Texas sues Tylenol company over autism claims
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Johnson and Johnson, accusing the pharmaceutical company of failing to warn consumers about the risk of taking Tylenol while pregnant.
This lawsuit, the first of its kind from a state government, comes a month after President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced updated guidance discouraging pregnant women from taking acetaminophen, citing it as a possible cause of autism. The announcement set off a wave of controversy in the health care community, and confusion among pregnant women unsure how they should manage fever and pain during pregnancy.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/28/texas-tylenol-johnson-lawsuit-rfk-ken-paxton-autism/Open linkView original on discuss.online774
Comments190
Are fucking insane? How on earth do they expect to actually win this lawsuit?
They don't. It's part flood the zone, part pandering to certain voters. Look what we do for you! A blue state wouldn't fight for your health like this!
Nothing will come of it but it's a positive distraction from the extraction of wealth that is currently happening.
It's also a very obvious distraction from
THE EPSTEIN FILES
It is a distraction from the hostile fascist takeover of our country. The Epstein shit is a distraction from that.
Fascism is a systemic issue. It's a cancer that takes roots when democracy starts failing.
Having the concrete and unsystemic problem of there being probable cause Trump did some very, very bad things looked into properly is a much smaller ask.
However, even that's an imposibility in today's world.
I'd love to have a magic cure for fascism. There is one, although it's undoubtedly very unmagic: Painstakingly dealing with obvious lies and crimes, one at a time. Respecting the Constitution. Having people be truly equal. Especially in the eyes of the law.
Without a thourough dose of said cure, fascism will hide away and get ready to rise back up.
The Epstein shit is one step of a bajillion mile journey. It's not the first and it's not the last. But without it, there's no journey to be had.
It's not "fascist", it's ultracapitalist....
It's both
As someone on the outside looking in, it is ABSOLUTELY INSANE that this still needs to be explained to people.
Well maybe something will come from it, it might inspire laws that make it harder to sue pharma.
I'm not sure if you're saying this a good thing or a bad thing?
Bad, bad. They just said something come from it. Not something good.
People have tried in the past and each time it got thrown out because the judges ruled they were full of shit. As recently as 2023, even, from Reuters:
Wait, so this "Tylenol cause autism" thing existed prior to this year?
It was around in 2022, at least in this iteration, when they consolidated a bunch of cases. The mommy wellness blog machine kicked off hard. Retailers like Walmart were sued too, because people are fucking dumb as rocks.
"Vaccines cause autism" was the hit in 2020
They're trying to sue J&J, too. One of the largest corporations in the world. Curious to see where it'll go. Just seems like all it'll do is piss off his donors.
Tylenol is made by Kenvue, an independant company spun off by J&J in 2022.
Delusion.
By convincing a jury of normal Americans they're right.
They could request a bench trial. No jury, just the judge.
Go with the ~98% chance of a conservative judge deciding ? Bold move.
It works for patents, surely it'll work for lunatic bullshit
Honestly they probably expect a settlement to avoid “political trouble.”
This is how recent federal lawsuits ended.
Are the betting markets on how big Tylenol’s donation to trumps library will be?
Why wouldn't they? Reality can be anything in Trump's America.
I'm all for it. Let's have discovery, let's shine a light on this stupidity.
Exactly. Like Republicans in 2020 wouldn’t bring any election denial claims to court cause the had no actual evidence
But they did bring them to courts. There were over 60 lawsuits and only successfully proved something like 20 fraudulent ballots, in one audit, across all of them. Nearly all of them were thrown out due to a lack of evidence. Pretty sure these are the things that got Rudy disbarred.
There’s always fraudulent ballots, though, and from my understanding, they are always looked into. That stuff is unrelated to the conspiracy theory stuff his team of “lawyers” were pushing out. They would claim things in the media and then never bring them up in court.
No repercussions for lying to the public, unfortunately. But grave consequences for lying to a judge, at least in the past. Who knows why...
These folks never change their views after a court case disproves something. They just assume some sort of deep state is in bed with “big pharma” - even if acetaminophen is a low cost and not a big money maker.
