WASHINGTON (AP) — Many doctors and scientists were reeling Monday after President Donald Trump went on TV to insist that pregnant women should never take Tylenol and revive debunked theories about vaccines and autism.

Trump went beyond his own Food and Drug Administration’s more modest advice that doctors “should consider minimizing” the painkiller acetaminophen’s use in pregnancy — amid inconclusive evidence about whether too much could be linked to autism. His comments came as the administration also moved to make more available a possible but unproven autism treatment — and also announced more research into the disorder.

Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, worried that the Tylenol claims would terrify mothers-to-be and parents of children with autism.

“I don’t want you going back and looking and saying to yourself, ‘I shouldn’t have done this, I shouldn’t have done that.’ It’s nothing you did. It really is not,” he said. “Not treating the fever probably has more adverse effects that you need to worry about than taking the medication.”

As for vaccines, “studies have repeatedly found no credible link between life-saving childhood vaccines and autism,” said American Academy of Pediatrics president Dr. Susan Kressly. ”Any effort to misrepresent sound, strong science poses a threat to the health of children.”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised earlier this year to determine the cause of autism by September. That baffled brain experts who say there is no single cause and that the rhetoric appears to ignore decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role.

Here’s what we know about autism and the Trump administration’s new steps to address it.

What is autism?

Autism isn’t a disease. It’s a complex developmental condition better known as autism spectrum disorder that affects different people in different ways.

It can include delays in language, learning or social and emotional skills. For some people, profound autism means being nonverbal and having intellectual disabilities, but the vast majority of people experience far milder effects.

Autism rates have been going up for decades

There are two main reasons. First, the definition of autism broadened as scientists expanded their understanding of its wide range of traits and symptoms. That led to changes in the criteria doctors use to diagnose autism and improvements in screening.

At the same time, parents increasingly sought a diagnosis as autism became better known and schools began offering educational services they hoped could help their kids.

As late as the 1990s, only children with the most profound symptoms were considered to have autism. In the early 2000s, as the definition began changing, the autism rate was estimated to be 1 in 150 children. The latest count found 1 in about 31 children are affected by autism spectrum disorder.

The increase isn’t among the profound cases; it’s an increase in the milder cases that weren’t historically considered autism, said expert Helen Tager-Flusberg of Boston University.

There is no single test for autism, which is diagnosed mostly through developmental and behavioral assessments.

It’s hard to tell if there may be additional factors behind the increase.

What’s the state of autism research?

Science has shown autism is mostly rooted in genetics, with the discovery of several hundred genes that play a role. Those genes can be inherited, even if the parent shows no signs of autism, or mutations can occur as the brain is developing and its rapidly dividing cells make mistakes.

Experts say different combinations of genes and other factors can all affect how a fetal brain develops. They include such factors as the age of a child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy such as fevers, infections or diabetes.

What about Tylenol?

Some studies have raised the possibility that taking the over-the-counter painkiller in pregnancy might be associated with a risk of autism — but many others haven’t found a connection. In addition, the Coalition of Autism Scientists said Monday that acetaminophen use during pregnancy hadn’t increased in recent decades like autism rates have. Acetaminophen is known in most countries outside the U.S. as paracetamol.

But untreated fevers in pregnancy, particularly the first trimester, increase the risk for miscarriages, preterm birth and other problems, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Part of the difficulty in settling the question is that studies using medical records can’t tell if the fever, or a drug to lower the fever, might be connected to later health.

The FDA wrote doctors on Monday advising them to minimize acetaminophen’s use during pregnancy but acknowledged uncertainty: “To be clear, while an association between acetaminophen and autism has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature.”

Tylenol’s label already advises women to ask their doctor about use in pregnancy, and the society continues to advise that it’s an appropriate option.

What is the possible new autism treatment?

Also Monday, the FDA announced it was taking initial steps to try to approve a folic acid metabolite called leucovorin as a treatment option for some people with autism. It’s based on a theory that some people have too little folate, a form of vitamin B, in the brain and that giving them more could alleviate some symptoms.

