Trump's Tylenol warning cited a Harvard dean's research. But a judge called his shifting conclusions 'unreliable'

""A Harvard dean and preeminent epidemiologist whose work was cited by top health officials in the Trump administration as justification for severely curtailing Tylenol use by pregnant women due to a supposed link to autism provided expert testimony in a lawsuit against the drug’s maker that a federal judge called “unreliable.”

Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, submitted written testimony in 2023 that his review of the scientific literature led him to conclude that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, “can cause the offspring to develop” neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD. A Harvard spokesperson said that Baccarelli was paid roughly $150,000 for his work on the case.

The federal court judge excoriated Baccarelli’s testimony, writing that “Dr. Baccarelli downplays those studies that undercut his causation thesis and emphasizes those that align with his thesis.”

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York noted that neither Baccarelli nor four other experts paid to testify for the plaintiffs “has published research that expresses the ultimate opinions they offer here. Indeed, the plaintiffs’ lead expert on causation, Dr. Baccarelli, as recently as 2022, co-authored a study on the prenatal effects of acetaminophen that cautioned against any change in clinical practice.”

https://www.statnews.com/2025/09/23/researcher-behind-trump-tylenol-autism-expert-testimony-tossed/