Late night comedians (including Jimmy Kimmel whose return-to-the air monologue was spot on) have had a field day with the press conference in which, having failed to pronounce acetaminophen, Trump just kept repeating “don’t take Tylenol,” “don’t take Tylenol,” “please don’t take Tylenol.” Our whiner-in-chief suggested that pregnant women “tough it out” instead of using any pain reliever. Thankfully even the mainstream media—which has been sane-washing him for years—used their headlines to tell us that Trump and RFK Jr. (who stood approvingly behind him) were wrong. CNN’s headline read, “Trump links autism to acetaminophen use during pregnancy, despite decades of evidence it’s safe.” The New York Times went with, “Trump Issues Warning Based on Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism.” And Reuters was very clear, “Trump links autism to Tylenol and vaccines, claims not backed by science.” Some outlets also pointed out that this suggestion further stigmatizes people with autism and once again blames moms for anything that’s “wrong” with their children. In her article, “Long history of blaming mothers: Trump’s Tylenol warning echoes past misconceptions,” NPR’s Juliana Kim reminds us that early theories pinned autism on “refrigerator moms” who were stereotyped as highly educated, working women who didn’t have time to build loving relationships with their children. Vilifying these early career women also served as a warning to others to stick with traditional gender roles. If you think about it, that’s the message that underlies the entire MAHA movement. Women, it says, should feel guilty about serving their family processed food and relying on the quick fixes of modern medicine for themselves or their children. Ideally, they should feel so guilty that they quit their job and start homesteading. (Of course, the ultimate guilt lies in not having children at all, but you have to get sucked a little further into the all-natural-to-MAHA-to-pronatalism pipeline before you get there.) Pregnant women should not tough out a fever because unlike Tylenol, fever and infection are dangerous for a developing fetus. The people around Trump know this. In fact, the actual guidance to physicians from FDA Commissioner Marty Mukary didn’t echo the whackadoodle press conference. It reads in part:
It goes on to say:
Apparently, MAGA Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) didn’t get this memo before she went on Bill Maher and told people to just take ibuprofen instead. But even Dr. Oz, who also stood behind Trump approvingly while he excoriated acetaminophen, took a more measured approach saying that pregnant women should talk to their doctors about Tylenol. You mean we’re not supposed to take medical advice from a failed real estate developer and a nepo baby lawyer? Who knew? With Tylenol Slayed, RFK Jr. Turns His Attention to MifepristoneThe question we all have to ask ourselves now is whether Bobby, Donny, Oz, and Malarkey will be as measured when they release their newly announced study on the safety of mifepristone. (All signs point to no.) Kennedy promised the review in a letter to 22 Republican AGs who wrote to him a few months ago. The AGs pointed to a new “study” that suggests that the mifepristone is far less safe than previously estimated. They asked Kennedy to take the drug out of circulation while the FDA conducts a new review. Failing that, they’d like HHS to roll back Biden-era rules that made mifepristone easier to get. We’ve been over this a lot. Mifepristone—one of two drugs used in the standard medication abortion protocol—is very safe. It’s way safer than pregnancy, safer than surgical abortion, safer than Viagra, and (gulp) safer than Tylenol, but the anti-abortion crowd wants us to believe it’s not. That way they can keep pretending that their decades-long quest to ban it is all in the name of protecting women. (Every time a miscarrying woman bleeds out in a parking lot or develops sepsis because her fetus still has a “heartbeat,” their hypocrisy on this one shows a little more.) A new analysis by CNN found that there were five deaths for every 1 million people in the U.S. who have used mifepristone. That’s a death rate of 0.0005%. The death rate from penicillin is four times that and Viagra is 10 times (but RFK Jr. seems fine letting men take that risk for a better boner). Mifepristone is also safer than the alternatives which include pregnancy and childbirth or a procedural/surgical abortion. It’s also safer than misoprostol-only abortions which is what we will be left with if the attack on mifepristone is successful. The new “study” everyone is talking about was published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center and is the junkiest of junk science. For a detailed analysis you can read what I wrote when it came out or look at Dr. Jen Gunter’s explanation on her Substack, The Vagenda. The bottom line is that the study skews the data to make it look like there are more adverse reactions to mifepristone than there are. Such a conclusion is not surprising given that Abortion Every Day found video of the group’s president admitting that the purpose of the study was to eliminate medication abortion. More proof that the study is not legitimate science: the group won’t share its datasets. But Bobby and the AGs (a doo-wop band?) seem bought in anyhow. The study was mentioned in both the letter from the AGs and the promise of a new review. Rolling back the rules will have a devastating impact on abortion access in states with and without bans. For one thing it could end telehealth abortions and mail-order mifepristone everywhere. This is exactly what the