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 a lot of well being claims at odds with established medical science.
These positions have largely spared assaults at particular manufacturers, till right now.
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 threat of autism,” regardless of long-established research indicating that its use is secure.
The announcement took a step past a warning in regards to the drug to direct the crosshairs on the main model that sells it. “Taking Tylenol is just not 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 dad or mum firm Kenvue tops the $10.4 billion world acetaminophen class with a 15% market share, in keeping with information from International Market Insights.
Relying on how severely the general public takes right now’s announcement, Tylenol gross sales could undergo. Kenvue’s share worth 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 Medication, which suggests “an affiliation
between 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 imagine 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 threat 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 a credible proof linking acetaminophen to autism.”
If the circumstances are proper, manufacturers could be weak to vital statements made within the public sphere. In 2004, for instance, the film Tremendous Dimension Me (during 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 document with a lot of medical claims which can be at odds with scientific analysis.
He has repeatedly laid the blame for varsity shootings on antidepressants, for instance. He has drawn a hyperlink between consuming water and transgenderism and in addition publicly said his perception that the immune methods of Black Individuals 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 guilty for a situation he known as “leaky mind.”
