Ben Carson on Tylenol Use in Pregnancy

Commentary

At a recent news conference on autism and vaccines held by President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both claimed that the use of acetaminophen in pregnant women may be responsible for the rapid increase in cases of autism that we have seen over the past few decades. They have also made recommendations on when certain vaccines should be taken, such as the hepatitis B vaccine.

Critics remain skeptical, but The Epoch Times sat down with Dr. Ben Carson, who served as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center for nearly 30 years, to hear his take on the announcement.

The Epoch Times: Good morning, Dr. Carson. I appreciate you joining us this morning to talk about whether there’s a link between Tylenol and autism, what the secretary of HHS is doing with vaccines, and all the protocols that are being changed.

You also heard President Trump’s announcement yesterday about Tylenol and his cautionary message. Given your background as a former pediatric neurosurgeon, this is your field, and you probably know more about it than just about anyone on the planet. Please share with us your thoughts.

Dr. Ben Carson: Well, autism spectrum disorder has increased dramatically in the last few decades. Something is causing that. It’s not a natural phenomenon. So, it is certainly prudent to spend time looking for possible things that are correlated to this dramatic rise.

That’s basically what’s being done now. This is not a new thing. People have been looking into this for years. A number of different things have been associated with possible anomalies in the development of a baby.

But there’s significant evidence that acetaminophen, Tylenol, is one of those things.

When you go to the store and buy almost anything you ingest, there’s a warning label that says, “May be associated with this, or this, or this.”

It doesn’t mean it will cause that if you take it, but it means there’s a question, a legitimate question, and it has happened enough times that you need to be made aware of it. That’s the situation we find ourselves in now.

Unfortunately, it takes on a different life when it becomes a political issue. And that’s what’s happened. Everything is a political issue now, and it’s deleterious to our society because nobody trusts anything that comes out of any side unless it’s the side they politically support.

That, in many ways, is probably more dangerous than the medication itself.

The Epoch Times: What do you say to critics who claim this is not scientific, that the HHS secretary and the president are just pulling straws?

Carson: Well, they could say that about any medication that has a warning label. None of it is proven as a one-to-one correspondence.

It’s all cited as something that has been observed by a number of people. It’s not a double-blind study that has gone through all the rigorous processes, and it probably never will be.

But what will happen automatically is that a lot of people will stop taking Tylenol when they’re pregnant. We’re talking about huge numbers of individuals, so it probably won’t take long to see if a difference has been made in the incidence of these diseases.

The Epoch Times: Why is there a rise in cases of autism? Is it overdiagnosed? Is it Tylenol?

Carson: It might be. It might not be. It might be multifactorial. But it is clearly something.

People have looked at all kinds of factors, including things people eat, and no one knows 100 percent for sure. However, there has been mounting evidence that acetaminophen may be one of the significant factors causing this.

If you were pregnant and wanted to protect your baby, you would want to know about anything that has a high suspicion of causing a defect in that baby.

The Epoch Times: Immediately when a child is born, they’re given a hepatitis shot. The argument now is, why would a newborn baby need a hepatitis shot?

Carson: Well, obviously, they don’t need it at that time. They’re not going to be exposed to the kinds of things that would cause hepatitis to occur at such an early age. But we’ve gotten to the point now where we have so many shots, and many of them are probably legitimate.

However, studies that have not been done include: What is the impact on the body’s immune system of multiple challenges so close together?

The Epoch Times: What do you say to the secretary’s new vaccine protocols and the new boards he’s appointed to govern these vaccines moving forward?

Carson: Well, you know, I’m glad that the question is being asked. What is the impact of all these vaccines back to back, and should we, in fact, be spreading them apart? Should we, in fact, be using all of them? Are they essential? What is the impact on the general health of the population?

Those are the questions that are being asked, and we will be getting answers to them. We would never get answers if we didn’t ask the question.

The Epoch Times: When a woman is pregnant, she should be careful about what she puts in her body. I was told that by my family doctor years ago. What are your thoughts?

Carson: There’s no question about it. There are all kinds of things in our environment that are not generally good for us. That goes doubly when you’re pregnant, when you’re trying to make sure that you don’t have anything that impacts fetal development.

I think pregnant women have a special duty and obligation to be careful about what they ingest and to try to eat and live a very healthy lifestyle, even if they don’t normally do so. If you love that child, do it for them.

The Epoch Times: One viewer of ours said, “I refuse all shots.” Now, is that wise, Dr. Carson?

Carson: That probably is not wise. We have lots of evidence that certain types of vaccinations, when you live among other people, are very likely to prevent some very devastating diseases.

If you’re pregnant, you certainly don’t want to get some of those diseases.

The Epoch Times: Some say that the impact on small babies, vaccines, has to be harmful. That, say, they mostly weigh 10 pounds at the most. You can’t even take Advil. What do you have to say to that?

Carson: At certain doses, there’s nothing wrong with that statement. It just alerts you to the fact that something different is happening when you’re pregnant and when you have a developing human being inside of you.

That development is impacted by the environment, and the environment is impacted by what you ingest. These are things that logically should have been looked at for a long time but have not been examined for a very long time.

The almighty dollar often dictates what is advocated and what is not. It’s time to put the almighty dollar in the backseat and start thinking about the health of the population.

The Epoch Times: What advice would you give to our readers about the COVID shot moving forward?

Carson: We need to take into consideration things that we know about viruses.

When viruses first present and people don’t have great immunity to them, they can be devastating. That was the case with COVID when it first appeared. Nobody had immunity to it, and it was very lethal.

Once you get it under control, another iteration of the virus comes out. It’s usually attenuated, meaning it’s less virulent than it was initially. Each subsequent iteration is even less virulent.

The COVID that we’re seeing these days is nothing compared to the initial situation when people didn’t have immunity.

When you think about that and the treatments and vaccines for them, you have an ever changing scale of benefit versus risk.

In the beginning, the risk of the vaccine was relatively small compared to the risk of the virus. Now, when the virus is very attenuated, the risk of the vaccine is elevated compared to the risk of the virus.

These are the kinds of things you have to understand, which is why it’s important to work with a knowledgeable professional when making those decisions.

The Epoch Times: Why don’t we make the majority of medicines and vitamins here in the United States?

Carson: Oh, I wish we would manufacture these things ourselves. We’re putting ourselves at risk when we trust other entities, particularly with things that are essential.

I know the current administration recognizes that and is making efforts to move these things to our shores. If we ever have another situation like we had with COVID and we’re dependent upon China or some other source, it could really compromise our security.

The Epoch Times: What about the flu shot? And what advice would you give people moving forward in this environment where health care is changing?

Obviously, Secretary Kennedy has a new vision for this country about being healthy and making sure that America’s hospitals work, not making people sick, but finding cures and ensuring they are not dependent on all different kinds of medicines, which, as you said, could have more to do with profit than with people being well.

Carson: All of these things are benefit-to-risk issues. That’s why it’s so important to work with your health care professional.

In general, there are a lot of things that probably don’t contribute greatly to your health.

I always say, if you eat three well-balanced meals a day, drink six to eight glasses of water, exercise regularly, get good sleep, and don’t put harmful things in your body, the good Lord made our bodies in a way that they can fight off most things.

That’s what’s important.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.