Assuming the process functions normally and doesn't become political theatre.
Excellent joke, good sir!
You have a lot of faith in a jury system that has historically been terrible at evaluating scientific claims.
Discovery happens well before the jury is seated.
Yes, but the light isn't really shined for the public until the verdict.
It is hard to believe this is not an onion article. "We just made this up and now we are suing you for not warning people about the shit we just made up".
I can't wait for all these bullshit cases to get in front of judges. Some of them already have, and are getting tossed. The media should be covering it much heavier.
The media is fully captured by hard right idealogues.
As are many judges.
Where do Americans learn to equate suing someone with winning a lawsuit? USA has the most lax rules on civil lawsuits, anyone can sue anyone.
Respond to the wrong comment?
I would say "We just made this up in order to sue you because we can't sue you for not following us".
America is fanous for suing everyone and everything for a reason.
Yes, but no. Justice is expensive in the US. The legal system HATES pro se litigants (people that represent themselves), making it harder for them to get paperwork through the courts.
Those who do have "big money" lawsuits will get represented by ambulance chasing law firms.
People yell about Medicare for all, but the US really needs constitutionally guaranteed legal representation.
I’m not a lawyer but shouldn’t J&J be suing the Federal Government for making utterly unsubstantiated claims in an official announcement?
I think they’re waiting for the damages to really rack up. Then they can sue the taxpayer for billions and nobody can stop them.
We could put on a really big tinfoil hat and say that this is all a plan to funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to J&J by way of crafting an airtight lawsuit for them to win and get awarded an absolutely massive payout.
Few years ago I would have agreed. Now, it is guaranteed this is some sort of grift. No conspiracy theory need apply.
Not too big of a hat. When J&J had cyanide laced Tylenol capsules come out of a production facility in Illinois in the 80s, not only did they lie to media about cyanide not being in the plant, the FBI repeated the lie and then Ronald Reagan gave a medal to the CEO to help convince Americans it was safe to take this drug, which is well known to cause liver damage.
Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders, is on Netflix.
At the time, FBI and Government told everyone the tainted drugs were from a lone nut who put cyanide in the bottles. After those deaths, all drugs have safety seals to this day.
But a second poisoning came from caplets sealed at the factory and prescribed in a hospital. Only then was it revealed that cyanide was present in the plant, used to calibrate QC instruments. What is incredible is that within a few years, Tylenol sales were stronger than ever in the US. The rest of world curbed use of this drug because of liver toxicity.
I believe it's called slander?
I hope somebody documents every penny Texas wastes on this frivolous crap.
It actually isn't. This time.
This is what happens when you put conspiracy theorists into office: You get them suing or attacking organisations for things that aren't real.
But they prefer the right over the left because of taxes and regulations. I wonder when companies will flip, because they cannot handle the business impact of bullshit decisions like random tariffs or lawsuits over made up controversies any longer.
I don't think they will "flip". They might start endorsing Democrats but the Democrats as a whole are akin to the British Tory party (right wing and getting righter) despite it's SocDem and Progressive elements. However, corporations are not a monolith (Siemens Gamesa, who makes windfarms, are going to have different goals than say, Saudi Aramco) and so now, companies like, say, Palatir, who use online data and surveillance data to hunt down "undesirables" will throw money at Trump while companies that rely on outside or worldwide trade may "filp" to the democrats, albeit more right wing candidates, or if they really are scared, might look for a candidate in the Libertarian Party.
I hope they bankrupt the fucking state of Texas. Someone should sue him for wasting taxpayer money. Toss-up on whether I feel bad enough for progressive &/or sensible Texans to care how those two thoughts play-out.
Yeah like if Johnson and Johnson counter sued Texas for their bet worth saying they are intentionally trying to smear and kill their company. It would be like $450 billion.
Man I'm waiting for discovery. Texas and the GOP are going to be even more of a laughing stock
The problem is that laughingstocks seldom understand that they are the butt of the joke.
Hillbilly Tyrannical Fascist Government
VS
Monopolistic Corrupt Big Pharma Corporation
Who would win?
Stay tuned!
