![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/58192aae-f7b8-48da-a9fa-0ba5e78e7743.jpg.webp.webp\")
Lucy Gilder<\/strong>BBC Verify journalist<\/p>\n
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/aaf6e554-1283-46da-b337-8e74bd5b2a59.jpg.webp.webp\")
Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n
Trump and his health secretary held a news conference about health on Monday<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump told a news conference yesterday about what he said was the potential risk of taking the painkiller paracetamol – known as Tylenol in the US – during pregnancy which he has claimed is linked to autism.<\/p>\n
During the event he mentioned several different numbers purporting to show autism rates in the US over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt used to be one in 20,000, then one in 10,000, and I would say that\u2019s probably 18 years ago. And now it\u2019s one in 31 but in some areas it\u2019s much worse\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right in that the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, external<\/a> , external<\/a>(CDC) from 2022 – which provides official estimates for autism rates in the US and whose work is often cited by the current administration – suggests 1 in 31 eight-year-olds in the US have autism.<\/p>\n And this rate has increased from 18 years ago – but by nowhere near as much as Trump suggested.<\/p>\n There was no prevalence study for 2007 but in 2006 the CDC estimated the rate to be 1 in 110. In 2008 it was 1 in 88.<\/p>\n Most experts say rising rates of autism can primarily be attributed to changes in how the condition is diagnosed, as well as greater numbers of people being tested. <\/p>\n Trump also said about autism rates that he \u201cgave numbers yesterday [Sunday] it\u2019s one in 12, I was told that\u2019s in California where they have for some reason a more severe problem\u201d. <\/p>\n