Donald Trump has claimed autism is caused by women taking paracetamol while pregnant – and that the condition can be improved by a vitamin treatment used for cancer patients.

But numerous experts have said there is no good evidence to support either of these ideas. So, what is the basis for the claims, and how much faith should we place in them?

Trump made the announcements at the White House, alongside his health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has had a long-standing personal crusade to reverse the apparent rise in autism over the past few decades.

“The meteoric rise in autism is among the most alarming public health developments in history,” said Trump. New Feature

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Kennedy has previously claimed that the rise must be caused

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