Tylenol Sticks to Its Guns Amid Autism Broadside from RFK Jr.

Since President Trump appointed him to the publish of Well being and Human Providers Secretary in November of 2024, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has made plenty of well being claims at odds with established medical science. These positions have largely spared assaults at particular manufacturers, till in the present day.Talking on the Oval Workplace, President Trump—flanked by Kennedy and different officers—introduced that the FDA will quickly take the official line that acetaminophen taken throughout being pregnant constitutes “a really elevated danger of autism,” regardless of long-established research indicating that its use is secure.The announcement took a step past a warning concerning the drug to direct the crosshairs on the main model that sells it. “Taking Tylenol just isn’t good,” the President stated, including: “With Tylenol, don’t take it, don’t take it.”Even when Trump hadn’t name-checked Tylenol, the announcement nonetheless constitutes a significant headache for the 70-year-old model. Tylenol is synonymous with acetaminophen. Its mum or dad firm Kenvue tops the $10.4 billion world acetaminophen class with a 15% market share, in response to knowledge from International Market Insights.Relying on how significantly the general public takes in the present day’s announcement, Tylenol gross sales could undergo. Kenvue’s share value had already dipped by 6% noon on Monday.Kennedy seems to have been influenced by a current paper by epidemiologists from the Harvard T.H. Chan College of Public Well being and Mount Sinai’s Icahn College of Drugs, which suggests “an associationbetween acetaminophen publicity throughout being pregnant and elevated incidence of NDDs [neurodevelopmen-tal disorders.]” The authors additionally said that their work didn’t show a definitive hyperlink.Tylenol and Kenvue wasted no time taking to the battlements.“We consider unbiased, sound science clearly exhibits that taking acetaminophen doesn’t trigger autism,” Kenvue shared with ADWEEK in a press release. “We strongly disagree with any suggestion in any other case and are deeply involved with the well being danger this poses for anticipating moms.”The assertion continued: “The information are that over a decade of rigorous analysis, endorsed by main medical professionals and world well being regulators, confirms there isn’t any credible proof linking acetaminophen to autism.”If the circumstances are proper, manufacturers may be susceptible to vital statements made within the public sphere. In 2004, for instance, the film Tremendous Dimension Me (through which director Morgan Spurlock lived solely off McDonald’s for 30 days) put the chain’s menu below the microscope. A short while later, McDonald’s discontinued its mega parts and boosted its salad choices.Kennedy has already gone on the report with plenty of medical claims which might be at odds with scientific analysis.  He has repeatedly laid the blame for college shootings on antidepressants, for instance. He has drawn a hyperlink between consuming water and transgenderism and likewise publicly said his perception that the immune techniques of Black People should not as sturdy as these of caucasians.Maybe most memorably, throughout an look on Joe Rogan’s podcast in June of 2023, Kennedy opined that WiFi is responsible for a situation he known as “leaky mind.”