Pharma. Regardless of who's involved, being able to sue somebody based on made up bullshit is not a good precedent
Yes, but when was the last time these guys cared about "precedent"? I agree in thinking Pharma wins, but only because money. One CEO visit to the Whitehouse and some brown nosing and Trump will start saying how they're "good people".
We have always been at war with Eastasia.
Generally the courts side with industry and money, but this time they're being asked to choose between that and MAGA, the latter of which has been dominating in courts lately. I am not sure on this one. Kenvue isn't that big, it's not part of a behemoth like J&J anymore, I'm not sure that one company has the gravitas to avoid being run over.
OK! Good! FINALLY! Now that they're pulling this shit, big companies have reason to fight back. I was wondering when Proctor and Gamble and Johnson and Johnson would start campaigning to get these psychos out of office, and this should do it.
Um, the government has been filing frivolous lawsuits against some of the largest companies in the country for the past year. Companies then settle out of court and pay a multi-million dollar
bribesettlement to encourage their mergers to go through. No sign of companies fighting back. If anything, they're encouraging it by being massive pushovers.Yeah, but this is Texas, not Trump. Paxton doesn't have anywhere near the same weight to throw around as Trump.
He is a fat fuck, you got that right
Don't count on companies fighting back. Something tells me that, the moment a company actually fights the govt, they'll magically remember that said companies are actually violating several state and federal regulations and laws
Nah that admits they may have been at fault for something, much better to counter sue and make the people of Texas pay possibly billions of dollars in stupid lawsuits that they will have to look at their government and say what the fuck, we knew that was bogus
Can a state be the defendant in an anti-slapp case?
I'm not sure, I'm sure every state is different too. May have to get around the sovereign immunity as well. It isn't impossible, as their are usually clauses that bypass it but Texas may have very few
This timeline is so fucked that J & J somehow managed to be the good guy for once..
Less the good guy, more a target of a bad guy.
I feel like there's an opportunity for a multi-layered Epstein-Barr joke in this whole situation, but I can't quite put it together.
Johnson and Johnson is a huge, multinational pharma company with more money than God. They aren't going to be intimidated or extorted by this dumbass governor.
This case will get tossed in the discovery phase when the judge asks for scientific evidence and all the governor can provide are these whoo-whoo dipsh*t theories.
Not if the judge has been appointed by R.
They're being sneaky.
SpongeBob: "One Day Later"
WASHINGTON ‒ Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Oct. 29 that he does not have "sufficient" evidence to link Tylenol to autism, more than a month after the White House discouraged the medicine's use by pregnant women and young children.
Evidence does not show that Kenvue's pain medicine Tylenol definitively causes autism but that it should still be used cautiously, President Donald Trump's top health official told reporters. Last month, the president said U.S. health officials would recommend limiting Tylenol's use.
"The causative association… between Tylenol given in pregnancy and the perinatal periods is not sufficient to say it definitely causes autism. But it is very suggestive," Kennedy told reporters, citing animal, blood and observational studies.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/29/health-chief-insufficient-data-tylenol-causes-autism/86972118007/
Well, THAT should make Discovery a whole lot easier. How does the underside of that bus taste, Abbot? Lol.
I hear that MAGA hats have chemicals that leach into your brain and make you a complete idiot.
Eh, massive correlation is still not causation. No matter how massive.
For instance, the correlation between Tylenol and autism.
Because there is a correlation. Tylenol is shown to be the most effective tool for combating fevers during pregnancy. And as it happens a high fever during pregnancy is also correlated with an increased incidence of autism. And since that was true prior to Tylenol existing, I'm sure if either of them has anything to do with it, it's the fever.
if the whole Tylenol thing causes pregnant women to suffer through more fever and that causes more autism… well, laugh is the wrong adjective but the irony would be in abundance
In very real terms, maga mothers, and mothers who don't know any better will likely suffer needlessly and give birth to children who will never emotionally mature. My wife's doctor at least made it very clear that they're still recommending Tylenol. But that won't be all doctors.
because they avoided vaccines....
But, don't you have to be a complete idiot to put on a MAGA hat in the first place?
