Sinclair Broadcast Group’s The National News Desk aired a segment on September 24 touting President Donald Trump’s announcement two days prior promoting an unproven link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism. This segment aired on at least 60 Sinclair-owned or -operated stations in 37 states.
Anchor Jan Jeffcoat introduced the segment by saying, “The Trump administration announced major progress in understanding the root causes of autism with studies that showed a possible increased risk linking the use of Tylenol in women who are pregnant.”
Her guest was Dr. Elizabeth Mumper of the Independent Medical Alliance, formerly known as the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, which pushed a bogus COVID-19 treatments long after it was proved ineffective. Sinclair has previously turned to this group to spread criticism of COVID-19 vaccines and to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary.
Contrary to Jeffcoat’s promise of “major progress in understanding the root causes of autism,” real news organizations, fact-checkers, and medical associations consistently explain that there have been no studies showing a causal link between use of acetaminophen — the active ingredient in Tylenol — during pregnancy and autism.
Yet, in the announcement promoted by Sinclair, Trump told those who are pregnant: “Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it. … Fight like hell not to take it.” Mumper did acknowledge during the interview that “the research is mixed,” adding that many studies “say there is an association; some do not,” yet she said she has “not been recommending acetaminophen since about 2003.” Mumper then claimed that apparently lower autism rates among her patients showed a “proof of concept that limiting Tylenol, which was one of the things that we did, could actually be as helpful.”
Both Trump during the announcement and Mumper in the Sinclair segment also suggested that vaccines are harmful to infants, regarding the development of autism. The science on this is indisputable — vaccines do not cause autism.
Scientists, medical associations, and autism advocacy organizations rebuked the Trump administration’s September 22 announcement.
Sinclair, and especially Jeffcoat, spread medical misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. At one point that misinformation was so egregious that Sinclair pulled a pre-recorded segment of one of its programs off of its TV stations before it could broadcast. The segment in question had been posted to Sinclair stations' websites before vanishing from those as well.
