President Trump is relying on two Italian Americans this week, one in science and the other in law.

The big news item this week is about the safety of acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) taken during pregnancy for pain and fever.  Trump’s team, led by Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., is putting all its chips on a Harvard study chaired by Dr. Andrea Baccarelli.  The scientist hails from Perugia in the Umbria region of central Italy, and is about 55-years-old. 

Baccarelli’s credentials are impressive.  He holds an MD from the University of Perugia, an MS in Epidemiology from the University of Turin, and a PhD from the University of Milan. He has held the Chair in Public Health at Columbia University and is currently Dean of Faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health.  He specializes in environmental effects on genetics which was what his “Tylenol” research was all about. 

Essentially, his team analyzed 46 studies world-wide in which acetaminophen was correlated with autism.  Their conclusion: “…advise pregnant women to limit acetaminophen consumption to protect their offspring’s neurodevelopment.”  Secretary Kennedy and his staff immediately embraced the findings.  But while Baccarelli conceded that some Tylenol may be necessary to reduce fever, President Trump publicly called for total avoidance.  Baccarelli is now caught in the middle.

The makers of Tylenol are already the target of lawsuits as there is an extended statute of limitation on autism claims, stretching to age 18.  Baccarelli has already been a witness at one such trial, which a judge dismissed.  But he may be spending more time in courthouses than in his lab as his fame spreads.

The makers of Tylenol thought they had an understanding with Robert Kennedy to continue talking.  That was until a 2017 tweet by Tylenol was discovered in which the following advisory was given: “We actually don’t recommend using any of our products while pregnant.”  Oops, that didn’t sound good!  Between this tweet and the Baccarelli research, Tylenol is in for a rough decade at least.  (You might remember that Tylenol was the first victim of tampered packaging back in 1982, the reason older people can’t open med packaging today.)

You can find Dr. Baccarelli on Facebook where he talks, with a heavy accent, about his childhood and his pride in the black truffles unique to Umbria.  They are actually a fungus found in forested areas. Italians use specially trained Lagotto dogs to sniff out the black treasure. They no longer use pigs for the purpose who often ate what they found.  At $1,000 a pound, black truffles are too upscale for swine.

Another Trump pick caught in the middle is Attorney General Pam Bondi.  She is tasked with Trump’s “revenge tour,” as many characterize it.  Trump calls it “accountability.”  But, if you consider it revenge than you must remember much of the past eight years, including nighttime SWAT raids and arrests.  Certainly, Trump hasn’t forgotten.

There hasn’t been anyone in either Trump’s first or second administration more accommodating to his wishes or whims than Bondi.  She openly questioned the 2020 election, although not as ham-handed as Rudy Giuliani.  She has fought every judge and jurisdiction that stood in the way of the current deportations.  Unlike Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr, she may never contradict her boss or drag her feet in fulfilling his wishes. 

Bondi is clearly on the same page as Trump but has the extra burden of indicting high-profile figures in Democrat-friendly jurisdictions before Democrat-appointed judges.  Still, she appears to retain that persistent and resilient spirit inherited from her paternal great-grandparents Calogero Bondi and Teresa Cagnina.  Both immigrated from the Campania region.

Bondi and Baccarelli will eventually find out if being caught in the middle is as risky as it sounds. _–JLM