Latest news with #thimerosal
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Lands on Next Target of His MAHA Crusade
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has tasked his newly appointed panel of vaccine advisers with probing an ingredient long-targeted by anti-vaxxers for disproven links to autism. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a panel under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will discuss the vaccine preservative thimerosal in its June 26 meeting, according to a draft agenda. The advisory committee previously had 17 members who were all sacked by Kennedy earlier this month and replaced with eight new ones, including anti-vaccine voices like Dr. Robert Malone, who pushed COVID-19 conspiracies in a 2021 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. Thimerosal, a preservative that is used to prevent microbial growth in vaccines, has long been targeted by anti-vaccine activists because it contains mercury. Kennedy himself authored a book in 2014 that advocated for the removal of thimerosal from vaccines, erroneously linking it to autism. Kennedy claimed that thimerosal is 'immensely toxic to brain tissue,' but multiple peer-reviewed studies, as well as health agencies like the CDC and Food and Drug Administration, have long maintained there is no link between the ingredient and autism. 'Many well-conducted studies have concluded that thimerosal in vaccines does not contribute to the development of autism,' the CDC says on its website. '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 FDA similarly stated that 'scientific studies of the risk of other serious neurodevelopmental disorders have failed to support a causal link with thimerosal.' As a precautionary measure, however, the FDA in 1999 recommended the removal of thimerosal from vaccines routinely given to infants. The use of the ingredient has also dropped sharply over the years as many vaccines were reformulated to single-dose packaging. Jeremy Faust, editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, warned in an op-ed that the anti-vaccine movement will take the inclusion of thimerosal in the vaccine panel's agenda as 'a major win.' 'To be clear, removing the compound will do nothing to improve vaccine safety, but it certainly will undermine confidence in other existing vaccines,' he wrote. 'While there are many alternatives for influenza vaccines that do not contain thimerosal, elevating this debunked myth to national policy lends credence to misinformation, and sets the stage for other actions that may undermine vaccine confidence in the United States.' Last month, Kennedy removed COVID-19 vaccines from the list of shots recommended for children and pregnant women. Dr. Fiona Havers, a physician who oversaw respiratory virus data—including hospitalization rates for COVID-19—resigned as a top vaccine specialist for the CDC on Monday in the wake of Kennedy's controversial overhaul of the agency. 'If it isn't stopped, and some of this isn't reversed, like, immediately, a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases,' she said in an interview with The New York Times.
CNN
2 days ago
- Health
- CNN
CDC vaccine advisers to vote on thimerosal in flu shots at first meeting of new panel
A newly posted agenda for next week's meeting of the just-appointed group of outside vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes a discussion and vote on thimerosal in flu vaccines, a preservative tied to debunked claims from decades ago of links to autism. The meeting, scheduled to start June 25 and run for two days, is the first for a newly installed group of eight Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members. US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the previous group of 17 experts last week, claiming that they had conflicts of interest. A number of the new panelists, though, have raised concerns from the public health world for their positions on vaccines, including serving as expert witnesses in lawsuits against vaccine makers and suggesting without evidence that Covid-19 vaccines kill young people and should immediately be removed from the market. It's not clear what the discussion and vote at next week's meeting on thimerosal in flu vaccines will entail, and the presenter of the information at the meeting is listed on the agenda as 'TBD.' A spokesperson for HHS directed questions about the nature of the discussion and vote back to the posted agenda. Thimerosal is a mercury-based compound used to prevent bacteria and fungus from growing in vaccines, and the CDC says data from multiple studies 'show no evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines.' Nonetheless, the use of thimerosal in vaccines has declined significantly since the US Food and Drug Administration in 1999 asked vaccine manufacturers to detail plans to remove it; the FDA now says 'all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger in the U.S. are available in formulations that do not contain thimerosal.' The preservative is still used in some multidose vials of seasonal flu vaccines. Since thimerosal was largely removed from pediatric vaccines, autism rates have continued to rise, which the CDC notes 'is the opposite of what would be expected if thimerosal caused autism.' Thimerosal has long been a focus of Kennedy, who published a book in 2014 called 'Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak,' referring to it as 'mercury, a known neurotoxin.' The CDC points out, however, that there are two kinds of mercury – methylmercury and ethylmercury – and high levels of the first can be toxic to people. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, the agency says, 'which is cleared from the human body more quickly than methylmercury, and is therefore less likely to cause any harm.' The fact that thimerosal is now on the agenda of Kennedy's newly appointed vaccine advisers suggests they may publicly claim, against evidence, that the preservative is dangerous, said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine scientist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an outside vaccine adviser to the FDA. 'All that's going to do is make it so that those vaccines will become less available and more expensive,' Offit told CNN. 