Tylenol misinformation drew outsized TikTok views as public health agencies largely stayed silent
Laine BergesonToday at 8:52 a.m.
Anti-science
TikTok videos containing misinformation about acetaminophen (Tylenol) use during pregnancy and autism attracted more than half of the total views on the subject after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a label change for the drug last year, according to new research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2026 National Conference & Exhibition this week.
At the same time, a separate study found that most public health agencies did not address the controversy on social media in a timely fashion. The findings were also presented at the AAP conference.
In September 2025, the FDA issued a label change for products containing acetaminophen to warn that use during pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental and neurologic disorders in children. Research has found no association, however, between using acetaminophen during pregnancy and the risk of autism spectrum disorder or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
“After seeing pregnant patients in our own clinics question whether it was safe to take Tylenol during pregnancy, we wanted to understand what information they were being exposed to online,” says coauthor of the TikTok study and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School medical student Shivani Srivastava, in an AAP news release.
Single misleading video got 10.3 million views
For the TikTok study, researchers at Rutgers School of Medicine analyzed 53 videos posted from September 22, 2025, the day of the FDA announcement, to November 2025 identified using the search terms "Tylenol autism," "acetaminophen autism," "paracetamol autism," and #Tylenol.Just over half of the videos (52.8%) contained information consistent with the scientific evidence, while 28.3% contained misinformation and 18.9% contained mixed or uncertain information. Despite making up a smaller proportion of the overall content on the subject, the posts with misinformation accounted for 52.4% of 28.1 million total views, with a single misinformation video reaching 10.3 million views and representing nearly 36.6% of all exposure.
Across the analyzed videos, health professionals exclusively produced content that was consistent with the scientific evidence, while influencers accounted for 73.3% of all misinformation videos. Plus, “misinformation videos were of significantly lower educational quality than evidence-consistent videos and were more likely to include conspiracy framing (46.7%) and pharmaceutical distrust (53.3%),” write the researchers.
“Our findings reveal how important it is for medical institutions to be part of the conversations on social media by sharing accurate, engaging content that reaches patients where they are,” says Srivastava.
Health systems active on Instagram, mum on Tylenol
The second study, also led by researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, examined 65 Instagram accounts from leading children’s hospitals, medical societies, and state health departments from September 22 to November 15, 2025, to assess how they responded to misinformation on acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism.Only 14 of the 65 health organizations (21.5%) posted about the controversy. The AAP responded on the first day and published 10 relevant posts during the study period. Hospital responses lagged as much as 51 days behind the AAP response, and none of the sampled state health departments addressed the topic.
Some organizations that didn’t respond to the acetaminophen-autism controversy on Instagram did post on other topics during the study period (with some posting more than 100 posts on unrelated topics), suggesting that limited posting capacity can’t fully explain their silence.
Of the 26 relevant posts the researchers analyzed, all used plain language and myth-busting framing. But the average reading level of the posts was 11th grade, well above the average eighth-grade reading level in the United States. None of the posts included multilingual content.
“Major health organizations have a responsibility to communicate with the populations they serve during times of increased health misinformation,” says coauthor Jessica Visone, a medical student at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, in an AAP news release.
Going forward, the researchers recommend that pediatric health organizations develop rapid-response protocols, craft messaging templates written at or below an eighth-grade reading level, create multilingual content, and establish clear internal processes for developing accessible communication during emerging controversies.