This week, President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his secretary of well being and human providers, advised a hyperlink between Tylenol use throughout being pregnant and autism. The declare, which has been broadly debunked by specialists and isn’t backed by medical science, turned immediate social media fodder.
Trump and Kennedy’s announcement included a graphic that includes the phrases “Autism Announcement,” splashed throughout a blue background. It rapidly turned repurposed as a meme by many within the Autism neighborhood.
“The way it feels telling the group chat I don’t need to eat on the restaurant they deliberate as a result of I don’t like the feel of the meals they serve,” one X person posted. “After I’m on a date they usually ask me about my hobbies,” one other wrote. Summing up the week’s on-line discourse, one put: “The Tylenol memes have been unimaginable. What a present Trump gave us.”
In his deal with, Trump advised that pregnant folks in America ought to as an alternative “powerful it out” somewhat than resort to taking the widespread ache reliever. Unsurprisingly, many pregnant folks didn’t welcome his unsolicited recommendation and as an alternative responded to his feedback by filming themselves popping tablets in defiance.
“I’ve a listing of issues I might be fearful about if I had been pregnant now within the US however taking Tylenol for my fever wouldn’t be one in all them,” reads the caption to at least one video. “Expensive RFK…. kindly go away. Sincerely, a 36-week pregnant particular person with horrible hip ache,” reads one other.
To keep away from stoking the ethical panic that’s since circulated on-line, it’s value mentioning most of the movies don’t even present pregnant ladies taking the drug; in the event that they do, they’re taking the really helpful dosage. Most have since been taken down, probably attributable to backlash.
Many conservatives did not see the humorous aspect.
“Democrats are actually chugging bottles of Tylenol on TikTok,” Calley Means, Kennedy’s well being adviser and a key determine within the MAHA motion, claimed in an X publish seen over 5 million instances. “If Trump mentioned that oxygen was good, I’m satisfied there are folks on the market who would suffocate themselves,” Riley Gaines, the conservative activist identified for campaigning in opposition to trans ladies in faculty sports activities, mentioned in a video.
Whereas the reactions and memes are enjoyable, the issue of well being misinformation being peddled throughout social media is a rising downside.
As Forbes reported this week, citing knowledge from the platform analytics firm Zelf, TikTok movies about acetaminophen, vaccines, and autism acquired greater than 100 million views within the 48 hours following Trump’s announcement. The 4 hottest of these movies picked up greater than 33 million cumulative views. Not one of the movies included the essential context that medical science doesn’t assist Trump’s allegations.
As one X person joked, “I’d wish to congratulate Tylenol on their upcoming multimillion-dollar lawsuit settlement.”
