One of the most strident attacks Donald Trump has made on a company or product has been his recent fomenting against Tylenol. Trump, with little to no evidence, alleges the pain reliever causes autism. The accusation is giving the drugmaker a major headache — and crisis.

On Sept. 26, The Wall Street Journal ran a helpful story (“Inside the Crisis at Tylenol”) on how Tylenol’s maker, Kenvue, is dealing with the situation. Kenvue is the consumer-healthcare division spun off from Johnson & Johnson in 2023. Its CEO, Kirk Perry, has been in that position only since July.

According to the WSJ, Perry and Kenvue’s chief scientific officer met with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sept. 8 to try to convince him that there’s no clear link between Tylenol’s active ingredient, acetaminophen, and autism. They discussed having additional meetings, which the company took as a good sign.

But days later Perry received a text from Kennedy with a link to a Substack post by Sayer Ji — “a promotor of COVID-19 misinformation,” according to the WSJ — linking Tylenol and autism. That’s when Perry knew his efforts with Kennedy had failed, according to the article by Peter Loftus, Alyssa Lukpat and Sara Ashley O’Brien.

Treating Fevers

It got worse on Monday, Sept. 22, when Trump appeared in the White House’s Roosevelt Room and announced that pregnant women shouldn’t take Tylenol, even though the science shows that not treating fevers with acetaminophen during pregnancy can cause birth defects. Trump defied many of his own health advisors. “They’re waiting for certain studies,” he said. “I want to say it like it is: Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t take it.”

It’s a major crisis when the president of the United States encourages people to shun your product. Kenvue put out a strongly worded statement arguing the science doesn’t support the notion that Tylenol causes autism, according to the WSJ. “We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers,” it said.

Last week, Kenvue started posting messages on Instagram that direct people to its Tylenol.com site for more information. “In moments when headlines spark confusion, families deserve clarity,” one Instagram message read. “There is no credible evidence linking acetaminophen to autism.” CEO Perry also posted to LinkedIn a memo he sent to employees.

‘Doctor First’

The situation got crazy enough that the White House uncovered a 2017 tweet in which Johnson & Johnson said it didn’t recommend taking “any of our products while pregnant.” Kenvue had to counter that, saying the statement was taken out of context. “We recommend pregnant women do not take any over-the-counter medication, including acetaminophen, without talking to their doctor first,” it said.

One reason the crisis is getting so much attention is that Tylenol was at the center of what’s considered to be the most successful crisis communications response of all time: the 1982 Tylenol tampering crisis in which seven people in the Chicago area died from taking pills that had been laced with cyanide. Johnson & Johnson responded by emptying shelves of the product and reintroducing it with tamper-resistant bottles.

Many of the stories are mentioning that earlier crisis and are speculating about how well Tylenol will respond this time.

Photo Credit: Kenvue

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