TSOT122: Internally, Tylenol Safety Monitors and Others Knew of Autism Link for Years

(A follow-up to TSOT-131. Please note I added significant specific information and links to the description that I did not particularly emphasize during the episode.)EXCELLENT work by Daily Caller News Foundation. They likely had this information, and were deciding when to drop it, considering they dropped it only four days after RFK Jr's "fanciful" press conference*.Regarding internal Tylenol monitoring and knowledge over a period of time of studies in 2018 and before that showed connections between use during pregnancy, and activities that prove that they were very aware of those studies and concerns by customers and doctors, up to and including specifically monitoring how much the public was becoming aware and mentioning it on social media. The information comes from discovery documents related to a class action lawsuit against Kenvue / Tylenol.===============================================This is about where deniers stop thinking. So I'll add on CHANCE it turns their brains back on (I'm ever optimistic and idealistic), that as part of actions towards a summary judgment in favor of Tylenol, the judge supported the "noble lie" by throwing out the expert testimony from the case. After all... their testimony, I shit you not, would have "great public health implications” of pregnant women not having the drug)Ummm...Well, that's circular, don't you think? If there are great health implications, due to a lot of usage, then would not the harms alleged, have great health implications??=============================================Besides... on one side of the scale is pain being reduced. The other, potential life-long deficits mentally and physically, and possible lifelong dependency on caregivers.==============================================In 2018, not just ANY employee that happened to see emails, but Janssen's U.S. Director of Epidemiology Rachel Weinstein "The weight of the evidence is starting to feel heavy to me.” Janssen was the pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson. For one 2018 study, which was a review of existing literature, Weinstein specifically reached out to those involved in the study to compliment them on how sound their study set-up was and how that bolstered the study's conclusion. She has since retired.But J&J first got indications of the problem a decade earlier, via queries and concerns by doctors and customers, which were flagged for internal note and safekeeping. Also in 2018, a Johnson and Johnson internal presentation "High-Level Overview of Epidemiological Studies" pointing out 16 individual studies, 6 systematic reviews, and one meta-analysis expresses the internal opinion of there being among the 16 individual studies a "somewhat consistent of increased occurrence of neurodevelopmental outcomes with prenatal exposure" (AKA, the exact conclusion Trump and RFK Jr announced). Conveniently (?), in 2022, Johnson & Johnson spun off its consumer products division, to Kenvue. Kenvue became entirely separate from Johnson and Johnson in 2023.Discovery has also revealed, I kid you not, an internal Kenvue 2023 presentation about "Project Cocoon," which addressed "Acetaminophen and Neurodevelopmental/Urogenetical Abnormalities."=====================================*That dude doesn't do anything fanciful. He has studies memorized. ======================================Prenatal paracetamol exposure and child neurodevelopment: a sibling-controlled cohort study 2013, International Journal of Epidemiology Maternal use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and risk of autism spectrum disorders in childhood: A Danish national birth cohort study 2016, Autism Research - Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research The role of oxidative stress, inflammation and acetaminophen exposure from birth to early childhood in the induction of autism  2017, The Journal of International Medical Research Prenatal paracetamol exposure and child neurodevelopment: A review 2018, Hormones and Behavior Paracetamol use during pregnancy — a call for precautionary action 2021, Nature Review Endocrinology