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Trump on autism

Wordsmith

The Guardian is reporting that Trump has just teased that he will be making an important announcement on autism tomorrow (quite how this was relevant in the middle of a eulogy for Charlie Kirk is not clear but that’s the Great Orange Blimp for you). Looks like we can expect mums taking paracetamol during pregnancy to be blamed and folinic acid to be touted as a cure.

Parents

  • Trump can say what he likes, it dosen't make it true.

    I think this linking of paracetamol and autism  needs unpacking, I don't think there's any evidence that paracetamol causes autism, or that taking it pregnancy does. I think this is another attack on women, if you have an autistic child it's your fault, you took medicines you were told were safe. I think it goes along with the idea that you cant have a genuine miscarriage, even after a few months, you must of tried for an illegal abortion and need punishing.

    What is the problem with autism per se? It would seem that many of the "tech bros" are autistic, Elon Musk and Bill Gates to name but two, like them or loathe them, they've made world changing advances in technology without which Trump and his ilk wouldn't be able to flourish in the way they do.

    Of course Trump made these announcements at a funeral, everythings got to be about him. 

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Apparently some studies seem to indicate a 20% higher risk of autism in the children of women who took paracetamol for long periods and higher dose levels during pregnancy. But this is very different from saying it is the cause of autism. If we take (for the sake of argument and easy arithmetic) a baseline risk of 5% of pregnancies resulting autistic children, this would suggest that 6% of pregnancies where paracetamol was heavily used by the mother would result in an autistic child.

    In any case, paracetamol only became available in the UK 2 years after I was born (and then only on prescription). And it wasn’t widely used until the 1970s. So, it wouldn’t explain the autism of anyone over the age of about 50.

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  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Apparently some studies seem to indicate a 20% higher risk of autism in the children of women who took paracetamol for long periods and higher dose levels during pregnancy. But this is very different from saying it is the cause of autism. If we take (for the sake of argument and easy arithmetic) a baseline risk of 5% of pregnancies resulting autistic children, this would suggest that 6% of pregnancies where paracetamol was heavily used by the mother would result in an autistic child.

    In any case, paracetamol only became available in the UK 2 years after I was born (and then only on prescription). And it wasn’t widely used until the 1970s. So, it wouldn’t explain the autism of anyone over the age of about 50.

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