Pandemic Center

Alyssa Bilinski, Ph.D.

Peterson Family Assistant Professor of Health Policy, Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice and Biostatistics at the Brown University School of Public Health
alyssa_bilinski@brown.edu
Research Profile
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Biography

Bilinski’s research focuses on developing models to improve public health decision-making. Her work strives to understand what data is available to policy makers, what outcomes they seek, and how to optimize modeling with both in mind to effectively inform the design of policies that will improve population health and well-being. During the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing mpox outbreak, Dr. Bilinski worked with policymakers and researchers, both locally and nationally, on projects including short-term hospital forecasts during the spring of 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; modeling to inform population contact tracing and mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in K-12 schools; and quantification and attribution of excess mortality, the measure of deaths above and beyond what is typically expected in any given time.

Recent News

Scientific American

Why We Know So Little About What Medications Are Safe for Pregnancy

During the past few months, President Trump and his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have made sweeping, thinly evidenced claims that Tylenol (acetaminophen) in pregnancy is linked to autism and that SSRIs (antidepressants) might be linked to fetal damage. In the case of Tylenol, the few research studies that claim to find a link either don’t control for confounding variables or find that the link disappears when they do; the drug has also been safely prescribed to children for decades. And scientists actually have studied SSRIs in pregnancy fairly extensively. But while these two types of drugs have been widely studied, that’s more the exception than the norm. In fact, most clinical trials and drug studies explicitly exclude people who are pregnant.
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WPRI

Community Focus: How clinical data about pregnant women is collected

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Earlier this week, President Donald Trump indicated that using acetaminophen, commonly known by its brand name Tylenol, shouldn’t be used during a pregnancy and could contribute to rising autism rates in the United States.

The claim has since been scrutinized by health officials, while also shedding light on how clinical data about pregnant women is gathered.
Alyssa Bilinski, a researcher at Brown University, joined 12 News at 4 on Wednesday to discuss Trump’s claim and the risks of medication in pregnant women.
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Stat News

Our best evidence says acetaminophen is safe during pregnancy. Better evidence could lay the issue to rest

On Monday, President Trump, flanked by the heads of the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, drew a clear link between autism and pregnant women’s use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. He urged women to avoid the drug while pregnant unless “absolutely necessary,” claiming, “There’s no downside in not taking it.”

The White House pointed to a recent systematic review of 46 studies, in which authors urged caution in using the medication, recommending only “judicious acetaminophen use” following “medical consultation.” At the same time, many experts are stating the opposite. For example, a statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists emphasized that pregnant patients “should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen.”
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