The federal authorities is recommending flu vaccines take away the preservative thimerosal after Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday formally adopted the advice of a Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel.
The transfer follows a 5-1-1 vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Observe throughout its June assembly. The assembly was the primary for the newly remade iteration of the panel, after Kennedy fired all its members and handpicked their replacements.
The panel’s vote got here after a presentation in opposition to thimerosal by Lyn Redwood, the previous chief of Youngsters’s Well being Protection, the anti-vaccine group based by Kennedy.
Redwood was just lately employed by HHS and is listed as an “expert” within the company’s worker listing. She introduced her argument in opposition to thimerosal as a non-public citizen, nevertheless, not as a consultant of the federal authorities.
Thimerosal is a preservative that was broadly used for many years in various organic and drug merchandise, together with many vaccines. Eradicating it fulfills a protracted sought-after purpose for Kennedy and lots of anti-vaccine activists. In his 2014 ebook, he wrote thimerosal was “toxic to brain tissue” and certain prompted autism.
“After more than two decades of delay, this action fulfills a long-overdue promise to protect our most vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure,” Kennedy stated in a press release. “Injecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility. Today, we put safety first.”
The panel’s suggestions have been signed by Kennedy as an alternative of the CDC director, as Susan Monarez, President Trump’s nominee for the job, is but to be confirmed by the Senate.
Thimerosal was largely faraway from pediatric vaccines by 2001 amid considerations that it might be linked to autism in youngsters and as producers shifted towards single-use vials that comprise little or no thimerosal.
However quite a few research have disproved an autism hyperlink, and concluded that thimerosal is secure. In response to the CDC, “a robust body of peer-reviewed scientific studies conducted in the U.S. and other countries support the safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines.”
“Even after thimerosal was removed from almost all childhood vaccines, autism rates continued to increase, which is the opposite of what would be expected if thimerosal caused autism,” CDC says on its web site.
Thimerosal is at the moment utilized in three flu vaccines for adults offered by Sanofi and CSL Seqirus, in response to the Meals and Drug Administration.
Vaccine producers have confirmed that they’ve the capability to switch multidose vials containing the preservative, making certain that provides is not going to be interrupted, HHS stated.
Thimerosal-free vaccines are broadly out there and are probably the most generally administered kind of vaccine within the U.S. Vaccines containing thimerosal are extra frequent in low-income international locations as multidose vials are cheaper.
“We acknowledge the recommendation of the new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP),” Sanofi stated in a press release to The Hill. “We will have sufficient supply of Sanofi flu vaccine to support customer preference for this season.”
