Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician-turned-lawmaker who voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy as the head of Health and Human Services, is sparking backlash after raising doubts on the HHS secretary’s new report linking autism to the use of Tylenol by pregnant mothers, a claim that experts say existing data doesn’t support.
“I understand and applaud President Trump’s desire to address this issue and to support HHS,” Cassidy wrote on X Monday shortly after RFJ Jr.’s announcement linking autism to Tylenol.
“HHS should release the new data that it has to support this claim. The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case. The concern is that women will be left with no options to manage pain in pregnancy. We must be compassionate to this problem.”
While many X users sympathized with Cassidy’s doubts as to the legitimacy of RFK Jr.’s claims, just as many were quick to point out that he had played a pivotal role in elevating the HHS secretary to his current position, and called out what they considered to be the senators hypocrisy.
“Dude, you had the f------ chance to stand for something and you didn’t do it,” wrote Joanne Carducci, who goes by “JoJoFromJerz” on X and has amassed more than one million followers.
“This is as much your fault as it is anyone else’s and we all know what you did, what you said and who you empowered. You did this, you own this.”
Journalist, Howard Cole, took a sarcastic dig at Cassidy.
“I understand and applaud your desire to address this issue and to support HHS by refusing to vote for RFK, Jr.,” Cole wrote on X to his more than 16,000 followers. “Oh, wait.”
And even fellow physicians took jabs at Cassidy, such as Raghu Venugopal, a Canadian physician who painted a picture of how the senator from Louisiana had ‘fallen from grace.’
“I hold you Dr. Cassidy as a fellow physician to a higher standard,” Venugopal wrote to his more than 15,000 followers on X. “You are now a worldwide case study [on] how a physician can fall from grace and with a pen wrought irreparable harm on children, women, adults and the elderly. You knew better Dr. Cassidy.”
The link between the use of Tylenol by pregnant mothers and autism is inconclusive, experts say, with perhaps the largest study on correlation being conducted between 1995 and 2019 using data from nearly 2.5 million children born in Sweden.
That study found that 1.42% of children exposed to acetaminophen – the active ingredient in Tylenol RFK Jr. has alleged is linked to increased rates of autism – during pregnancy were autistic, compared to 1.33% of children who were not exposed. Even with the small difference, researches say the exposure of acetaminophen could only be a correlation, and not a causation, given that pregnant mothers in poorer health may be more likely to use Tylenol during pregnancy than their peers.
I hold you Dr. Cassidy as a fellow physician to a higher standard. You are now a worldwide case study how a physician can fall from grace and with a pen wrought irreparable harm on children, women, adults and the elderly. You knew better Dr. Cassidy.
— Raghu Venugopal MD (@raghu_venugopal) September 23, 2025
