hEALTH & mEDICINE: 1)’No easy choices left’ for Ontario hospitals to save money: association; 2)New research bolsters evidence that Tylenol doesn’t raise the risk of autism despite Trump’s claims

1)’No easy choices left’ for Ontario hospitals to save money: association

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Allison Jones, January 23, 2026

Ontario hospitals have already started making some “lower risk” cuts in the face of rising deficits, but those alone won’t alleviate hospitals’ financial strain, the head of their association says, warning there are no easy choices left.

The Ontario Hospital Association has told the provincial government in its submission ahead of the spring budget that the sector faces a structural deficit of $1 billion and needs not just more money this year but a predictable, multi-year funding plan.

“Worryingly, our financial reserves — also called working capital — which are really intended to be for long-term, capital-related expenses like medical and diagnostic equipment or refurbishing and rebuilding hospitals … those working capital dollars are being used to actually pay for operating expenses, and that is a sign of a sector under real, serious financial (pressure),” association president and CEO Anthony Dale said in an interview.

If the province were to actually meet the full operating needs of the hospital sector, it would need to add about $2.7 billion, Dale said, but the hospital association realizes that due to other budgetary constraints caused by the trade war with the United States, the province is not in a position to offer that amount.

The Ministry of Health asked hospitals last year to come up with a three-year plan to balance their budgets, with an assumption of getting two per cent annual funding increases. That is half of the increase they received the previous year.

Hospitals were told to immediately implement any low-risk cost-saving moves they come up with and Dale said that has already been happening. He gave examples such as declining to fill vacant positions and shifting work between professions, including getting registered practical nurses to perform work that has been done by registered nurses.

“The last thing we want to do is start examining other areas where expenditures might be considered for reduction and … there’s really only a few areas left,” Dale said.

That includes spending reductions in core inpatient services, closing non-core inpatient services and consolidating programs, he said.

“There’s no escaping that there are no easy choices left,” Dale said.

Lee Fairclough, the Liberals’ hospitals critic and a former hospital president, said the “lower-risk” measures are likely already having some impacts on patients.

“The example of holding vacancies and ultimately eliminating them, that’s really hospitals working without the full staffing complement that you would ideally have in place,” she said.

“What that does is it just gives you far less flexibility if you have big surges. It means people will be waiting longer.”

A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the government is working with hospitals to plan for long-term stability that ensures high-quality care, and characterized the cost-saving moves being made by hospitals not as cuts, but as “changes.”

“To be clear, the changes being currently made by hospitals address non-clinical, administrative functions to improve efficiency and connect more people to the care they need when they need it – they do not affect patient care,” Ema Popovic wrote in a statement.

2)New research bolsters evidence that Tylenol doesn’t raise the risk of autism despite Trump’s claims

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Laura Ungar, January 17, 2026

A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities – adding to the growing body of research refuting claims made by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump last year promoted unproven ties between the painkiller and autism, telling pregnant women: “Don’t take Tylenol.”

The latest research review, published Friday in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women’s Health, looked at 43 studies and concluded that the most rigorous ones, such as those that compare siblings, provide strong evidence that taking the drug commonly known as paracetamol outside of the U.S. does not cause autism, ADHD or intellectual disabilities.

It’s “safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Asma Khalil. “It remains … the first line of treatment that we would recommend if the pregnant woman has pain or fever.”

While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between autism risk and using Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy, more haven’t found a connection.

A review published last year in BMJ said existing evidence doesn’t clearly link the drug’s use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. A study published the previous year in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found it wasn’t associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in an analysis looking at siblings.

But the White House has focused on research supporting a link.

One of the papers cited on its web page, published in BMC Environmental Health last year, analyzed results from 46 previous studies and found that they supported evidence of an association between Tylenol exposure during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers noted that the drug is still important for treating pain and fever during pregnancy, but said steps should be taken to limit its use.

Some health experts have raised concerns about that review and the way Trump administration officials portrayed it, pointing out that only a fraction of the studies focus on autism and that an association doesn’t prove cause and effect. Khalil, a fetal medicine specialist at St. George’s Hospital, London, said that review included some studies that were small and some that were prone to bias.

The senior author of that review was Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who noted in the paper that he served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in a case involving potential links between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. Baccarelli did not respond to an email seeking comment on his study.

Overall, Khalil said, research cited in the public debate showing small associations between acetaminophen and autism is vulnerable to confounding factors. For example, a pregnant woman might take Tylenol for fevers, and fever during pregnancy may raise the risk for autism. Research can also be affected by “recall bias,” such as when the mother of an autistic child doesn’t accurately remember how much of the drug she used during pregnancy after the fact, Khalil said.

When researchers prioritize the most rigorous study approaches – such as comparing siblings to account for the influence of things like genetics – “the association is not seen,” she said.

Genetics are the biggest risk factor for autism, experts say. Other risks include the age of the child’s father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy.

In a commentary published with the latest review, a group of researchers who weren’t involved — from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and elsewhere —cautioned that discouraging the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could lead to inadequate pain or fever control. And that may hurt the baby as well as the mother. Untreated fever and infection in a pregnant woman poses “well-established risks to fetal survival and neurodevelopment,” they said.