Kennedy Jr.
WASHINGTON – Reports say Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the plaintiffs lawyer now in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, plans to link Tylenol to autism – a theory already rejected in court.
The Wall Street Journal wrote a week ago that the HHS plans to release a report on the harms of Tylenol use by pregnant women, an idea called “disingenuous and misleading” by the Autism Science Foundation. It’s not yet known what research RFK Jr. will rely on, but what his former colleagues in the trial bar put forth in federal lawsuits wasn’t strong enough to put in front of a jury.
It was just a month ago that Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, issued results from research of 46 previous studies on prenatal acetaminophen use, finding children may be more likely to develop neurodevelopmental disorders.
Baccarelli was one of five experts used by plaintiffs lawyers in ambitious lawsuits rejected last year by New York federal judge Denise Cote, a President Bill Clinton-appointee. In a 148-page opinion, she found their testimony unreliable, effectively dooming the litigation.
The FDA, then under President Joe Biden, had even written in the case that scientific evidence was “unable” to show acetaminophen created a higher risk of autism.
The five experts reviewed existing studies but did not use “that literature to render discrete opinions,” Cote wrote.
“Instead, they have applied a ‘transdiagnostic’ analysis that sweeps into their analyses (and conclusions) ASD, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders,” she added. “They have failed to show that their methodology in doing so is generally accepted by the scientific community.
“In any event, here, their analyses have not served to enlighten but to obfuscate the weakness of the evidence on which they purport to rely and the contradictions in the research.”
The ruling was a blow to many high-profile plaintiffs firms. Leading the case were Ashley Keller of Keller Postman, Mikal Watts of Watts Guerra and Mark Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm. Defendants like Johnson & Johnson had argued the evidence put forward was “cherry-picked” and refused to address the role of genetics.
“They are correct,” Cote wrote.
“Despite the identified risk of genetic confounding, Dr. Baccarelli gives short shrift to the issue. The discussion in his reports is incomplete, unbalanced and at times misleading.
“In general, Dr. Baccarelli downplays those studies that undercut his causation thesis and emphasizes those that align with his thesis.”
Other rejected experts were Dr. Robert Cabrera the Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Eric Hollander of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Dr. Brandon Pearson of Columbia University; and Dr. Stan Louie of the University of Southern California.
As well as environmental activism, RFK Jr.’s legal career included time in personal injury firms like Morgan & Morgan and Levin Papantonio, plus ties to one of the firms pushing cases alleging Roundup weedkiller causes cancer – Wisner Baum.
Morgan & Morgan recently had a federal judge throw out its lawsuit alleging ultra-processed foods were made to be as addictive as tobacco and marketed to young people, causing illnesses like diabetes. Mike Papantonio called UPF litigations “one of those mass torts that changes the word,” but a judge found the complaint lacking specifics.
RFK Jr. had called UPFs “poison” during his Senate confirmation hearings. In July, a month before the case was tossed, he announced a project to create a federally recognized definition for UPFs as part of his Make America Healthy Again agenda.
He’s also targeted another key product for the trial bar: talc. Thousands of lawsuits claim asbestos in cosmetic talc causes cancer, and earlier this year the FDA held a hearing on the possible dangers of talc in food.
RFK Jr. has long said the mercury preservative in vaccines causes autism – a debunked scientific theory trial lawyers promoted to keep their cases out of a special court for vaccine injuries that provided lower fees.
