Tylenol is a brand. Acetominophen was created in 1878 (or 1852, depending on who you ask).
e: That doesn't make RFKJr not wrong and insane, in case it needed saying.
Over half of Americans read at a 6th-grade level or lower and our President speaks at a 4th-grade level. How many you suppose know Tylenol and acetaminophen are the same thing?
Just wait till they hear what big pharma is doing with paracetamol
I could totally see acetaminophen makers rebranding with a "new" paracetamol
Wasn’t ibuprofen what they were blaming? Or did they switch to acetaminophen?
Edit: just saw the Trump clip, now it’s acetaminophen’s fault, lmao. Funny how it’s something that’s actually safe to take for pain during pregnancy, because of course they can never pass up a chance at making women suffer
Not to mention, this doesnt prove tylenol doesnt cause cancer, it just proves that tylenol isnt the only cause of cancer.
Obv it doesnt, but this argument is just bad.
puts on logic glasses
Oh look, another brilliant mind discovered that autism was identified before Tylenol existed, so obviously Tylenol can't cause autism. That's like saying cancer existed before radiation therapy, therefore radiation can't cause cancer. Peak necessity/sufficiency confusion right here - apparently conditions can only have one cause and medical recognition equals temporal origin.
But hey, let's ignore that Swedish study of 2.5 million kids that found zero causal link when they actually controlled for confounding variables using sibling comparisons. Or those other high-quality studies that show the association completely disappears once you account for genetics and family environment. Who needs actual science when you have timeline gotchas?
Meanwhile pregnant women might avoid the safest pain reliever available because some politician decided to manufacture outrage for political points. But at least someone gets to feel intellectually superior about their logical fallacy meme.
🐱
You’re not wrong. But my guess is that “autism predates Tylenol” is probably gonna convince more people than “large controlled study done by the Swiss”. People are generally really ignorant
Hmm, i don't like your tone, but you are correct. ASD has a heritability greater than 80% which is higher than blood pressure and the same as human height. It's a genetic disorder.
Also, when was it necessary to differentiate ASD from schizophrenia? The age of onset of schizophrenia is around 18-21 and autism is present practically from birth (apparent 1-3 years). I think OP is wrongly interpreting the Kraepelinian dichotomy which is about bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
@meowmeowbeanz@sopuli.xyz is totally right. The meme is based on a wrong premise.
It claims that Autism was a known thing in 1911 (true), and that Tylenol was created in 1955 (misleading since the active ingredient, Paracetamol was created in 1878 and was in wide use before the brand Tylenol was created). Then it implies that the argument is that Tylenol is the only cause of Autism and then poses that as a contradiction.
Logically, that's like claiming that some People died in 1700, and that the Ford Model T was only created in 1908 and then claiming that thus it's nonsense that cars can kill people.
On the one hand it ignores that the active ingredient of the medication was in use far earlier than that one random brand showing up, and on the other hand it claims that the argument with Tylenol and Autism is that every single case of Autism happens due to Tylenol, which pretty much nobody is claiming.
So the meme is just wrong on many levels.
So instead of making up and disproving a lie, why not use actual science? There's overwhelming scientific evidence that Paracetamol has no effect on Autism.
One might say that this doesn't really sway those who choose to ignore science in favour of their own gut feelings, but on the other hand, does a fallacious lie sway them?
Paracetamol predates autism, the meme is wrong. It refers to a random brand, not the substance
Paracetamol was first made in the 1800's though.
Or are they just blaming a certain brand?
Direct from Wikipedia
Paracetamol was first made in 1878 by Harmon Northrop Morse or possibly in 1852 by Charles Frédéric Gerhardt.
The left has misinformation too. Science is on our side; there’s no reason to propagate this shit.
Literally no Americans know what paracetamol is. Randomly ask anyone.
Americans know brand names: Tylenol, Advil, Prilosec, Ambien.
I’ll bet you could survey Americans and 999/1000 have never even have heard the word paracetamol. Or zolpidem, and slightly less often, omeprazole (though that one may be increasing due to the general state of things and subsequent need for prescriptions). Most won’t have heard anything but the brand names, and the brand names have been drilled into their heads by way of constant advertising.
US brands have spend stupid amounts of money making sure people think of their propriety name instead of the real name of any drug.
Americans know "paracetamol" about as well as you apparently know "acetaminophen".
They are the same compound.
"Paracetamol" is the generic term used in Europe and Australia. "Acetaminophen" is the generic term commonly used in the Americas.
Nobody would've heard paracetamol, but you'd probably get some hits with acetaminophen. Not a lot, to be clear, but some.
I know several Americans who know what paracetamol is. Not sure it's as rare as you think.
The argument would be that autism is on the rise, not that it's a new thing. I'm assuming this crowd understands the "rise" is from finer-tuned diagnoses. Hell, there may be another factor, but money says it ain't Tylenol.
Listen I know the RFK claim is nonsense but that doesn't excuse faulty logic. This is like saying cancer existed before X so X can't be a carcinogen.
Not to defend RFK, but this argument is dumb.
People from everywhere it doesn't natively grow developed cancer long before they had access to tobacco. That doesn't prove tobacco use doesn't cause cancer, it just means it isn't the only potential cause.
That's because cancer is a category of diseases, not a single one. Specific types of cancer that are caused by smoking are caused by smoking (there is afaik 12 of those, and some are associated with prolonged inhalation of any smoke, and some are only tabaco-related, but it doesn't matter)
The logic of the 'meme' is just bad. Something being identified before something else does not mean the second thing cannot create the first.
