The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), not too long ago remade by Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voted Thursday in favor of solely recommending flu photographs that do not comprise the mercury-based preservative thimerosal.
The ACIP, which offers steering to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), voted on 4 draft suggestions, three of which needed to do with recommending solely single-dose, thimerosal-free flu vaccines for varied demographics.
On the query of recommending solely thimerosal-free seasonal flu vaccines for youngsters 18 and underneath, pregnant girls and all adults, the committee voted 5-2 in favor of the suggestions with one member voting “no” and one other abstaining.
On the query of recommending seasonal flu vaccines for the 2025-26 flu season for folks 6 months outdated and older, all seven voting members voted “yes.”
Thimerosal, roughly half of which consists of ethylmercury, is utilized in multidose vaccine vials to stop the expansion of micro organism and fungi. Anti-vaccine proponents have lengthy argued there’s a hyperlink between thimerosal and neurological situations like autism regardless of a number of epidemiological research discovering no connection.
The CDC’s webpage on thimerosal additionally states, “Many well conducted studies have concluded that thimerosal in vaccines does not contribute to the development of autism.”
“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,” the CDC notes.
Thimerosal-free vaccines are broadly out there and are essentially the most generally administered kind of vaccine within the U.S. Vaccines containing thimerosal are extra widespread in low-income nations as multidose vials are cheaper.
Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics on the Geisel College of Drugs at Dartmouth Faculty who beforehand served on the ACIP, was the only real member to talk out in opposition to the advice and vote “no.”
Following a presentation on thimerosal by Lyn Redwood, former head of the anti-vaccine group Youngsters’s Well being Protection, during which she strongly steered the degrees of mercury in thimerosal-containing vaccines was having a detrimental impact on youngsters, Meissner strongly pushed again on the claims.
“One of the most important [things] to remember is that thimerosal is metabolized into ethylmercury and thiosalicylate. It’s not metabolized into methylmercury, which is in fish and shellfish. Ethylmercury is excreted much more quickly from the body. It is not associated with the high neurotoxicity that methylmercury is,” Meissner stated. “Of all the issues that I think we, ACIP needs to focus on, this is not a big issue.”
ACIP member Vicky Pebsworth abstained from voting. In explaining her vote, she stated, “My personal views on this is that we should not be doing anything that restricts access to vaccines of any sort, especially those that are already approved by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] and that are already in the schedule.”
“My problem, and the reason I abstained for all of these votes, is because of the way the voting question was written. In the world of survey research, you don’t ask two things in the same question,” she added, noting how two questions had been conflated into one advice, whether or not vaccines ought to be beneficial and whether or not they need to comprise thimerosal.
“Yes, I think we should not be using thimerosal as a preservative, but we didn’t get into any sort of a discussion about the first part of the question.”
