Wellness Unmasked Weekly Rundown: Tylenol, Pregnancy Risks, and COVID-19’s Impact on Child Development

Dr. Nicole Saphier tackles recent health controversies sparked by President Donald Trump’s warning against Tylenol use during pregnancy and in children. She breaks down the science behind these claims, calling for transparency, data-driven evidence, and accountability in public health messaging. Dr. Saphier also discusses a new Massachusetts General Hospital study revealing a strong link between COVID-19 infection during pregnancy and increased risks of neurodevelopmental disorders in children, especially boys. Wellness Unmasked is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Friday.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Wellness sun Mass. I'm doctor Nicole Saffire and
this is your weekly rundown on this gloomy Halloween here
in the Northeast. I'm not sure what it's like where
you are, but here it's quite gloomy. Something really interesting
happened this week, and I use the term interesting lightly.
One of my kiddos was homesick. Now, mind you, I
don't have small babies. I have school age kids and

(00:23):
an older child. But one of my school age kids
was homesick, and you had a fever. And mind you,
low grade fevers I don't treat. Obviously, that is the
body's natural way of fighting infection and inflammation. I think
it's a good thing. However, as a mother, any mom's
out there knows, we always get a little nervous at
night time in case that high fever creeps in. As

(00:44):
a mother, as a physician, and for all three of
my children, I've always alternated, you know, a tile and
al and a motrind like product when they have high fever.
That's kind of what we do. All of a sudden,
I found myself pausing, saying, shit, cad, I be giving
my child thailandol and why am I making that pause? Well,

(01:05):
we've heard President Trump now in press conferences and also
by posting on social media, not once, not twice, but
several times saying, not only should pregnant women not take
tailan all because it may affect the developing fetus, but
he's also said, moms, don't give your kids tailanol. And

(01:25):
the problem that I have with this statement is President
Trump doesn't just make things up out of thin air.
Someone obviously told him something, and that person had to
have been referencing some sort of data. I would like
to know what is the data that was presented in
that meeting that gave President Trump the idea that mothers

(01:48):
should not be giving thailandol to their kids. I think
it is really irresponsible for this administration to make comments
and then not also be wholly transparent about the data
that backs up those comments. President Trump may be right,
but we wouldn't know because they haven't shared with us
how they came to that conclusion. I found it very frustrating.

(02:10):
I decided to post about it on X about my frustrations,
And let me tell you, while I had some people
applauding and agreeing with my frustrations, the majority of people
took my frustration as criticism of the president, and the
reality is it's not criticizing the president. It's actually saying
I believe him when he says things. Therefore, I would

(02:33):
like to know what was told to him. I'm actually
more frustrated with the people who are feeding him information
because they're keeping that from the American public. And while
I demanded transparency in the administration when President Biden was
in the White House, I'll continue to do so when
President Trump is in the White House and beyond, because
that's just who I am. So I really would like

(02:55):
to see out of this administration what is causing these
statements to be made by the President and by the
AGHS secretary. Another interesting thing this week a big study
out of Massachusetts General up in Boston. They looked at
eighteen thousand women who were pregnant during March twenty twenty
to May twenty twenty one, remember early on in the
COVID pandemic, And they looked at women who had a

(03:18):
COVID infection versus not having a COVID infection, and they
found a one point three times higher risk of babies
being born and developing a neurodevelopmental disorder like autism when
the woman had been infected with COVID nineteen during her
pregnancy compared to babies born to women who did not
have a history of infection. One thing that I found

(03:40):
very interesting in this. First of all, males were more
likely to be diagnosed with autism. This is something that
we have seen in many studies and what it is
concluded is that the male developing brain is more sensitive
to immunological changes in the mother as the baby is
developing in utero. So if a mother gets infected and

(04:04):
elicits that immiological response to try and fight that infection,
that negatively impacts the developing brain and even more so
in the developing male brain. Also, they noted that infections
later on in the pregnancy, second trimester, third trimester were
also significantly linked to a higher risk of the child

(04:26):
developing a neurodevelopmental disorder. Again, this is something that we've
seen historically in the past with other infections. The later
on in the pregnancy that the mother is infected, the
higher likelihood that the brain and other parts of the
body may be infected. So definitely good information, especially as
we know COVID continues to circulate. It is now cold

(04:47):
flu in covid season as I like to call it.
And while for the majority of people, covid is it's
you know, a can be a cold, it can be
at the flu, it can be kind of whatever it
is for you, but in it's pregnant women, it can
be detrimental to their children, so it should not be
taken lightly. Thanks so much for listening to Wellness and

(05:07):
Mass Weekly Rundown. I'm defining a cool sapphire happy Halloween.
Make sure you listen to the podcast on iHeartRadio or
wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next time.