A number of posts discussed Trump's support for discredited notions about autism The Sept 22 White House news conference was a firehose of lies. Over the weekend,he posted an unfounded warning about Tylenol.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Tylenol maker Kenvue and its former parent company, Johnson & Johnson, alleging the companies deceptively sold the painkiller despite knowing it could cause autism.
The suit, filed in a Texas state court, comes barely a month after President Donald Trump repeatedly warned pregnant women not to take Tylenol — despite a lack of evidence, acknowledged by his own health officials, that the over-the-counter drug causes the neurodevelopmental disorder. Texas is the first state to file such a case.
Paxton, a firebrand Republican running for U.S. Senate, directly invoked the “Make America Healthy Again” movement led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in filing the suit.
“By holding Big Pharma accountable for poisoning our people, we will help Make America Healthy Again,” he said in a statement.
Dr. Peter Hotez is a pediatrician, professor, and researcher at the Texas Medical Center whose daughter, Rachel Hotez, has autism. He has long been a critic of the claims by Kennedy and other anti-vaccine activists about the causes of autism.
Reached for comment by Mediaite, Hotez shared links to multiple research studies showing that “the neurodevelopmental processes leading to autism or autism spectrum disorder occur in early fetal brain development through the action of more than 100 known autism genes.”
“There are a few known chemical exposures that can interact with autism genes and lead to autism — the best established one appears to be the anti-seizure medication valproate,” Hotez added. “In contrast, the evidence for acetaminophen or Tylenol is not strong at all,” mentioning the study of 2.5 million children in the Swedish study that found “no significant associations.”
Hotez noted “a more organized autism science initiative to look at additional environmental exposures interacting with autism genes” was needed, “but right now Tylenol is not on any autism scientist’s priority list,” and pointed to a “strong statement” released earlier this year by the Coalition of Autism Scientists on the topic.
Intriguingly, Hotez added, there were also some studies that actually “show a protective effect, meaning Tylenol may actually prevent autism,” including one of the studies that was highlighted during Kennedy’s press conference — “although they forgot to mention that part!”