'It certainly won't make them safer.' Offit pointed out that reformulating those vaccines couldn't be done quickly by manufacturers, so it would 'most likely just lead to vaccine shortages and make the vaccines more expensive.' Also new to the agenda is a discussion and proposed recommendations for the measles, mump, rubella and varicella (or chickenpox) vaccine for children under 5. It's not clear what the nature of that discussion will be either, and its presenters are also listed as 'TBD.' The combination vaccine, known as MMRV, has been approved in the US as ProQuad since 2005, and the CDC notes that while the combination vaccine has one fewer injection than the individual shots, it's associated with a higher risk for fever and febrile seizures five to 12 days after the first dose among children between 1 and 2 years old. Administering the varicella vaccine separately from the MMR vaccine avoids this increased risk, which the CDC points out is 'very low for both options.' Although it's not clear whether that will be the focus of the presentation and recommendations, Offit noted that vaccine advisers have already had that discussion, so 'I'm not sure what's going to be added here.' The meeting had been scheduled to take place over three days, according to a June 9 posting in the Federal Register, and now has been shortened to two. It still includes votes on RSV immunization for pregnant women and children and in the Vaccines for Children program, as well as planned discussions on Covid-19, chikungunya and anthrax vaccines, but the topic list has been significantly slimmed down. No longer included are discussions on cytomegalovirus vaccine, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Lyme disease vaccine, meningococcal vaccine and pneumococcal vaccines. At an internal meeting Tuesday among CDC employees, a member of leadership told staffers that some agenda items for the upcoming ACIP meeting might not be included because they were still bringing new members up to speed, according to a CDC employee who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. The employee called that reasoning 'a transparent lie; they wouldn't have had to bring all these new people up to speed if they hadn't fired the old ones.' The agenda also includes a number of 'TBD' listings for presenters, including on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines and RSV immunizations. At previous meetings, those presentations on Covid-19 have been made by Dr. Fiona Havers and Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, who both resigned in the past few weeks, citing concerns about changes to the CDC's vaccine processes under Kennedy. 'My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most vulnerable members of our population,' Panagiotakopoulos wrote in an email to former ACIP members, obtained by CNN, 'and that is not something I am able to continue doing in this role.'
CNN
2 days ago
- Health
- CNN
CDC vaccine advisers to vote on thimerosal in flu shots at first meeting of new panel
Vaccines Federal agencies Respiratory viruses Disability issuesFacebookTweetLink Follow A newly posted agenda for next week's meeting of the just-appointed group of outside vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes a discussion and vote on thimerosal in flu vaccines, a preservative tied to debunked claims from decades ago of links to autism. The meeting, scheduled to start Wednesday and run for two days, is the first for a newly installed group of eight Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members. US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the previous group of 17 experts last week, claiming that they had conflicts of interest. A number of the new panelists, though, have raised concerns from the public health world for their positions on vaccines, including serving as expert witnesses in lawsuits against vaccine makers and suggesting without evidence that Covid-19 vaccines kill young people and should immediately be removed from the market. It's not clear what the discussion and vote at next week's meeting on thimerosal in flu vaccines will entail, and the presenter of the information at the meeting is listed on the agenda as 'TBD.' A spokesperson for HHS directed questions about the nature of the discussion and vote back to the posted agenda. Thimerosal is a mercury-based compound used to prevent bacteria and fungus from growing in vaccines, and the CDC says data from multiple studies 'show no evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines.' Nonetheless, the use of thimerosal in vaccines has declined significantly since the US Food and Drug Administration in 1999 asked vaccine manufacturers to detail plans to remove it; the FDA now says 'all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger in the U.S. are available in formulations that do not contain thimerosal.' The preservative is still used in some multidose vials of seasonal flu vaccines. Since thimerosal was largely removed from pediatric vaccines, autism rates have continued to rise, which the CDC notes 'is the opposite of what would be expected if thimerosal caused autism.' Thimerosal has long been a focus of Kennedy, who published a book in 2014 called 'Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak,' referring to it as 'mercury, a known neurotoxin.' The CDC points out, however, that there are two kinds of mercury – methylmercury and ethylmercury – and high levels of the first can be toxic to people. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, the agency says, 'which is cleared from the human body more quickly than methylmercury, and is therefore less likely to cause any harm.' The agenda for next week's meeting also says the advisers will discuss the combination measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine for children younger than 5 and will vote on RSV immunization for pregnant women and children and in the Vaccines for Children program.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Kennedy's new US vaccine panel to discuss measles shot for children
(Reuters) -A new panel of U.S. vaccine advisers appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will vote on flu shots that contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal and discuss recommendations for measles shot at an upcoming meeting. The advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also vote on who should receive the shots for respiratory syncytial virus and influenza at the meeting scheduled for June 25 and 26, according to a draft agenda posted on CDC's website. Experts will discuss proposed recommendations whether a shot to prevent measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) should be given to children under 5 years of age. The agenda did not specify who will be presenting on MMRV or thimerasol at the meeting. Thimerosal has been used for decades in the United States in vials for medicines and vaccines that containing more than one dose, according to CDC.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Health
- Bloomberg
RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Panel to Vote on Flu Shots With Mercury
A panel of key government advisers appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will weigh in on an infrequently used vaccine preservative that has been wrongly linked to autism in the past. Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will hear a presentation about thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative that is used in some adult flu vaccines, at a planned meeting next week. The group will later vote on 'thimerosal-containing vaccine recommendations,' according to a draft agenda posted Wednesday.
