Health authorities presently overseen by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have denied the assertion that the vaccine preservative thimerosal is a probable cause of autism and should be prohibited, which he published in a book before becoming health secretary.
The use of thimerosal in vaccinations will be discussed next week by advisors designated by Kennedy to the CDC.
Separate votes will be held by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on “Influenza Vaccines” and “Influenza Vaccines Containing Thimerosal,” according to the agenda that was posted on Wednesday.
“There is a virtually unanimous scientific consensus among the hundreds of research scientists who have published peer-reviewed articles in the field that Thimerosal is immensely toxic to brain tissue” (Kennedy, 2014). Kennedy then demanded that the chemical be removed from vaccinations.
Countless scientific studies have cast doubt on the idea that thimerosal has any health risks, and in the late 2000s, a federal vaccine court denied claims that vaccinations containing thimerosal were linked to autism.
In an editorial, MedPage Today Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Faust said that the panel’s decision to investigate thimerosal implies that Kennedy is utilizing it to seek the prohibition that he has long advocated. “Promoting this disproven myth to the level of national policy empowers disinformation and paves the way for further measures that could damage trust in vaccines in the US,” Faust further stated.
In order to prevent the growth of germs, thimerosal is still used as a preservative in vials of vaccines that contain several doses. However, due to product reworking and the adoption of single-use vials, its usage in flu vaccinations approved by the FDA has decreased within the past quarter of a century. As to the CDC’s findings, the majority of them contain negligible amounts of thimerosal.
No quick response was given by representatives of Sanofi and Seqirus, the two U.S.-based producers of flu vaccinations containing thimerosal, about the relative sales of these products in comparison to preservative-free doses.
Concerns that the mercury-containing chemical thimerosal may be associated with autism in children emerged in the late 90s and early 2000s, prompting that change. In 1999, as a precaution, the FDA and CDC declared their intention to collaborate with vaccination makers to decrease or eliminate thimerosal. Vaccines for children did not contain the preservative until 2001.
A number of the eight new members appointed by Kennedy to the advisory council had backgrounds of vaccine skepticism, and last week Kennedy dismissed seventeen of the panel’s members.
A notification in the Federal Register states that the advisory committee will meet on June 27, in addition to the two days already listed on the schedule (June 25 and 26).
No comment was made by an HHS representative either the thimerosal vote or the exclusion of the 27th agenda item.
Despite a notification in the Federal Register indicating a vote is anticipated, the agenda does not contain a vote on COVID-19 vaccinations.
In a departure from precedent, Kennedy revised the CDC’s COVID-19 guidelines last month without seeking a panel vote. The CDC shifted its prescription for healthy children to “shared clinical decision making” — meaning youngsters “may” get vaccinated if their physicians and parents want them to — and Kennedy deleted the suggestion that pregnant women get the vaccine.
Even though they aren’t on the proposed agenda, the meningococcal and HPV vaccines were on the meeting’s Federal Register notice.