I think you are getting my point now.
correlation is not causation.
Given the amount of airborne lead particles in indoor shooting ranges there's a good argument to be made that failing to take chemical safety precautions will give you brain damage that results in wearing an incredibly stupid red hat with a 70 year old slogan on it.
Johnson & Johnson should just say "Our bad. We'll stop selling all our products in your state!"
Then sit back & watch the fallout
Is there any science proving this? Could I sue "Buckley's Cough Syrup" because of my gut feeling that they caused my toenail fungus?
Short answer no. Also correlation is not causation Let's say child autism is correlated with infection at a certain age then it could be the infection and not the thing you took for the infection.
They are dumb fucks who cannot read studies. Remember COVID?
a buddy of mine got a flu shot and then while walking out of the pharmacy he was hit by a car. Coincidence? No way.
No, because in a court of law, your feelings aren't the thing that matters. :)
that doesn't jive with Donna Strumpet being the president of the US
It's in the article. The short answer is NO.
Tylenol is basically paracetamol, right? It's a generic drug. Why are they suing a specific brand?
Its called acetaminophen in the states, and there are generics available at every store. Basically each store has a cheaper version of it available under their own branding.
Likely they are targeting the maker of Tylenol because they did the research and safety testing on it, and all the other stuff is based on that. I'm not a scientist though thats just a guess.
You're missing the largest air quotes of the year here.
you doubt they did sefety testing? did they miss the authism connection?
I doubt any govt. member anywhere did any actual research about tylenol or autism, because if they did there would not have been any large scale announcement about false reports, and no lawsuit.
I think Tylenol must have a total monopoly on paracetamol sales in that country, as they never refer to it by its non-brand name. Going for the specific brand would be the same as suing every manufacturer.
There absolutely is generic paracetamol, but we often colloquially use the word “tylenol” the same way y’all use “hoover.” It’s technically a brand, but we aren’t always referring to the brand - it’s just another noun sometimes.
In the case of RFK, I can’t explain if it was intentional to name the brand or if it’s simply one more thing he hasn’t applied that much critical thought to before speaking about.
RFK named the brand because Trump can't pronounce Acetaminophen.
No, we have generic Tylenol here, it's just called acetaminophen.
Most people refer to OTC drugs by their most popular brand name over here, in general. People call Ibuprofen "Advil," for example.
Which is incredible since they had cyanide contaminated capsules come from their manufacturing facility that killed seven people, and this drug is a major cause of liver failure. Most countries avoid it. and yet, no difference in autism rates.
The cyanide thing was a single person covering the murder of their spouse by contaminating a bunch of Tylenol at the same drug store. And that happened decades ago. It’s why there are so many “tamper evident” seals now.
Unless this actually happened recently and I just never heard about it.
Same exact drug, just branding.
It's because our batshit crazy administration decided to wage war against that particular brand, I suspect they refused to donate their million dollars to the pres' slush-fund.
Also, Trump can pronounce "Tylenol", but he stumbles over "acetaminophen" and "paracetamol". That press conference was pretty funny. We have an executive who can't say words with more than three syllables.
It's acetaminophen That's the name of the drug it contains
AKA: paracetamol
AFAIK paracetamol and Tylenol are both brand names for acetaminophen.
Though if this is incorrect that's cool.
Yes it is, paracetamol and acetominophen are alternative names for the molecule N-acetyl-para-aminophenol.
Tylenol, Panadol, Doliprane etc. are brand names.
TIL.
Love to see it
Guess what they call acetominophen in the UK?
Because you sue who has the most money.
God I hope texas eats a big old pharma dick on this one. I feel like they're just anti women at this point.
yeah, "feel like."
So glad I left that shithole state. Tired of Ken "Securities Fraud" Paxton wasting my tax dollars on frivolous bullshit like this.
this is funny as fuck. what's next, allergy medicine causing ADHD?
Shhhh, don't tell them. It will ruin our plan of infecting all kids with neurodivergence to increase Linux marketshare...
oh look a rabbit!
achoooooo
Probably just banning Tylenol in pregnancy
lol bozo US
Benadryl has been linked to dementia...
that sucks.
