Trump administration’s blame game with autism is damaging
I’d like to thank Dr. Ashish K. Jha, who helped shepherd Massachusetts and the nation through the COVID-19 pandemic, for his op-ed “The real danger isn’t Tylenol, it’s bad information” (Opinion, Sept. 26).
From an academic point of view, Jha’s observation that the Trump administration has cherry-picked evidence to erroneously support its preferred “findings” is most salient. His secondary point, that “the real losers are pregnant women left anxious about whether to treat pain or fever, and parents with autistic children, made to feel that their own choices caused their child’s condition,” particularly resonates with me, a child and adolescent psychologist. Parents tend to blame themselves — and have been blamed by the public and medical and psychological science for decades — for their children’s difficulties. Autism, in its more severe forms, can be devastating for children and families.
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So congratulations to our current administration on its “three-fer”:
1) Holding mothers responsible for their children’s neuropsychological condition.
2) Commanding mothers to endure suffering on behalf of their unborn children.
3) Putting their unborn children at medical risk.
Deborah Offner
Newton
Doctors, not politicians, should be parents’ guide
I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Ashish K. Jha. The proven safe prescription for expectant families is to trust their doctors, not politicians.
Andy Spiegel
Winchester
‘The World’s Foremost Authority,’ revisited
I wonder how many people remember the brilliant, double-talking, buffoonish comedian who rose to fame in the late 1940s and ’50s as Professor Irwin Corey, “The World’s Foremost Authority.” I was reminded of him when I saw President Trump at a press conference advising pregnant women to avoid Tylenol, based on the scantest of evidence. Who knew that Trump was an expert on medical science? But come to think of it, he has claimed authority on art, architecture, higher education, economics, history, foreign relations, gender identity — the list goes on and on. Aren’t we fortunate to have a president who is the world’s foremost authority on everything!
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Paul M. Wright
Boston
Is Biblical teaching behind Tylenol announcement?
What is missing from Renee Graham’s column (“Trump blames women for autism,” Ideas, Sept. 28) is the religious aspect of President Trump’s announcement blaming Tylenol for autism. With Trump’s suggestion that the only medicine deemed safe for pregnant women in pain is responsible for autism, and his urging that pregnant women “tough it out,” it appears that a driving force behind this announcement is the Bible’s teaching that women must suffer the pains of labor because of Eve’s original sin. How this very obvious connection to the country’s Christian nationalist movement has not received more attention is surprising. This announcement by Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not about science, it is simply misogyny driven by religious beliefs.
Dominic Cucé
North Attleboro