Politics and views in the United States.

President Donald Trump recommends that the FDA require physicians to say Tylenol can cause autism during pregnancy. Children's health coverage is being challenged by a shaky policy landscape and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is reinstated after being suspended.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks where we're following our democracy in historic times.

So taking Tylenol is not good.

I'll say it.

It's not good.

For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary.

Despite a lack of conclusive proof, President Donald Trump is ordering the FDA to say using acetaminophen during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of autism in children, led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the administration's pursuing controversial claims about what's causing growing autism rates.

Many doctors argue it's due to better diagnoses.

The administration also says a modified version of B9 can be used to treat autism and is advocating a delay in the hepatitis B vaccine, even though physicians say the early shot has made the disease non-existent for children.

This comes as measles cases nationwide are at the highest rate since the disease was thought to be eliminated 25 years ago.

Pennsylvania's childhood vaccination rates have fallen below the government's 95 percent target.

Becky Ludwick with Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children says the decline started well before the pandemic, but has sped up since.

She says more parents are seeking religious and philosophical exemptions, while the medical exemptions allowed by state law have mostly been steady.

A medical exemption, which a physician would have to sign off saying that child or those children that they are not able to receive the vaccine.

So that's been pretty steady as far as a small group of kids who have that medical exemption who cannot be vaccinated.

Booker says with federal guidance in flux, anyone with questions should talk to a trusted pediatrician.

Last week, the CDC vaccine panel voted to no longer recommend the Meals Month and Rubella vaccine for children under four.

Meanwhile, more children will likely be going uninsured with states tightening Medicaid eligibility and checking it more often.

Advocates say kids will mostly lose coverage due to paperwork issues, not changes to their status.

Brianna Booker with the Children's Defense Fund Ohio cites efforts in the federal budget mega bill to tighten the rules for adults.

We know that when we talk about Medicaid, anything that we do to adults happens to children too.

So as we see H.R. one on a federal level cuts to Medicaid, that's going to impact our children exponentially.

The one big beautiful bill act is slated to cut federal spending on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program by a trillion dollars in large part by pushing more than 10 million people from the programs over the next nine years.

Media reports say the Department of Justice ended an investigation into Borders' Tom Homan, even after he was videotaped in an FBI undercover sting, taking money to help agents posing as businessmen get administration contracts.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says Homan did nothing wrong, arguing this was part of the former Biden administration's weaponization of the federal government.

In the midst of a presidential campaign, you had FBI agents going undercover to try and entrap one of the president's top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position months later.

But according to reporting from several high-profile news organizations, the probe actually started after reports during the campaign of Homan asking for bribes in return for lucrative deals if Trump won in 2024.

After almost a week's suspension, ABC is putting late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel back on the air.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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