-counter pain medication Tylenol by pregnant women is potentially linked to autism, contrary to medical guidelines that say it is safe to use.
Autism diagnoses in the United States have increased significantly since 2000, intensifying public concern. By 2020, the U.S. autism rate in 8-year-olds was 1 in 36, or 2.77%, up from 2.27% in 2018 and 0.66% in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy has asserted that the U.S. is in the grip of an “autism epidemic” fueled by “environmental toxins.” Decades of research has not yielded firm answers on what contributes to autism, but many scientists believe genetics, potentially in combination with environmental influences, play a role.
Trump teased another announcement coming next week, saying his administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz, would roll out a “most favored nation” model for drug pricing. This is meant to lower U.S. prescription drug prices to the lowest paid by countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which includes most of the world’s largest economies.
“Dr. Oz is in charge and he’s a smart, tough guy, and I hope he’s going to do this,” Trump told the event. “And if nations give us a hard time, we’re going to tariff them.”
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Phil Stewart, Valerie Volcovici and Katharine Jackson; Editing by William Mallard)
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