RFK Jr to remove preservative thimerosal from all US vaccines | Trump administration

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US Health Secretary, will officially demand that vaccine manufacturers withdraw the Thimérosal from vaccines.

The ingredient has been the target of anti-vaccine and disinformation campaigns for decades. The arguments against the curator culminated in June, when a key federal federal vaccination consulting committee, redone with the ideological allies of Kennedy, recommended against the curator.

The recommendation comes into force on the signing of Kennedy.

There is no evidence that Thimérosal has caused damage, despite decades of use. The ethylmercure conservative has only been used in approximately 5% of adult influenza vaccines in the United States, which helps prevent contamination in multi-dose bottles.

“After more than two decades late, this action has long been expected to protect our most vulnerable populations against unnecessary exposure to mercury,” Kennedy said in a statement announcing the decision.

“The injection of any quantity of mercury in children when it is safe, mercury -free alternatives exist defies common sense and responsibility for public health. Today we are putting security first, ”said Kennedy.

Thimérosal is a conservative based on ethylmercure – different from the type of mercury found in seafood, called methylmercure. Ethylmercure has a shorter half-life in the body. The quantity of ethylmercury contained in a flu vaccine (25 micrograms) is about half that contained in a portion of 3 oz of canned tuna fish (40 micrograms).

The curator has been used in vaccines since the Second World War. It was controversial by most infant vaccines in 1999, said doctors’ associations as a precautionary measure and only appeared in a very small number of adult vaccines.

The conservative screening in the early 2000s was criticized by experts who argued scientific evidence did not support his withdrawal, that he sent mixed messages and that he provided a subject of discussion for anti-vaccine activists. Indeed, the curator has been targeted for the coming years.

This criticism came to the head in June, after Kennedy dismissed the 17 members of the Consultative Committee for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a federal panel which was an essential link in the vaccine distribution pipeline.

Kennedy replaced the experts with eight allies picked by hand, including one of the anti-vaccine movement. Finally, a nominated abandoned after a conflict of interest.

The consultative panel against vaccines voted in favor of the abolition of Thimérosal during a 5-1 vote (with abstention) after a controversial presentation by Lyn Redwood, a former leader of the World Mercury project, the predecessor of the Kennedy health group for children, itself, a prolific anti-vaccin campaign group.

Redwood’s presentation had to be updated after finding that it contained a link to a study that did not exist. One of Kennedy’s vaccination advisers said at the meeting that a presentation of CDC career scientists, who established Thimeralosal’s security, had been withdrawn by the secretary’s office.

The CDC director is required to sign the recommendations of the Vaccine Advisory Committee. Because there are not currently a CDC director confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy acts as head of the CDC.

The decision to remove Thimérosal from all vaccines in the United States will probably also complicate the overall image of vaccines.

“The United States now eliminating the mercury of all vaccines, we urge the World Health Authorities to follow this cautious example for the protection of children around the world,” Kennedy said.