Mr. Paxton filed the suit against Johnson & Johnson, which sold Tylenol for decades, and Kenvue, a spinoff company that has sold the drug since 2023.
The Texas lawsuit claims that the companies knowingly withheld evidence from consumers about Tylenol’s links to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The suit also claims that Kenvue was created to shield Johnson & Johnson from liability over Tylenol.
This lawsuit is the first by a state that seizes on Mr. Trump’s allegations that the use of acetaminophen products like Tylenol during pregnancy could cause neurodevelopmental disorders. The issue has been a longstanding concern among some followers of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, but the idea gained traction with Mr. Trump’s remarks.
We’ve had two whole generations of people using acetaminophen during pregnancy. Why have we not seen a massive uptick in autism to match? After accounting for increased screening and changes in definition and attribution, there’s a slight rise in autism rates that doesn’t align at all with acetaminophen use.
And where are the J&J studies showing that the supposed link was known to that particular company?
They’d do much better targeting plastic and PFAS manufacturers, as their products are known to cause the cellular mutations that can lead to cancer and autism.
What gets me is that studies show that autism is highly genetic.
In identical twins, ASD in one usually leads to a diagnosis of ASD in the other 96% of the time. Which lines up with a high affinity to genetic factors.
In fraternal twins we have seen, a 16% when a given sex ASD is diagnosed leading to an opposite sex ASD diagnosis. A 36% when a female ASD is diagnosed leading to a female ASD diagnosis. And a 31% when a male ASD is diagnosed leading to a male ASD diagnosis.
This lines up with genetic factors from a particular parent that are expressed with the gonosomes. That it affects higher in women is a hint that it may be within the X complex gonosomes. If Tylenol played a serious role in the development of those things then we’d see different data here. That opposite sex fraternal is nearly half the amount for same sex fraternal, really hammers home the notion that we’re dealing with something genetic. But at the same time we don’t know what genes.
The core argument with RFK is oxidative stress. But literally everything causes oxidative stress, not getting the correct amount of sleep causes oxidative stress. And that’s the bigger issue with the studies that RFK has forwarded about Tylenol. Their argument is a confusion of causation and correlation.
And this has been pointed out by a ton of concerned scientist. That’s not to dismiss the data that RFK has provided, it is pointing out that the data they are using doesn’t point to the conclusion they are indicating directly.
I can imagine that Texas could possibly prevail on their case given that even scientist, including the ones RFK cites, aren’t 100% sure that Tylenol has any role in any of this. This isn’t the first time some group or even a State sued over poor science, but it’s really frustrating because Texas has a duty to provide for their citizens and here they are using a poor conclusion to some data to do something that’s no in the interest of their citizens.
get outta here with your science. Drinking Mountain Dew prevents gayness.
All these issues already existed before acetaminophen was even discovered. This is the result of letting incompetence go wild
Many countries avoid this drug because of its strong liver toxicity. No differences in autism rates.
What am I looking at?
There was alsoa few years in the 80s when acetominophen was recalled and no one used it beacuse of fear. No effect in autism rates. Just like lower vaccine uptake last decade has not affected autism rates. We let the idiots do the experiment.
I hope Texans enjoy having their taxpayer dollars wasted. Because that’s what they’ve voted for, and that’s all this will do, because acetaminophen absolutely the fuck does not cause autism
Because that’s what they’ve voted for
The joke of Texas Politics is that we’ve got Reagan Republicans on the right and Dixiecrat Democrats on the ahem left. Then we’re told to pick our poison. If you’re waiting for Congressman Henry Cuellar and Mayor John Whitmire to save you, then you’ll be waiting a long time.
There are plenty of genuinely good and gracious people in my state. Come down to Houston and help “Food Not Bombs” hand out meals to the homeless as fast as we can, before the HPD can knock over our tables and drag the volunteers off in handcuffs. Come join the Women’s March that filled the streets of downtown. We have them ever year. Or join the local DSA that’s been crusading to unionize the retail sectors and boycott IDF-affiliated terrorist organizations for over a decade.
Or just stay for the electoralism, where you can wait in line for seven hours to cast a ballot and get arrested at the end of it. The idea that “this is what we voted for” is a fucking lie. We’re occupied territory. About as free to govern ourselves as any Hawaiian native protesting the United Fruit Company or Okinawa resident getting raped by a US serviceman.
Pretty much sums up TX politics. Criminals run the state
The joke of Texas Politics is that we’ve got Reagan Republicans on the right and Dixiecrat Democrats on the ahem left. Then we’re told to pick our poison.
I hear perfection is the enemy of ‘better’, but don’t let that stop you from incremental improvement more than it has.
I hear perfection is the enemy of ‘better’
Houston police called ICE on woman reporting crash, despite claims they aren’t cooperating
An event for GOP Congressman Dan Crenshaw will have a special guest: Democratic Mayor John Whitmire
Then-Sen. John Whitmire restored quorum in 2003, allowing mid-century GOP redistricting of Texas
:-/
The first individual officially diagnosed with autism was Donald Triplett in 1943. Dr. Kanner (The Dr. who diagnosed him) had noted Triplett’s symptoms, such as social withdrawal and an insistence on sameness, as early as 1938. While not diagnosed as autism, there are historical accounts of individuals with similar characteristics, such as the “Wild Boy of Aveyron” in the late 1700s and Hugh Blair of Borgue in the 18th century.
Tylenol was introduced in 1955.
Just a reminder that Europe had the concept of “Changelings” for 2,000 years, where babies that suddenly changed and became difficult or antisocial were thought to have been replaced by a fairy. These babies were then left in the woods to “return them to the fairies”
This practice has been documented for thousands of years.
Autistic people have existed for thousands of years, just now we don’t call them changelings and abandon them in the forest.
now we don’t call them changelings and abandon them in the forest.
Bobby Brainworm enters the chat…
“A causes B” doesn’t imply that B is only caused by A, so this is pointless to bring up
That being said, RFK is a colossal idiot and the Tylenol-autism thing is a pretty clear-cut case of correlation≠causation.
While autism absolutely existed prior to the brand “Tylenol”, acetaminophen has been around since 1878 and used as a pain/fever reducer since 1893.
they should go ahead with everything and disprove all this nonsense in court
I mean, you’d like to think courts are a place where evidence is reviewed and truth is ratified. But… glances at the US Fifth Circuit…
Is that why Paxton’s face is f’d up?
It’s a red Herring to shield all corporate wrong doing in the future.
So they hid the risks of insane conspiracy theories dreamed up by the delusional?
And two days later Dr Brainworms publicly destroyed this claim.
Oh God this is where we are.
now im going to take more Tylenol so i get turbo autism and turbo ADHD
Doesn’t this mean that plaintiffs will need to demonstrate that there actually is such a risk?
Defense: Correlation is not causation.
always champions of the dumbest fucking initiatives and scummiest bullshit
It can only good happen.
🤦♂️
