When the bar is set at suggesting that people inject bleach into their veins, it's hard to reach a new low. But in a deranged press event on autism Monday evening, President Trump seemed to go for it—sharing "rumors" and his "strong feelings" not just on Tylenol but also his bonkers views on childhood vaccines.
Trump was there with his health secretary, anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to link autism to the use of Tylenol (acetaminophen) during pregnancy. While medical experts condemn the claim as unproven and dangerous (which it is), Kennedy's anti-vaccine followers decried it as a distraction from their favored false and dangerous explanation—that vaccines cause autism (which they don't).
Pinning the blame on Tylenol instead of vaccines enraged Kennedy's own anti-vaccine organization, Children's Health Defense. In the run-up to the event Monday evening, CHD retweeted an all-caps defense of Tylenol, and CHD President Mary Holland called the announcement a "sideshow" in an interview with Steve Bannon.