Community, medical, and professional leaders gathered in Dallas this week to cheer President Donald Trump’s remarks questioning Tylenol and childhood vaccines, a moment some called a turning point in the long-running debate over medical freedom.
The Tuesday night conference was held at the home of Kenny and Lisa Troutt and organized by Children’s Health Defense, the group formerly led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services. About 100 people attended, including physicians, attorneys, and advocates.
Mary Holland, J.D., CEO of Children’s Health Defense, opened the evening by celebrating Trump’s announcement and his repeated mention of the hepatitis B vaccine, which Trump suggested may pose risks to children. Holland praised the President for his growing recognition of vaccines as a potential risk to children for autism, in addition to acetaminophen.
Dr. Peter McCullough, the Dallas cardiologist who has been a leading critic of federal COVID-19 policy, contrasted the childhood vaccine schedule of the 1960s—“around five vaccines”—with what he described as more than 70 today. “Vaccine safety is something new for doctors,” McCullough said, adding that most physicians receive little formal training on the subject.
Rick Jaffe, a lawyer for Children’s Health Defense, argued that the 1986 federal law shielding vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits had spiraled far beyond its original scope. “When the federal vaccination laws were created in 1986, they were intended to protect the makers of a few vaccines,” Jaffe said, but now cover “72 vaccines that children take while growing up.” He pointed to several pending medical freedom lawsuits and called Trump’s comments “the natural reaction to the vaccine debacle” during the pandemic.
“Yesterday was probably the most important day in this whole battle,” Jaffe said. “I think this is the start… [of] making people more skeptical” of official guidance.
McCullough said uptake of COVID-19 boosters has plummeted. He estimated “less than one percent is taking boosters” and noted that federal recommendations could have resulted in as many as 10 shots for some individuals. He compared the persistence of the coronavirus spike protein in the body to syphilis or Lyme disease, and argued the federal government had “spent $1 billion on long COVID but spent nothing on studying the spike protein.”
Other panelists directly addressed Trump’s Tylenol remarks. Epidemiologist Nicholas Hulscher described acetaminophen as a chemical that “takes down the shields” and allows toxins to reach the brain. “Vaccines are a key trigger, Tylenol is an amplifier,” Hulscher said.
McCullough echoed Hulscher’s concerns, criticizing a Harvard-Mount Sinai review for relying on women’s recollection of their Tylenol use during pregnancy.
The panelists agreed on future goals.
Hulscher said he wanted “a dismantling of the 72-shot vaccine schedule.”
McCullough urged the removal of all vaccine mandates in schools and workplaces.
Jaffe advocated shifting certain vaccines back to “shared decision making” rather than mandates.
At one point, McCullough speculated that former President Joe Biden himself might suffer from “a vaccine injury,” citing his cognitive decline as resembling a “blend of Parkinson’s symptoms and dementia symptoms.”
During a Q&A, McCullough praised Florida’s handling of COVID-19 as superior to other states, attributing it to the state’s appointment of its own surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo. Texas, he argued, “needs a doctor with medical experience for this big state.”
The Dallas event followed a storm of national reaction to Trump’s briefing earlier in the week, where Trump urged women to avoid Tylenol during pregnancy and questioned the necessity of several childhood vaccines.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists hit back, insisting that the pain reliever is safe when used as directed. However, The Dallas Express also reported that the organization receives large donations from Johnson & Johnson, Tylenol’s former manufacturer and current partial owner of Kenvue. This spinoff company now manufactures the drug.
Additionally, a resurfaced 2017 social media post from Tylenol’s official X account concurred with the idea that pregnant women should not take the drug:
Children’s Health Defense and its supporters described Trump’s comments as a breakthrough. “Nobody was expecting that Trump would say anything about vaccines,” Hulscher told the audience.