'I'm not a doctor': Trump's autism announcement gives Covid flashbacks

From the unproven medical claims to the self-proclaimed expertise, anyone watching Donald Trump's autism announcements Monday could have been forgiven for having flashbacks.

There were strong echoes of the US president's pandemic performance during his first term, when he once famously mused about injecting disinfectant to counter Covid.

Five years later, the Republican's claims were almost as eye-popping.

And with the health of millions at stake as he urged pregnant women not to take the painkiller Tylenol -- before expounding his theories on vaccines -- the stakes were just as high.

"There's a rumor -- and I don't know if it's so or not -- that Cuba, they don't have Tylenol because they don't have the money for Tylenol. And they have virtually no autism," Trump said at the White House.

It was perhaps the most outrageous of the claims Trump made during a more than hour-long press conference attended by an AFP reporter -- but it was far from the last.

"The Amish, as an example. They have essentially no autism," Trump said of the traditionalist people, known for their horse-drawn carts and rejection of modern technology.

Turning to his vaccine-skeptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, as he asked whether that was actually true, Trump added: "Bobby wants to be very careful with what he says. I'm not so careful with what I say."

Time and again, the 79-year-old Trump admitted that his personal theories were just that -- theories -- even as he cast himself in the role of America's physician-in-chief.

"This is based on what I feel," said Trump as he repeated long-debunked concerns over the MMR shot combining vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella.

Trump also urged further spacing for childhood vaccines that have been the cornerstone of public health programs around the world for decades -- before adding: "I'm not a doctor but I'm giving my opinion."

- 'Tough it out' -