Cancer existed before cigarettes, yet cigarettes still cause cancer. Using this 'meme's' logic, "anyone trying to tell you that cigarettes cause cancers is entirely full of crap".
Careful! Cancer was around before cigarettes or dioxin. Not that I don't think RFK is full of shit, but sometimes it's best to ignore bad arguments when there are so many good ones to be made.
There's a 100% correlation between a child coming into direct physical contact with their family doctor and that same child later being diagnosed with autism. Show me an example where this was not the case. Family doctors are sporing autismomes like a tickled mushroom and no one is talking about it.
Not true! YOU just talked about it.
And now I am taking about it... holy shit, it's spreading!
Delectable comment. I enjoyed every word.
Just because something already exists, doesn't mean it can't be also caused by something else. Like canser. It already exists. But smoking can cause it too.
Next to that, it's paracetamol. It predates the discovery/naming of autism. It's already proven not to be the cause by other studies. Of course these studies could have been wrong, but I highly doubt that.
So this statement is incorrect. Doesn't change the fact that I don't believe a word of either Trump or RFK. I still believe science and I still don't believe pseudoscience.
There is some data to suggest there may be a link.
However. The data is very limited. Mt sinai did a meta of 46 studies and found a link (not necessarily causal). A Swedish population study of like 2.5 million children found no link. Etc.
The modest increase that could exist is unclear and confounded. Is it Tylenol or is something that the Tylenol is being taken for? Eg if the mom is having frequent headaches or fevers is the underlying condition impacting development and making it look like Tylenol does?
But why?
Two big answers:
Kenvue (Tylenol manufacturer) is not exactly a “pharmaceutical giant”. They’re a much easier target for rfk to go after with much less in terms of resources. They absolutely will sue though and appear to be preparing to do so though. But going after vaccines (his big target), especially stuff like Covid vaccines, means going after real pharmaceutical giants. Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, etc. deeeeeep pockets and serious legal teams. This may be a fight he feels he can “win” to start gaining momentum and precedent.
IMO the bigger reason is political capital. He has a large following of desperate parents that want an answer for why their child has autism or intellectual disability. I know a lot of people on here are like “autism is a superpower” and that’s great but these people are stuck in the disability mindset. It’s also important to remember that autism is a broad spectrum. Some of these parents have children that are nonverbal, that can’t toilet or shower independently, that get extremely violent when frustrated, that need 24/7 assistance and will never live independently. Of course some of them are just frustrated that their otherwise fine kid isn’t “normal” enough but that’s a whole other frustrating thing.
They’re desperate for answers. The reality of the situation is that there isn’t a simple answer. The overwhelming evidence suggests a combination of factors: genetics, environmental, social and behavioral. But this is unsatisfying. I’ve worked with people on this for years and when you say “it’s probably a combination of factors” they are never happy with that. They want something to blame. This is the political capital. He is giving them that. Basically everyone has taken Tylenol within the past year. Most pregnant women will take Tylenol at some point for discomfort, pain, fever, etc.
Now they will not only have the answer to “what did this”, they will have him as a person to hold up as the savior who gave them the answer. I saw the same thing happen when I started around 2010. Even though it was years after it happened people still attached to Wakefield and were so grateful he gave them the explanation that it was the MMR vaccine. They’d “protect their other children” as a result by not vaccinating them. Didn’t matter if you pointed out Wakefields proven financial links to an alternative MMR vaccine, the retraction of the paper, him getting his medical license revoked, etc. That’s how desperate they are for answers. FWIW Wakefield is still super rich and got married to literal supermodels so that’s why he doubled down and probably a major factor in why rfk is doing the same
Do you have any idea how common it is to give people, even kids, Tylenol?
I’m not looking up their meta, but I suspect it’s as informative as the meta that shows a “link” between autism and vaccines.
Might as well investigate a link between Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or wearing clothes.
Yes, I touched upon this towards the end of my (admittedly lengthy) post. Also, it’s not “their” meta. It’s a meta done by mt Sinai and Harvard (eg done with rigor) which openly admits the link cannot be established as causal because, as stated, there are many confounding factors to consider
Paracetamol, what you lot call acetaminophen, was first synthesized in 1877(or maybe much earlier in 1852). It wasnt widely used until the 1950s. Tylenol is a brand name that means fuck all to any conversation.
Til autism was once understood as being the same as schizophrenia.
Quite interesting how the concept of neurodivergence is almost doing the opposite with respect to individuals who overlap on multiple neurological labels. Except it celebrates the individual uniqueness of their mind, needs, strenghts and challenges rather then generalising to find the one pill to sell to all.
I am autistic and I can understand it. When stressed, autistic people can exhibit disordered thinking or just naturally pick up on relationships and patterns that neurotypical people do not. We can also have the appearance of unpredictable volatility when facing things like burnout or abuse.
Especially in an era where mental health treatment was really just sending you you to a prison.
There's no time or resources in the world to debunk all the bullshit this people generate. Every day, all the time...
I only buy generic brand medications, so my kids are at risk of generic brand autism. Is this going to be a signifier of a low income upbringing when they reach adulthood?
Should I switch to name brand Tylenol for their future?
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2817406
Findings In this population-based study, models without sibling controls identified marginally increased risks of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) associated with acetaminophen use during pregnancy. However, analyses of matched full sibling pairs found no evidence of increased risk of autism (hazard ratio, 0.98), ADHD (hazard ratio, 0.98), or intellectual disability (hazard ratio, 1.01) associated with acetaminophen use.
Snake oil doesn't sell itself
You're telling not to take medical advice from a crackhead??? Nah that can't be it...
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