A federal advisory panel led by allies of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has voted to stop recommending flu vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal for children and pregnant women, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the compound is safe.
Thimerosal has not been included in most childhood vaccines for more than two decades, and dozens of studies have debunked claims linking it to autism. Still, Kennedy and his supporters have long targeted the ingredient as part of a broader vaccine skepticism campaign. The only dissenter on the CDC vaccine panel, Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts Children’s Hospital, called the move unjustified.
“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent risk as far as we know from thimerosal,” he said, per the New York Times.
The vote was the first sign that Kennedy’s reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) may seek to reverse longstanding vaccine policies. The committee’s chair also floated eliminating a combination vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox in children under four, citing a minor risk of febrile seizures, despite the CDC recommending separate shots for the first dose. The ACIP panel is expected to vote on that proposal in the near future.
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Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, told the Times that it was “striking how little the voting members seem to know” about vaccines and the diseases they prevent. Observers also raised alarms about potential illegal private discussions among panelists, after one member suggested off-record deliberations about RSV vaccines had taken place.
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