anti-abortion forces want. I mean, how can you control all the women in your state if some doctor from liberal old New York City can just send them an abortion in the mail? The GOP AGs have been trying to fix the problem on their own by threatening those out-of-state docs with jail time and in some case even issuing arrest warrants for them, but all that dick swinging takes effort, and the FDA could make their lives easier with a simple rule change. Jessica Valenti of Abortion Every Day points out it would also prevent them from having to make less popular moves like reviving the Comstock laws. These guys might have a start the American Alliance of Suck-Ass Republican Attorneys General. They can compete against the Secret Society of Douchey GOP Governors in the DC Park Softball league (the fields are in good shape now thanks to the National Guard). Yes, Babies Should Get Vaccinated Against Hep BWhile Tylenol took the brunt of the President’s autism ire at last week’s press conference, vaccines didn’t get off completely unscathed. As he rambled off script, Trump suggested we need to protect itty bitty babies from big bad doctors:
There are 15 childhood vaccines and while some include multiple doses, they don’t add up to 80 and they don’t come in vats. Trump went on to say it was ridiculous to vaccinate babies against a sexually transmitted disease and suggested that we save the hepatitis B vaccine until they’re at least 12:
It’s tempting to make a Trump-on-Epstein-Island pedophile joke here, but the bitter irony is that we’ve been fighting Republican parents and lawmakers for decades about the fact that kids need to be vaccinated against HPV earlier than 12 in order to have full immunity by the time they become sexually active. The CDC recommends the HPV vaccine—which can prevent almost all cases of cervical cancer—between ages 9 and 11, but conservative parents and politicians often balk. As for the hepatitis B vaccine, babies should get this one before they even leave the hospital because there are a lot of non-sexual ways to get it as a kid. Most babies who get hepatitis B get it from their mothers during birth. It is recommended that pregnant women get tested for hepatitis B before they give birth, but some women don’t have access to the prenatal care they need and may never have be screened during pregnancy. Hepatitis B is found in blood, semen, and vaginal secretions. This means it can be transmitted through oral, anal, and vaginal sex or during injection drug use if people share needles or other equipment. But here’s the thing: hepatitis B is highly contagious because the virus can live outside the body—on surfaces in our homes, schools, and public places—for up to seven days. It is still infectious during that time, which makes this virus up to 100 times more infectious than HIV. And half the people who have hepatitis B don’t know it, so they don’t take precautions. This means that the virus can be transmitted from a caregiver to a child at home through items like toothbrushes, razors, and nail clippers. It also means that children can transmit the virus to each other through biting incidents (which are not uncommon in day care) or playground accidents (which are not uncommon throughout childhood). Vaccinating all newborns for hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth protects them from contracting the virus during birth and as they grow up and have to brave the waddlers room and the monkey bars. Hepatitis B is a virus that affects the liver. Initial or acute infection may be mild and have few, if any, symptoms. Many people who get an acute infection clear the virus on their own without treatment. Other people who contract hepatitis B go on to develop a chronic infection, which can last for their entire lives. Chronic infection can lead to liver damage, liver failure, liver cancer, or even death. Hepatitis B is especially dangerous for babies and young children. Babies who are infected with hepatitis B at birth or during the first year of their lives have a 90% chance of developing a chronic infection. Young children who are infected between ages one and five have about a 30% percent chance of developing a chronic infection. One quarter (25%) of babies and young children who develop a chronic infection will die from the disease (but sure, let’s wait until they’re 12). Trump didn’t actually say that the vaccine didn’t work or that it was dangerous, but if he had, he’d have been wrong about that too. Since 1982, over a billion doses of hepatitis B vaccines have been given to people worldwide, and it has proven to be safe. It also works. The vaccine protects 98% of healthy babies who get it. This protection can last for 20 years or even their whole lives. The CDC began recommending vaccinating all newborns in 1991. Between 1990 and 2019, acute infections among children and teens dropped by 99%. The bottom line is that vaccinating infants for hepatitis B is a very important part of keeping them safe and healthy and can prevent them from experiencing life-long—and potentially life-threatening—liver issues. Trump acknowledged that he’s not a doctor and that “they have studies and stuff.” His advice is based on common sense. Sure, like how he doesn’t exercise because it depletes the body’s finite energy sources. Apparently, the body is like a battery and not one of those newfangled rechargeable ones. Sex on Wednesday is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Sex on Wednesday that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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It's Been Quite a Week For Dumbassery
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