No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson

Part 4, Section 10 of No More Tears consists of one chapter: Chapter 39, “A Rare Shot at Redemption.” However, this structure is somewhat misleading. Chapter 39 is effectively broken into two parts. The first part is a narrative of the failures of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine. The second part is Gardiner Harris’s final summation and argument, similar to a closing argument in a trial. 

In the second half of the chapter, Harris restates in the strongest terms the structural issues that plague Johnson & Johnson that he has documented throughout No More Tears, reinforcing The Lack of Corporate Ethics and Accountability. For instance, he describes J&J as a company that transformed “from ethical to evil” (351) over the years. The term “evil” is the strongest possible word he could use to characterize the company’s practices. He closes with a description of the reforms he thinks are necessary to address the issues he has highlighted. He argues that the United States’ “for-profit healthcare model at large” and Johnson & Johnson specifically require “fundamental change” (352).

In his description of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine development, Harris emphasizes Regulatory Challenges and Governmental Oversight. While elsewhere in the work Harris focused on the FDA, Chapter 39 opens with an image of J&J CEO Alex Gorsky onstage with President Joe Biden, which suggests that the lack of oversight goes “all the way to the top,” as it were. Harris then goes on to note that Gorsky also worked closely with President Trump during his first term. The close, even cozy relationship between government and corporations is not unique to J&J. However, as “one of the most admired and trusted corporations in the world” (313), J&J has a unique ability to shape the US government’s oversight of its products and procedures through lobbying efforts, PR, and regulatory capture. Further, Harris argues that unless the FDA is radically reformed, it will “never” fulfil its function of ensuring the safety of drugs and medical devices.

In his conclusion, Harris briefly touches on how J&J’s products have benefited society. He notes that “it has brought to market a host of drugs and services that save and improve lives” (347), such as treatments for HIV, prostate cancer, and tuberculosis. This amounts to a gesture at acknowledging the counterargument against his strident claims about the company. It is not, however, what one would call a “steel man argument,” or the strongest possible presentation of the counterargument. A steel man argument would provide more details about J&J’s contributions to medical innovations over the decades or the steps the company has taken to address the problems Harris has identified throughout. Harris’s limited acknowledgement of the counterargument highlights the polemical nature of No More Tears overall.

Indeed, Harris quickly returns to his main claim: That “J&J has knowingly contributed to the deaths and grievous injuries of millions” (348). The use of “knowingly” in this construction is important. In a legal context, the court must establish the defendant’s “mens rea,” or state of mind. Many laws require that the court must find that the defendant knowingly acted recklessly or negligently in order to find them liable for severe crimes. In using this construction, Harris is effectively arguing that J&J should be held liable for its reckless negligence in selling products that it knew would be harmful to consumers. Courts have largely agreed. Multi-district litigations against J&J for its Baby Powder are ongoing: As of May 2025, there were 643 such cases pending (Miller, Roland V., Jr. “Talc Powder Ovarian Cancer Lawsuit.” Lawsuit Information Center, 1 May 2025).