This book review of No More Tears by Gardiner Harris is for fans of true crime, medical ethics, and great nonfiction reads.
No More Tears is a book about medicine and ethics, but it reads more like a true crime book. It was published in 2025.
In No More Tears, Gardiner Harris examines the dark secrets of Johnson & Johnson, a company that has had a loyal following for years.
The origin of Johnson and Johnson began with three brothers in the 1800s. They developed plaster, gauze, and sterile surgical dressings that changed medicine. It allowed doctors and hospitals to treat patients more safely and effectively.
In the early 1900s, baby powder and Band-Aid were developed by Johnson & Johnson.
So many products used by both the medical community and the general public were developed in the early days of Johnson & Johnson.
Over the years, they have developed and sold so many medicines and devices that changed our lives, but at some point along the way, Johnson & Johnson changed.
It slowly became more and more about profit and less and less about the doctors prescribing the products and the people they prescribed them to.
No More Tears takes you into the world of Johnson & Johnson in both good and bad ways. It tells the story of how they brought us many medical inventions, but also how they covered up secrets and destroyed many lives.
Johnson & Johnson heavily promoted drugs to doctors to treat mental issues, devices used for hip replacements, the mesh used in bladder lifts, birth control, and more. All the while, Johnson & Johnson knew that the items they were promoting were not as safe as they claimed.
Johnson & Johnson used their power and money to influence doctors, politicians, the FDA, and more.
This book is a book about medical ethics, but because of the corruption and cover-ups, it reads more like a true crime book.
This book was a slow read for me. Not because it wasn’t a good book, but because I kept getting so mad at it.
I grew up in the late 1970s and 1980s. Remember the Tylenol deaths of the early 1980s?
Then remember how medicine bottles started being sold with tamper-proof seals?
There is so much more to the Tylenol story that we did not know. It was so much more than the news headlines. I remember the Tylenol scare of the 1980s, so I found that section fascinating.
After reading the chapters on baby powder and how Johnson & Johnson covered up asbestos in it, I told my husband that if I get lung cancer, it will be because of my love of baby powder.
I used Johnson & Johnson baby powder as a teenager and continued to use it until less than ten years ago. Like so many others, I used it on my kids when they were babies. I even used to powder my sheets to keep them fresh and smelling better. Oh, how I regret using so much baby powder…
But the baby powder cover-up is only a small part of the harm Johnson & Johnson caused its consumers.
The chapters on the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine and the government were also very interesting. Again, there was so much more than the media reported.
The whole book was a very sad, but fascinating look into the world of medicine and pharmaceuticals.
This book was a reminder to me that money and power corrupt. But it was also a reminder that there are so many amazing doctors and medical providers who, for many years, have put their trust in companies like Johnson & Johnson and the FDA, only to find out they have been deceived. Not just deceived but deceived in a way that changed their patients’ lives.
This book was a maddening, but important read. As soon as I finished it, I told my husband he had to read it.
No More Tears by Gardnier Harris is not an easy read, but it is a well-researched, well-written, important read.
This would be a great book for anyone who enjoyed the book Empire of Pain.
Have you read it?