TEC Brief: Fact Check of the Presidential Press Conference on Autism
The September 22, 2025 presidential briefing addressed autism causation topics with officials presenting approximately 25 false or misleading claims that were subsequently amplified across media channels. These included misrepresentations about acetaminophen (Tylenol) as an autism cause, folate deficiency theories lacking scientific support, vaccine-autism links contradicted by decades of research, and FDA plans to approve Leucovorin for autism management without meeting typical evidence standards. This fact-check brief documents specific false or misleading claims presented during the briefing, provides scientific corrections with peer-reviewed citations, examines departures from evidence-based regulatory processes, analyzes public health implications of promoting unproven treatments while discouraging safe medical interventions, and offers factual resources for health communicators countering autism misinformation.
Key Scientific Corrections:
Acetaminophen claims: Swedish study of 2.5 million children with sibling controls found no causal association when properly analyzed; benefits for managing fever/pain in pregnancy outweigh theoretical risks
Leucovorin approval: Only small pilot trials exist showing potential behavioral improvements in autism subsets; evidence is insufficient for FDA standards affecting hundreds of thousands of children
Vaccine safety: Decades of research involving millions of children across multiple countries conclusively demonstrate that vaccines do not cause autism
Prevalence claims: Apparent autism increases primarily explained by diagnostic substitution, expanded criteria, and improved screening rather than a true biological increase