Women already are told to take folic acid before conception and during pregnancy because it reduces the chances of certain birth defects, advice that possibly could help lower autism risk as well, Tager-Flusberg said.

Leucovorin is sold for other health conditions and already used by some families in hopes of helping autism. But Tager-Flusberg cautioned that only a few small, first-step studies have been done so far.

“Is this something worth pursuing? Yes, it is in potentially a subset of individuals,” she said. But there needs to be a large, very rigorous study to prove if it really works.

What about vaccines?

Any concern that vaccines could be linked to autism has been long debunked, stress scientists and leading advocacy groups for people with autism.

Childhood vaccines — and how and when to give them in combination — go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.

“No doubt children will suffer” from Monday’s claims, said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

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Associated Press journalists Matt Perrone and Mike Pesoli contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tech giant Oracle will spearhead U.S. oversight of the algorithm and security underlying TikTok’s popular video platform under the terms of a deal laid out this week by President Donald Trump’s administration.

All the final details still need to be nailed down among several joint venture partners that will include Oracle, investment firm Silver Lake Partners and possibly two billionaires — media mogul Rupert Murdoch and personal computer pioneer Michael Dell. The U.S. administration would not have a stake in the joint venture nor be part of its board, according to a senior White House official.

President Trump is expected to issue an executive order later this week that declares that the terms of the deal meet the security concerns laid out by the law, the senior White House official said. China still needs to sign off on the framework proposal, and any final deal would still require regulatory approval.

The proposal is aimed at resolving a long-running effort to wrest TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, because of national security concerns. TikTok has become a high-profile topic during conversations between Trump and China President Xi Jinping as they continue to spar in a trade war that’s roiled the global economy for much of the year.

For now, the two sides are progressing on a framework deal that calls for a consortium of investors, including Oracle and Silver Lake, to take over the U.S. operations of TikTok in a process that might not be completed until early next year under a timeline laid out Monday by the Trump administration. That could mean TikTok’s divestment might not be completed until a year after it was supposed to be banned under a law that had bipartisan support but was repeatedly bypassed by Trump.

Under the current terms of the proposal, the new U.S. joint venture would receive a licensed copy of the recommendation algorithm that keeps TikTok users endlessly scrolling through clips on their smartphones. Oracle would review, monitor and secure U.S. data flowing through the service.

American officials have previously warned that ByteDance’s algorithm is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect.

The algorithm has been a central issue in the security debate over TikTok. China previously maintained the algorithm must remain under Chinese control by law. But a U.S. regulation passed with bipartisan support said any divestment of TikTok must mean the platform cuts ties — specifically the algorithm — with ByteDance.

Although the details remain sketchy, a Trump administration official said that the licensed copy will be “retrained” with U.S. data to make sure the system is “behaving appropriately.”

That makes it unclear if the U.S. version of TikTok will look different from what users are seeing in the rest of the world. Any noticeable changes made to a social media platform’s service raises the risk of alienating its audience, said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst for the research firm eMarketer.

“Social media is just as much about the culture as it is the technology, and how users will take to new ownership and potentially a new version of the app is still an open question,” Enberg said.

In a Monday briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the change in control won’t change the experience. “TikTok users in the U.S will be able to see videos posted by users in other countries and vice versa,” Leavitt said.

In a prime example of how a change of control can reshape a once-popular social media platform, billionaire Elon Musk triggered an almost immediate backlash after he completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter nearly three years ago.

But Musk made extremely visible changes, including eventually dropping the Twitter brand and changing its name to X. The changes that gradually occur while different data is fed into the U.S. copy of TikTok’s algorithm could be subtle and unnoticeable to most of its audience.

What’s clear, for now, is that both Oracle and Silver Lake will be major players in TikTok’s future in the U.S. if the deal is finalized by the Trump administration.

