Prime Highlights
- RFK Jr. demands removal of “thimerosal” from all U.S. flu shots due to risk of mercury exposure.
- Physician doctors sound warning that the move would harm vaccine supply and scientific opinion.
Key Fact
- “Thimerosal” had already been removed from most kids’ vaccinations in 2001 itself.
- There is no scientific basis to link “thimerosal” with autism or brain damage.
Key Background
In a dramatic and unknown step, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed phasing out” thimerosal,” a mercury- containing component, from all influenza vaccinations administered in the United States. This was following the recent reorganization of the CDC’s vaccine premonitory commission, where Kennedy disbanded the entire 17- member group and replaced them with tête-à-tête named helpers, some of whom partake his distrusting standpoint toward vaccines.
Preservative “thimerosal” has been used in multi-dose vaccine vials for decades to protect against bacterial and fungal contamination. Although the substance does contain ethylmercury, a compound the body metabolizes differently than the more deadly methylmercury, it became political in the early 2000s. While it had been stripped from the majority of children’s vaccines nearly two decades previously, it has remained on adult flu shots. Numerous studies, such as CDC and World Health Organization studies, have revealed no definitive evidence linking “thimerosal” with autism or neurodevelopmental disease.
Kennedy, a veteran vaccine critic, insists the new policy is a precautionary measure to public health and will avoid unnecessary exposure to mercury, especially among children and pregnant women. But health workers and healthcare organizations are cautioning the step is less about science and more about ideology. They argue the elimination of an extensively tested effective preservative will decrease access to vaccines, especially in low-resource areas where multi-dose vials are more affordable and accessible.
The move is part of a number of controversial vaccine policy reforms under the Kennedy administration. The administration has already watered down immunization requirements for some groups, and state governments have also been resisting, as well as professional medicine organizations being battled in court. The critics argue that the present action has the potential to politicize vaccine science, undermine confidence in traditional health infrastructure, as well as increase inequities in vaccine coverage.
