Dane Dougan: Autism NZ chief executive on Trump claiming there's a link between pain relief and autism

The head of Autism New Zealand has voiced concerns with the latest claims out of the Trump administration. 

US President Donald Trump made claims linking autism to vaccines, as well as the use of paracetamol in pregnancy. 

Medsafe says there's no proven link between paracetamol and autism. 

Any connection between vaccines and autism has been well debunked.

Autism NZ chief executive Dane Dougan says these types of statements are 'harmful' - as they place undue blame on pregnant women.

"There's a real risk that we're going to have premature medical endorsements over in the United States for things that don't have any cause or link at all at this point in time. So it's really, really concerning." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nine two nine two is the numbers of text. Trump says,
don't take panadole. They call it tarlanole if you're pregnant,
because your baby might get autism. True story. Have a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
And by the way, I think I could say that
there are certain groups of people that don't take vaccines
and don't take any pills that have no autism. Does
that tell you something that's currently Is that a correct statement?
By the way, there.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Are some studies that suggested, say yeah, with the Amish,
for example.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
The Amish, Yeah, virtually No, I heard none.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Right, that was RFK Junior you heard in the background.
He wants a form of folic acid approved as a
treatment for children with autism, calling it an epidemic. Medsafe,
by the way, says there's no proven link between parasittamol
and autism. Dane Duggan is Autism New Zealand Chief Executive
with me this afternoon. Hi Dane, Hey Ryan, how are
you very well? Thank you? What did you make of

(00:54):
that press conference?

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Ah? It was hard to watch.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
We've got serious concerns about these misleading claims. As you
mentioned before, Medsafe said there is no lack or sorry,
there is no evidence at all to show there's a
link between paracetamo and autism when the mother's pregnant. It
can be really harmful these types of statements because you
start to be blaming the mother if the mother took
paracetamol during pregnancy that cause autism creates a lot of

(01:20):
issues in it itself, and there's a real risk that
we're going to have premature medical endorsements over in the
United States for things that don't have any cause or
link at all at this point in time. So it's
really really concerning. As concerning as that is, the way
that the whole press conference was actually framed, it was
very negative. It was caused it was talking about autism

(01:42):
as a major issue. We take a very neuro affirm
approach to autism, where we know that having diversity and
society can make a really positive difference in society, and
we also know that our community, you get the right
supports around them, can live a very productive, fulfilling life,
and really, at the end of the day, that's the
main thing. So nothing about the press conference this morning
was overly optimistic from our perspective.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Dane, he says, it's an epidemic and We've heard this before,
that there are more and more people kids with autism
now than there have ever been before. I think Trump
said I've never met a seventy year old man with autism.
I mean, you've got to laugh, But is it true.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
No, So as our understanding of autism has grown and evolved,
things have evolved with that. So the actual criteria to
actually diagnose people as autistic has changed over those years,
which has led to more people being diagnosed, which I
think is a positive thing because it allows them to
understand themselves a bit better. One of the first people
I met in this job, actually, Ryan, I been in

(02:39):
a job for twelve years, was a lady that got
diagnosed in her sixties. So I have met a sixty
year old woman and many of them who have been
diagnosed as autistic as well. But also there's clearly a
genetic length, there's no doubt about that. That's been definitively proved.
So a lot of the time you'll go in and
get your son or daughter diagnose, and you look at
someone else in the family and they may get diagnosed,
which means that jumps in numbers as well. So I

(03:01):
think it's set in about right probably the numbers. We
don't actually capture numbers in New Zealand because people get
diagnosed in many different ways. But it seems about right
to me. And look, whether it's about support or not,
it's actually about self understanding and self awareness as well.
And when I talk to adults who have been diagnosed
at adults, it's a really really important part for them
as understanding themselves and their journie and life and how
they've got to where they are.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
All right, Dane, appreciate your time this afternoon. Thanks for
being with me, Dame Dagan, who's Autism New Zealand Chief Executive.
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