\n<\/p>\n
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, will formally require vaccine makers to remove thimerosal from vaccines.<\/p>\n
The ingredient has been the target of anti-vaccine campaigns and misinformation for decades. Arguments against the preservative culminated in June, when a key federal vaccine advisory panel, remade with Kennedy\u2019s ideological allies, recommended against the preservative.<\/p>\n
The recommendation goes into force upon Kennedy\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n
There is no evidence thimerosal has caused harm, despite decades of use. The ethylmercury-based preservative was used in only about 5% adult influenza vaccines in the US, helping prevent contamination in multi-dose vials.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter more than two decades of delay, this action fulfills a long-overdue promise to protect our most vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure,\u201d Kennedy said in a statement announcing the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cInjecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility. Today, we put safety first,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n
Thimerosal is an ethylmercury-based preservative \u2013 different from the kind of mercury found in seafood, called methylmercury. Ethylmercury has a shorter half-life in the body. The amount of ethylmercury contained in a flu vaccine (25 micrograms) is about half of that contained in a 3oz serving of canned tuna fish (40 micrograms).<\/p>\n
The preservative has been used in vaccines since before the second world war. It was controversially phased out of most childhood vaccines in 1999, physicians associations said as a precautionary measure, and was contained in only a very small number of adult vaccines.<\/p>\n
Phasing out the preservative in the early 2000s was criticized by experts who argued scientific evidence did not support its removal, that it sent mixed messages and that it provided a talking point for anti-vaccine campaigners. Indeed, the preservative was targeted for years to come.<\/p>\n
That criticism came to a head in June, after Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) advisory committee on immunization practices, a federal panel that was a critical link in the vaccine distribution pipeline.<\/p>\n
Kennedy replaced the experts with eight hand-picked allies, including one directly from the anti-vaccine movement. Eventually, one appointee dropped out after a conflict of interest review.<\/p>\n
The vaccine advisory panel voted in favor of removing thimerosal on a 5-1 vote (with one abstention) after a controversial presentation from Lyn Redwood, a former leader of World Mercury Project, the predecessor to Kennedy\u2019s group Children\u2019s Health Defense, itself a prolific anti-vaccine campaign group.<\/p>\n
Redwood\u2019s presentation had to be updated after it was found to contain a link to a study that did not exist. One of Kennedy\u2019s vaccine advisers said during the meeting that a presentation from career scientists at the CDC, which laid out thimerosal\u2019s safety, was pulled by the secretary\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The director of the CDC is required to sign off on the vaccine advisory committee\u2019s recommendations. Because there is not presently a Senate-confirmed CDC director, Kennedy acts as head of the CDC.<\/p>\n
The decision to remove thimerosal from all vaccines in the US will also probably complicate the global picture for vaccine makers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the US now removing mercury from all vaccines, we urge global health authorities to follow this prudent example for the protection of children worldwide,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, will formally require vaccine makers to remove thimerosal from vaccines. The ingredient has been the target of anti-vaccine campaigns and misinformation for decades. Arguments against the preservative culminated in June, when a key federal vaccine advisory panel, remade with Kennedy\u2019s ideological allies, recommended against the preservative. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[794,5470,5469,789,5471,81,78],"class_list":{"0":"post-11942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-preservative","10":"tag-remove","11":"tag-rfk","12":"tag-thimerosal","13":"tag-trump","14":"tag-vaccines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}