Half of all pregnant women take acetaminophen — better known as Tylenol or paracetamol — to relieve pain or reduce fever. The drug has been around for decades, is available without a prescription, and is often one of the few options doctors consider safe during pregnancy. However, on September 23, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would require new warning labels, citing a “possible association” between prenatal use and autism in children.

The agency’s language was cautious. President Trump’s, by contrast, was not.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” he declared in a nationally broadcast statement. “Fight like hell not to take it.”

The clash highlights a recurring pattern in health debates: Preliminary science is met with sweeping political declarations, even when the evidence is thi

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