this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
686 points (98.9% liked)

Not The Onion

18480 readers
2098 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 21 points 10 hours ago (5 children)

Tylenol is basically paracetamol, right? It's a generic drug. Why are they suing a specific brand?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

Because you sue who has the most money.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world -3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

they did the research and safety testing on it

You're missing the largest air quotes of the year here.

[–] nibbler@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 4 hours ago

you doubt they did sefety testing? did they miss the authism connection?

[–] WALLACE@feddit.uk 6 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

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.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] invertedspear@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 19 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 6 points 3 hours ago

RFK named the brand because Trump can't pronounce Acetaminophen.

[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

It's acetaminophen That's the name of the drug it contains

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago

Guess what they call acetominophen in the UK?

[–] crapwittyname@feddit.uk 14 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

AFAIK paracetamol and Tylenol are both brand names for acetaminophen.

Though if this is incorrect that's cool.

[–] crapwittyname@feddit.uk 20 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yes it is, paracetamol and acetominophen are alternative names for the molecule N-acetyl-para-aminophenol.
Tylenol, Panadol, Doliprane etc. are brand names.