Only at super high doses though, right?
Not sure of actual dosages but it's linked to long term use: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/common-anticholinergic-drugs-like-benadryl-linked-to-increased-dementia-risk-20150128812
Worst of all is that this probably will end in a settlement where the US government gets to claim they were right in exchange for just a "small" donation to the US government
That's what colleges and networks were doing for a while, but since Kimmel stood up to them and won BIG, potential victims have been pushing back. Colleges are refusing money with strings, for one thing.
If J&J is smart (and it's not clear that they are, although they are well-established to be evil), they'll refuse to settle.
This is upsetting to me.
I’m barely grasping my spot on the AuADHD space, and now it’s been politicized into a single dimensional disease Republicans are using to virtue signal, like the whole vaccine “debate.”
And I’m in freaking Texas. It’s not as Republican as y’all think, especially in the big metros, but somehow we got Paxton in.
And apparently you guys forgot about previous frivolous lawsuits. Huge media conglomerates, and other institutions, settled with the Trump DoJ because they saw them for what they are: a shake down. “Pay us, or you will find political trouble.”
That’s what’s happening.
The merits do not matter. There is no “fight” here.
J&J is going to settle with Texas and maybe others so MAGA doesn’t persecute them outside the lawsuit.
I feel ya, and feel for ya. Good luck and help it together, looking forward to cleaning up with you all after this Cheeto colored fuck dies.
I mean, that’s not going to change anything. We’re in the misinformation era.
Even some Democrat parts of my family share weird shit they get from cable TV or Facebook or influencers or what have you. Frankly, a disturbing amount of Lemmy.world's front page is clickbait from literal tabloids, too discredited for Wikipedia to even cite, that mods do nothing about because information hygiene only matters when it’s against their ideology.
Meanwhile, my other internet communities have withered away or got swallowed into Discord black holes
Sorry for that mini rant, but as far as I’m concerned the world had shown me attention, not truth, is all that matters. It’s not getting better. And that’s just how things will be from now on.
Hence I don’t like ‘personal’ issues getting dragged into the US two party food fight because it blows out any nuance away, forever. Tylenol will forever be a autism meme no matter how much it’s disproved, especially in the face of small grains of truth.
Well.. your "rant" is both correct, & could be the kind of thing that we all need to work together on.
Keep in mind, we dumbass apes figured out RF technology to communicate across the entire globe much faster than we evolved past "strange ape from other city = bad".
Things are going to improve, it must for our species to survive. But there are no guarantees we will without sine communal effort.
Leave that shitty instance then
Yeah...
I should. db0 or sh.itjust.works are better fits, but .world isn't awful or anything, and I havent' been particuarly motivated since everything's federated anyway.
Wait the state is suing the company? Shouldn't it be the other way around? The company suing the CDC and RFK Jr. personally due to the clearly slanderous statements?
If there is a civil war, I suspect that Tylenol would be on the side of the Allies & Union. Texans and MAGA will have to use homeopathic remedies to (not) ease their pain.
Oh man crunchy tarot card constellations witches are going to be so confused which side to join.
I imagine it’ll be the homogeneous fascists vs our diverse, rag tag team of misfits. The witches may not like being shoulder-to-shoulder with J&J, but J&J aren’t the ones who made it so the witches can be accused of terrorism and imprisoned due to being “anti-christian.” So they’ll probably begrudgingly accept it.
what strain u smokin
some good shit.
Just give them opiates or meth for everything, it makes them happy.
Just like the original Nazis
I am kinda expecting MAGA army doctrine to consist of hopped up human waves.
Sounds like Russia, hmmm...🤔
They'll be on the side that they think can make them more money. There are no ethics in corporate America.
I read this as "Tylenol sues Texas for libal"
Took me a few re-reads to understand the idiots spreading the libel are the ones suing. They're gonna get counter-sued real fast.
Unfortunate that the tax payers will shoulder the burden.
Edit: this is a strange way for a company to get a government subsidiary:
Many have tried, and many have failed to sue them due to a lack of evidence.
