No More Tears

No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris
4/8/25; 464 pages
Random House

No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris is an excellent, very highly recommended, well researched and documented investigative exposé on the Johnson & Johnson corporation. Harris uncovers decades of deceitful practices including hiding, ignoring, or changing research, lying, and using their money and power to influence doctors and media. As Harris states, for all intents and purposes, J&J was a criminal enterprise that embraced a corporate pattern of greed and misconduct while hiding the truth from consumers.

It is pointed out that one consistent theme is how unsurprising so many findings were. This is something that many readers will take note of as we remember the decades long question about the safety of talc and recall when the dangers of Tylenol were brought to light. It was disturbing how long J&J dug in and didn't take the talc out of their baby powder. J&J always put their business interests first whenever it appeared they would be impacted by awareness and regulation of any of their products due to research and studies demonstrating negative consequences on public health.

The information is presented in 5 parts. Part I opens with the history of J&J, and continues with sections on Johnson's Baby Powder and Tylenol.  Part II Prescription Drugs, has sections on Procrit, Risperdal, Duragesic, and the Ortho Evra Birth Control Patch. Part III Medical Devices contains sections on the Pinnacle Metal on Metal Hip implant and Prolift Vaginal Mesh. Part IV on Vaccination covers Covid. Following this are pages of notes which serve to thoroughly document all the information.

Harris ends with seven actions that should be taken. Briefly they are: 1. Doctors should be barred from taking money as gifts from drug companies. 2. States should stop certifying continuing medical education courses funded by drug and device companies. 3. The FDA needs to be funded by taxpayers, not the drug industry. 4. Companies and executives should be punished for lying under oath to the FDA and courts. 5. States should repeal laws that forbid personal injury suits or punitive damages against FDA approved products. 6. The American media organizations need to do some deep soul searching to figure out how they so thoroughly missed the monster in their midst. 7. There must be a wholesale reassessment of the very system where the conglomerate was allowed to thrive.

This is a must read exceptional analysis of well documented research which exposes information that everyone should know. Thanks to Random House for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.