Founded nearly 50 years ago, Oracle’s success was built on database software that helps manage a wide variety of information crucial to business, and has since expanded into hardware, including data centers that help power artificial intelligence.

Although he no longer runs Oracle as its CEO, company co-founder Larry Ellison remains a top executive while also overseeing an estimated personal fortune of $390 billion. Ellison, 81, now could be in line to become a behind-the-scenes power player in the media, having already helped finance Skydance’s recently completed $8 billion merger with Paramounta deal engineered by his son, David.

Silver Lake has long focused on tech deals, including past buyouts of Dell Computer and the now-defunct video calling service Skype. Michael Dell, who founded Dell Computer, may now be one of investors in the U.S. joint venture overseeing TikTok, according to what Trump told Fox News in a recent interview. Trump also mentioned Murdoch, whose company owns Fox News, as a potential investor in the joint venture.

Other media outlets have reported that another billionaire, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, is vying to become involved in the investor group. Andreessen was also involved in Silver Lake’s 2009 buyout of Skype.

ByteDance is expected to have a 20%, or smaller, stake in the U.S. joint venture, whose board will be controlled by the U.S. investors. ByteDance will be represented by one person on the board, but that individual will be excluded from TikTok’s security committee.

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Liedtke reported from San Ramon, California.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would be nominating senior White House aide Lindsey Halligan to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the Virginia office that was thrown into turmoil when its U.S. attorney was pushed out Friday.

In a social media post just after he departed the White House for an event at Mount Vernon, Trump wrote he was nominating Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, writing that she “will be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!”

The announcement came as Trump pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with pursuing cases against some of his political opponents, part of a vow for retribution that has been a theme of his return to the White House.

The nomination would place one of the president’s legal defenders in charge of an office in tumult over political pressure by administration officials to criminally charge New York Attorney General Letitia Jamesa longtime foe of Trump, in a mortgage fraud investigation.

Erik Siebert, who had been the office’s top prosecutor, resigned amid a push by Trump administration officials to bring charges in the investigation, which stems from allegations of paperwork discrepancies on James’ Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home.

The Justice Department has spent months investigating, and there’s been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence necessary to secure an indictment. James’ lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.

Halligan has been part of Trump’s legal orbit for the last several years, including serving as one of his attorneys in the early days of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She has more recently been enlisted in a White House effort to remove what the administration contends is “improper ideology” from Smithsonian properties.

Earlier Saturday, Trump posted to social media what appeared to be somewhat of an open letter to Bondi, saying he had “reviewed over 30 statements and posts” that he characterized as criticizing his administration for a lack of action on investigations, including the one into James’ dealings. Trump’s message mentioned former FBI Director James Comey, Trump’s longtime foil whom he fired during his first term amid the Russia election interference investigation.

The FBI acknowledged this summer that it was investigating Comey, who was interviewed by the Secret Service after an Instagram post that Republicans insisted was a call for violence against Trump. Comey has said he did not mean the post as a threat and removed it once he realized how it was being interpreted.

Asked as he departed the White House if he was criticizing Bondi, Trump said he just wanted action.

“We have to act fast — one way or the other,” Trump said. “They’re guilty, they’re not guilty — we have to act fast. If they’re not guilty, that’s fine. If they are guilty or if they should be charged, they should be charged. And we have to do it now.”

In announcing Halligan’s nomination soon after on social media, Trump said that Bondi was “doing a GREAT job.”

The selection of Halligan came just hours after another conservative lawyer, Mary “Maggie” Cleary, said in an email to staff that she had been named acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, according to a copy viewed by The Associated Press.

“While this appointment was unexpected, I am humbled to be joining your ranks,” Cleary, a conservative lawyer who has said she was falsely accused of being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, told employees in the email.

While Siebert said in an email to colleagues Friday evening that he had submitted his resignation, Trump said in a social media post: “He didn’t quit, I fired him!” Trump noted he was backed by the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, adding: “Next time let him go in as a Democrat, not a Republican.”

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.