There has been no new evidence btw.
it isn't lawsuit in a traditional way.
there's no law in this country anymore. they are asking for a bribe
Texas failing once again at using facts and science. They love to shoot themselves in the foot and blame others for making the gun that shot them.
Well, some lawyers are about to make a shit load of money as this drags out for a decade.
Your tax dollars at work, Americans
Luckily it's just Texan taxes in this case
It turns out someone really was after his lucky charms!
Texas based leprechaun association sues all Texan kids for lucky charm thefts going back to the 70's!
Holy fuck, facts don't care about your feelings has turned into let's litigate on my feelings
My feelings don't care about your facts!
Grifters have to make up the losses from Trump somehow.
It’s not even correlation, it’s just made up bullshit
Yeah, it's much more probable that something that you take tylenol for is (one of) the culprit(s) here, not tylenol itself. Because the average US resident does not have the ability to think such complex thoughts, RFK is a nutjob and Paxton is corrupt as fuck, you get result like this. It's embarrassing to watch.
oh i meant that the american reading ability, which is closely tied to the education system, is averaging sixth grade; that also means they lack the education to analyze texts and information above what is written; things like intent of an author, what the context is and what someone wants to achieve with the published information are completely lost when you lack the ability to read above a certain level. this is completely homemade, mainly by republicans who like their voters easily controlled.
Was this the same study that showed a potential link between certain viral infections and autism?
We should start posting that 3.2% of children watching Trump on TV have developed autism, therefor Trump is using subliminal messaging and is dangerous to their kids. They may not care that a pedophile is in office, but mention subliminal messaging and they'll go crazy.
Hopefully Tylenol sues texas back for being malicious idiots.
There's no controversy in the health community!!! There's no link between acetaminophen and autism, period!
Can’t help but notice you used exclamation marks instead of periods. Sincerely, the pedantic community.
You can put an exclamation point at the end of any sentence instead of a period! Multiple exclamation points are also acceptable!!!
It was an attempt to be funny because they went out of their way to say “period” but then used an exclamation mark instead. Oh well.
If this were about cars it would be like they are suing one car company for having windshields.
This is so fucking stupid. I wouldn’t root for JJ for some of the shit theyve done in the past but I hope they put all their weight into fucking up RFKjunior for being so fucking stupid.
The reasons I've concluded why they hate us ND folk:
We are too intelligent
We reject authority
We look at stupid people like they're stupid
We make jokes that non-stupid people laugh at
Society is dependent on us for any sort of luxury
With these kinds of people, it's rarely personal. They only care what these actions can do for them, not how those actions affect others, whether it's part of their in group or not.
Ok your not wrong on 3 & 4.
5? Nah, man, without us there'd be no modern society. No internet, no software, no cell phones, no satellites, no WMDs, etc.
Why are you making a point for the extermination of neurodivergents?
Wait
Oh
Shit
Goddamnit
As usual our AG is being an ass
Stop delivering medication to Texas
That's the message I got from this. They've taken vaccines, now they go for lighter stuff. What's next? Cancer treatments?
Probably. The red states need a mass exodus, but leaving family/friends/work is difficult and sometimes near impossible, so I have no answers.
Fuck you dude, do not subject all to suffer for these sins. I'm already on the verge of black market meds and fuck you for tying us all together in the same noose.
I got a feeling of recognising a potential Eco's ur-fascism element here, since probably the people that fuel these conspiracy theories have a different idea of what autism really is given their obsesion with this particular issue: someone that behaves not like us or incapable of blend in as we consider the standard society... also probably those pharmaceutical companies do not fund those politicians
We're well beyond Eco's idea of Ur-fascism (AKA nascent fascism). Shit ain't nascent anymore.
I agree, I mostly realised of the link/source of the obsession with these conspiracy synergies
Can't wait for this to backfire hilariously
Terrible decision from Texas.
More distractions....
So many supposed leftists triggered that a big pharma corporation is being sued. Pathetic.
we can all agree that big corporate pharma sucks, but also that this lawsuit is bullshit.
it isn't really a lawsuit, just asking for a bribe.