Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kennedy Softens Warning On Tylenol; Study Ties Covid In Pregnancy, Autism
The Hill: Kennedy: No Sufficient Evidence For Tylenol-Autism Link
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said there is not “sufficient” evidence that Tylenol causes autism, softening warnings he and President Trump have repeatedly made to discourage the medicine’s use by pregnant women and young children. During a press conference Wednesday, Kennedy reiterated that pregnant women should use Tylenol only when “absolutely necessary.” “We’ve all said from the beginning that the causative association between Tylenol given in pregnancy … is not sufficient to say it definitely caused autism, but it is very suggestive,” Kennedy said. (Weixel, 10/30)
The Washington Post: Covid In Pregnancy Tied To Autism, Developmental Issues, Study Says
Children born to mothers infected with covid-19 during pregnancy faced a higher risk of autism, along with other neurological differences such as delays in speech and motor development, according to a study published Thursday. The analysis of more than 18,100 births in Massachusetts, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, is among the largest studies to date examining children born to women who contracted the virus starting in the early months of the pandemic through some of 2021, before vaccines were widely available. (Ovalle and Cha, 10/30)
The latest on the surgeon general nominee —
CNN: Confirmation Hearing Delayed For Trump’s Surgeon General Nominee As She Goes Into Labor With Her First Child
The Senate hearing for President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, is postponed as the nominee goes into labor with her first child, according to a Senate Health, Education Labor and Pension Committee spokesperson and a person familiar with Means. (Owermohle, 10/30)
The New York Times: R.F.K. Jr. Adviser Calley Means Has Left The White House
Calley Means, an influential adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the brother of President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, quietly departed the White House at the end of his term as a special government employee about a month ago, he said in an interview on Wednesday night. For much of the last six months, Mr. Means has acted as the health secretary’s right hand, coordinating a major presidential commission report on what it described as the dire state of children’s health and sparring on television and online with vaccine scientists and doctors who objected to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign to remake American medicine. (Mueller, 10/30)
On vaccine skepticism —
KFF Health News: At The Hollow In Florida, The ‘Medical Freedom’ Movement Finds Its Base Camp
MAGA and MAHA are happily married in Florida, and nowhere more at home than in Sarasota County, where on a humid October night a crowd of several hundred gathered to honor state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, his wife, and an unlicensed Canadian radiologist who treats cancer with horse paste. (Allen, 10/31)
Undark: Inside The Marketplace For Vaccine Medical Exemptions
Maybe a client hears about them in the comment section of the Facebook group “Medical Exemption Accepted,” or on the r/unvaccinated forum on Reddit. Maybe it’s through an interview posted on the video-sharing platform Rumble. Or maybe it’s the targeted advertisements on Google: “We do medical exemptions.” Cassandra Clerkin, a mother in upstate New York, first got in touch with Frontline Health Advocates near the start of the 2024-2025 school year, after hearing they had doctors who would write exemptions from school immunization requirements. (Schulson, 10/31)
