A clear majority of Americans (69%) agree that “autism is a complex condition that cannot be reduced to a single cause,” according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll.
That number includes 59% of Republicans.
But last week, President Trump declared that his administration had “found an answer to autism” — then linked the neurological condition to Tylenol and other acetaminophen-based painkillers during a high-profile event with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Yahoo/YouGov survey was conducted September 25-29, shortly after the event.)
“Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it,” the president told pregnant women. Instead, he urged them to “hang in there” when they experience pain.
At the same time, Kennedy continued to promote the thoroughly debunked claim that childhood vaccines cause autism, saying there would be “no taboo areas” in future research.
“One area we are looking closely at is vaccines,” Kennedy said. “We will be uncompromising and relentless in our search for answers.”
“There’s something artificial,” Trump added. “They’re taking something.”
But while the new Yahoo/YouGov survey of 1,676 American adults shows some openness to the idea that “autism rates are increasing mainly because of something that children are exposed to” — 41% say they agree, 31% say they disagree and 28% aren’t sure — most Americans don’t accept single-cause explanations for autism. For example:
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Only 17% agree that “vaccines cause autism”; 56% disagree and 26% are not sure
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Only 15% agree that “Tylenol and other medications containing acetaminophen cause autism”; 49% disagree and 36% are not sure
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Only 3% “strongly” agree that Tylenol and other acetaminophen-based painkillers cause autism
As a result, relatively few Americans (25%) say they would discourage pregnant women from using Tylenol. Most say they would encourage the practice (16%) or remain neutral (48%).
What does science say?
Half a century of research shows that autism spectrum disorder is “a complex neurodevelopmental disorder resulting from a constellation of genetic and environmental factors,” as Scientific American recently put it. Most public health officials attribute the rising numbers to a broader definition of the condition — along with increased screening and awareness — rather than to some kind of toxin.
Recent studies have come to conflicting conclusions about acetaminophen. In August, the journal BMC Environmental Health published a review of existing research – including six studies looking at the link between prenatal paracetamol use and the risk of ASD in children – which claimed to find ‘strong evidence of a link’ between the drug and the disorder.
The article was co-authored by Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, the dean of Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, and it ultimately recommended “prudent acetaminophen use – lowest effective dose, shortest duration – under medical supervision, tailored to individual risk-benefit assessments.”
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration issued new, official guidelines that reflect this recommendation. “The precautionary principle may lead many to avoid acetaminophen use during pregnancy, especially since most low-grade fevers require no treatment,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement. “However, it remains reasonable for pregnant women to use paracetamol in certain scenarios.”
Yet a large 2024 study that looked at nearly 2.5 million people born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019 concluded that “paracetamol use during pregnancy was not associated with the risk of autism in children.”
Instead, as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said in a statement last week, “the conditions people use during pregnancy are far more dangerous than the theoretical risks” posed by the drug itself.
Do Americans trust medical advice from Trump and RFK Jr.?
At last week’s event, Trump did not provide any new evidence to support his administration’s new recommendations.
“I’ve always had very strong feelings about autism and how it happened and where it came from,” the president emphasized. “We understood a lot more than a lot of people who studied it.”
Still, poll results suggest Americans are hesitant to seek medical advice from Trump. As many as 64% say they would not trust such advice “at all”; another 10% say they would only rely on it ‘a little’. Only 6% say they would trust the president’s medical advice “a great deal.”
Even half of Republicans (50%) say they would trust Trump’s medical advice little or not at all.
Kennedy’s confidence ratings are similar: 66% “not at all”; 12% “a little”; only 8% “a great deal.”
The administration’s recent statements on Tylenol and autism also coincide with a negative shift in Kennedy’s favorable assessment. In August, 40% of Americans viewed Kennedy favorably; 46% rated him unfavorably. Today those figures are 36% and 49% respectively.
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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,676 U.S. adults who were interviewed online from September 25 to 29, 2025. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, education, 2024 and presidential election turnout, party identification and current voter registration status. The demographic weighting targets are from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted by the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3%.
