is RKFJr's "Tylenol(TM) causes autism" just a shakedown for extortion money from the company?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Couldn’t be the toxic forever chemicals we are basically marinating our babies in. No, the stuff that causes cancer and birth defects in massive quantities couldn’t possibly cause neurological issues in lesser quantities. Couldn’t require billionaires to spend a few bucks cleaning up the mess they made and continue to make. Nope, gonna have to place this directly at the feet of moms for something they may or may not have done.

This. As usual, blame women rather than the pharma bros who fund political campaigns.

[Anonymous]

Paxton just sued J&J for hiding the risks

First reported in NYT apparently


https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-paxton-sues-big-pharma-manufacturers-deceptively-marketing-tylenol-pregnant-mothers

October 28, 2025 | Press Release
Attor­ney Gen­er­al Pax­ton Sues Big Phar­ma Man­u­fac­tur­ers for Decep­tive­ly Mar­ket­ing Tylenol to Preg­nant Moth­ers Despite Known Dan­gers to Unborn Children

[Anonymous]

KFF poll shows 59% of Repubs believe Tylenol causes or probably causes autism.

I felt I was aware of a lot of the medical disinformation out there (anti-parasitic drugs to cure your own cancer, no vaccines--not even rabies shots for your dog, colloidal silver to cure what ails you, etc etc) but nothing like this. I get the impression this was a very niche belief until RFK and Trump blasted it from the podium--and instantly Trumpworld believes it.

[Anonymous]

Welp, those febrile pregnant women are actually proven for that untreated fever to increase their child's risk of autism, so let's see how that goes for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Welp, those febrile pregnant women are actually proven for that untreated fever to increase their child's risk of autism, so let's see how that goes for them.

With the complete scientific illiteracy in this country, there is little doubt that this stunt will cause an increase in women taking ibuprofen instead, which is decidedly unsafe in pregnancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paxton just sued J&J for hiding the risks

First reported in NYT apparently


https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-paxton-sues-big-pharma-manufacturers-deceptively-marketing-tylenol-pregnant-mothers

October 28, 2025 | Press Release
Attor­ney Gen­er­al Pax­ton Sues Big Phar­ma Man­u­fac­tur­ers for Decep­tive­ly Mar­ket­ing Tylenol to Preg­nant Moth­ers Despite Known Dan­gers to Unborn Children

I think it would be amazing if J&J pulled Tylenol/Tylenol products from Texas.

[Anonymous]

Now RFK Jr has just announced he has no evidence establishing a link between Tylenol and autism.

[Anonymous]

https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2025/mount-sinai-study-supports-evidence-that-prenatal-acetaminophen-use-may-be-linked-to-increased-risk-of-autism-and-adhd


“Our findings show that higher-quality studies are more likely to show a link between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased risks of autism and ADHD,” said Diddier Prada, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population Health Science and Policy, and Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Given the widespread use of this medication, even a small increase in risk could have major public health implications.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2025/mount-sinai-study-supports-evidence-that-prenatal-acetaminophen-use-may-be-linked-to-increased-risk-of-autism-and-adhd


“Our findings show that higher-quality studies are more likely to show a link between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased risks of autism and ADHD,” said Diddier Prada, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population Health Science and Policy, and Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Given the widespread use of this medication, even a small increase in risk could have major public health implications.”

So what? The highest quality studies show the correlation disappears with sibling controls (look at women who took Tylenol for one pregnancy but not another); this suggests that the correlation is due to other factors such as the underlying reason for taking Tylenol rather than Tylenol itself.

ACOG:

https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2025/09/acog-affirms-safety-benefits-acetaminophen-pregnancy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2025/mount-sinai-study-supports-evidence-that-prenatal-acetaminophen-use-may-be-linked-to-increased-risk-of-autism-and-adhd


“Our findings show that higher-quality studies are more likely to show a link between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased risks of autism and ADHD,” said Diddier Prada, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population Health Science and Policy, and Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Given the widespread use of this medication, even a small increase in risk could have major public health implications.”

So what? The highest quality studies show the correlation disappears with sibling controls (look at women who took Tylenol for one pregnancy but not another); this suggests that the correlation is due to other factors such as the underlying reason for taking Tylenol rather than Tylenol itself.

ACOG:

https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2025/09/acog-affirms-safety-benefits-acetaminophen-pregnancy

So what? You are wading in the same murky waters of findings that "suggest" and "may be linked." All but a couple studies are based on a mother's own reported usage of acetaminophen (and other analgesics), existing health problems and other information, a country's diagnostic capabilities, and the use of sophisticated statistical techniques to analyze the data. The limitations of the Swedish study, linked to in your ACOG media release, are addressed in other studies, including:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12429359/

"However, this study has two limitations that impact its ability to quantify APAP dosage [29]. First, the primary exposure metric in this study was the ever-use of acetaminophen. This neglects to quantify dosage. Second, because its secondary exposure metric quantified APAP use through prescription dispensations, it does not account for over-the-counter APAP use. Fifty-four percent of pregnant women use over-the-counter acetaminophen, according to one Iowa-based study [32]. Further, past research shows that prescription dispensations do not always reflect actual use. The mean implementation adherence among pregnant women was 72% in one study, and another study found that prescription guidelines compliance among Danish pregnant women was 43% [33,34]. With these two limitations, the study cannot accurately estimate APAP usage. As previously mentioned, longitudinal studies must quantify APAP usage since a critical point of exposure may exist [23,24,29] (Table 1). Although this study explores confounders through sibling control analyses, the lack of APAP dose quantification hampers its ability to establish the presence of absence of a correlation between the two variables."

Press releases like the one you provided are designed to simplify and manage messaging of a complex issue, just like your own comment.

[Anonymous]

… and just announced: Kimberly Clark has an agreement to buy Tylenol maker Kenvue for $48.7 billion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:… and just announced: Kimberly Clark has an agreement to buy Tylenol maker Kenvue for $48.7 billion.

Wow, so basically all of this was a negotiation tactic to drive down the value of Kenvue in an M&A environment. Insane.

Capitalism is dead, folks.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure why they keep saying Tylenol and not acetaminophen, maybe it’s a shakedown, maybe they just can’t pronounce big words, maybe they don’t know what they are talking about (because you know, science) or maybe it’s all three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure why they keep saying Tylenol and not acetaminophen, maybe it’s a shakedown, maybe they just can’t pronounce big words, maybe they don’t know what they are talking about (because you know, science) or maybe it’s all three.

It was to drive down the value of Kenvue.

[Anonymous]

Appears to have been a shakedown for someone:

Kimberley Clark to acquire Kenvue (the makers of Tylenol) announced today, just a couple of days after the press conference where JFKjr walked back his claims:
https://investors.kenvue.com/financial-news/news-details/2025/Kimberly-Clark-to-Acquire-Kenvue-Creating-a-32-Billion-Global-Health-and-Wellness-Leader/default.aspx