RFK Jr. cites circumcision in defending Tylenol-autism link

[littlemissmartypants]

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that giving Tylenol to infant boys after circumcision could be a cause of autism among males.

On Thursday, Kennedy praised Trump’s Tylenol announcement and highlighted two studies that have indicated that male infant circumcision is correlated with autism diagnoses, suggesting that it is because of giving the baby Tylenol for pain management.

“There's two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It's highly likely because they're given Tylenol,” said Kennedy. “You know, none of this is dispositive. All of it should be paid attention to.”
Snip...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/rfk-jr-cites-circumcision-in-defending-tylenol-autism-link/ar-AA1OaeMx

[hlthe2b]

1. OMG.... This popped up on my cell as an alert and I thought it was from the ONION...

JHC. He is as insane as Trump.

[Wifes husband]

2. This is just stupid

[rurallib]

3. I -uh - wha -uh - huh? huh?

quit digging junior

[Irish_Dem]

4. Now he is fixated a male baby penises.

Hmmm....

[CTyankee]

5. Well, Jesus was circumcised. What is your problem?

[allegorical oracle]

12. Yep -- circumcision has been around how long? And autism has come along recently as

a behavioral spectrum revealed by tests. More instances of the spectrum have increased because testing has improved. RFK has an agenda. Perhaps he's on the autism spectrum.

[JoseBalow]

13. Stop the testing!

Problem solved

[Klarkashton]

6. He croaks this shit out like it was legit science. "Two studies" What studies?

He's always with the "studies". They always turn out to be some defective bullshit.

[maxsolomon]

9. Probably the ones by the Father & Son research team

Where the dead father is a de-licensed doctor and the 2nd study cites the 1st study as corroborating evidence.

Mark & David Geier. Geier the younger is leading the Federal Autism Vaccine study.

[unblock]

7. Hmm, maybe I should ask rfk jr if that's why my daughter is autistic.

That ought to make his head explode.

(Yes, my daughter had a circumcision. She's trans)

[riversedge]

8. So, RFKJr does NOT even know if these baby boys were given Tylenol, But still uses to link Tylenol to autism.......

I hope Tylenol company is preparing a Huge law suit against kennedy jr.

[Mike Niendorff]

10. Circumcision is a barbaric practice that should be banned.

And Tylenol has nothing whatsoever to do with any of that.


MDN

[CTyankee]

15. Two major religions in this country command circumcision. What would you do to their followers?

[Mike Niendorff]

16. Liability, for starters.

Victims should have the right to sue -- both the parents and the person(s) who perform such acts of ritual mutilation-- at bare minimum from the moment they turn 18.

And no, I don't care at all about the religious connotations, that is utterly irrelevant.

A child's right to bodily integrity absolutely supersedes a parent's religious ideology.

So yeah, put me down as another outlier in this mad age where we accept casual monstrosities without blinking an eye.


MDN

[Hekate]

17. You poor thing

[Mike Niendorff]

20. I take it from your defensiveness that my perspective offends you.

Ok then.


MDN

[Celerity]

11. far better source (your OP's source is the RW rag Washington Examiner):

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jr-ties-autism-to-circumcision-and-tylenol-in-bonkers-rant/

https://archive.ph/4Bgcg

your OP's source:

[mike_c]

14. I'll bet the incidence of reported autism in this country...

...is strongly correlated with RFK Jr's age. Let's do a thought experiment. While the mid-twentieth century data are sketchy because autism was not even a legit diagnosis in 1960, Wikipedia estimates that per capita US autism rates were likely about 0.5 per 1,000 births in the 1960s. Let's be conservative and say 0.5/1000 is an accurate historical estimate of autism incidence prior to the 1960s.

RFK Jr was born in 1954. We presume he was not very effective at driving up autism rates during early childhood, but by the 1980s, when RFK Jr was a young man, U.S. autism diagnoses doubled to roughly 1 in 1,000 births. Coincidence or causation? Do your own research! Consider that as RFK Jr has aged, autism rates have increased dramatically, in lockstep with his misspent lifespan. By 1995 approximately 1 in 500 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ten years later that number had increased to 1 in 150 births, and by 2015 to 1 autism diagnosis per every 58 births. In 2022, 1 in 31 children were autistic.

How could this be any clearer?! For every year that data exists, autism rates have been higher on each of RFK Jr's birthdays than they were on his previous birthday! Hello! Is this thing on?! RFK Jr's demented existence correlates precisely with the growth of autism. Hardly anyone was autistic prior to RFK Jr's appearance. During his lifetime autism rates have skyrocketed. QED!



That was fun!

[Ping Tung]

19. Foreskins used to be valuable as a bride price back in the dy.

Saul told David that he could have his daughter if he brought 100 Philistine foreskins to him. David was hot to get the wife so he brought back 200 foreskins to prove his loyalty.

https://web.mit.edu/jywang/www/cef/Bible/NIV/NIV_Bible/1SAM+18.html

1 Samuel 18

26
When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed,
27
David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented the full number to the king so that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.
28
When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David,

[milestogo]

21. So are all Jewish boys autistic?

What about Muslim girls who get tylenol for FGM?

[Straw Man]

22. One wonders what's next.

Band-Aids cause cancer?

[Jack Valentino]

23. Brainworms cause crackpot medical theories in non-doctors...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. Peter Hotez: RFK Jr.'s take on autism is 'increasingly untethered to reality'

Hotez is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, and he co-directs the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. His many books include “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science” and the new “Science Under Siege,” which he co-wrote with Michael E. Mann.

“He picks things that seem designed to get clicks on the internet. He gravitates toward magical-seeming, spectacular explanations like Tylenol and circumcision,” said Peter Hotez. www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

— Gary Schwitzer (@garyschw.bsky.social) 2025-10-10T12:18:08.319Z

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/hotez-autism-circumcision-rfk-21093425.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

In a White House Cabinet meeting Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that boys who are circumcised are twice as likely to be diagnosed later with autism. Kennedy speculated that maybe it’s because circumcised boys are given Tylenol for pain.

"That’s absurd,” said vaccine scientist and author Peter Hotez, who has long disagreed with Kennedy’s pronouncements about the causes of autism.

“His statements are increasingly untethered to reality,” Hotez said Friday. “It’s actually worrisome that he’d pick circumcision as a factor to highlight.”......

Hotez is frustrated:

“One, he still doesn’t acknowledge the role that genes play in autism.

“Two, he doesn’t acknowledge actual, well documented environmental factors. Lots of studies find weak associations for all sorts of things. But the evidence for some environmental factors, like Valproic, is much, much stronger.

“And three, he picks things that seem designed to get clicks on the internet. He gravitates toward magical-seeming, spectacular explanations like Tylenol and circumcision.