Should Australia worry about RFK Jr’s shock flu vaccine move? | Health

What does RFK JR have to do with this decision?

Robert F Kennedy Jr, skeptical of vaccines and health secretary in the United States, revised the Consultative Committee for Vaccination Practices (ACIP). He dismissed the 17 former members and appointed his ideological allies, some of which were associated with the spread of disinformation of vaccines.

The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on infectious Diseases, Dr Sean O’Leary, said that the world was looking at the new Aipic “as a horror”, and that it was “really an embarrassment”.

Friday (Time Australia) ACIP voted to recommend against antigrippal vaccines containing Thimérosal, known in Australia under the name of Thiomersal. Anti-Vaxxers have a long duration of Thiomère, a vaccine curator, even if it is safe and makes vaccines safer by preventing bacterial and fungal contamination.

There are concerns that the decision could make vaccines more expensive and more difficult to obtain, and wider concerns are that the ACIP’s decision could fuel the disinformation and hesitation in vaccines.

From the ACIP panel, five voted in favor, one of the other and Dr Cody Meissner, professor of pediatrics, was the only “no”.

“The abolition of thimerosal of all vaccines used in other countries … will reduce access to these vaccines, this will increase costs, and I think it is important to note that no study has never indicated thimetrosal damage,” he said.

What is Thimersal?

Thimersal is a safe and effective preservative that is rarely, but sometimes used in vaccines.

It contains ethylmercure, which should not be confused with methylmercury, which accumulates in the body and has toxic effects.

Ethylmercure, on the other hand, is more quickly converted into the body into inorganic mercury, then excreted.

The National Center for Immunization Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) says that it has been used in very small quantities since the 1930s to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination, especially in multi-doses bottles where contamination is more likely.

Above at the same time as the background work of Andrew Wakefield which wrongly linked autism vaccines, a study on methylmercury (not ethylmercure, that of thiomersal) is out.

People falsely confused the two types of mercury and linked it to the false pretensions of Wakefield that vaccines were linked to autism.

Do we have it in Australian vaccines?

None of the vaccines listed in the national immunization program uses Thiomersal. It is only present in the vaccine for Q fever, which is only recommended for people at risk thanks to their contact with animals.

Thimersal has not been used in any of the vaccines regularly given to children in Australia since 2000.

Dr. Gary Grohmann, the former chief of immunobiology evaluating vaccines with therapy of Goods Administration, said that Australia has one of the best world vaccine programs and is “fairly independent” in the United States.

Grohmann also worked for the World Organization for Geneva as a virologist.

He says that Thiomersal is generally not necessary because Australia mainly uses single dose vaccines that do not run the same risk of contamination as multi-doses vaccines. He also says that by an overabundance of prudence and a concern for the perception of the public, Australia has decided not to use the Thiomersal even if it is certain.

Partly, Professor Julie Leask, social researcher specializing in vaccination at the University of Sydney, says that it could have done more harm at the end, by “legitimizing this idea” that it was harmful.

In addition, although there is no evidence of potential damage, there was a purely theoretical concern concerning higher contributions in premature babies with low birth weights, as well as a more general wish to reduce the exposure of children to mercury.

So, does RFK’s move count here?

Leask says he will have “very little impact on the availability of vaccines” in Australia.

But there are other concerns.

A speculative, she says, is that vaccine manufacturers could be frightened by the Movement of the ACIP “throw away” on Thiomersal and eliminate funding for research on vaccines.

The much more important problem, she said, is the “super-repairing of disinformation or distortion of evidence” to make vaccines harmful, by the type of expert committee that we were supposed to be able to trust.

“This anti-vacuum feeling is now at this very high level in the American government, and it gives it a form of legitimacy that he has never really had before,” she said.

“We have never seen a Western government also willing to undermine public confidence in vaccinations. I have never been so concerned about the propensity for the confidence of vaccines to be eroded by what is happening in the United States at the moment. ”

Grohmann agrees. “The biggest problem is disinformation, which prevents people from vaccinating their children,” he said.

“Then you could get epidemics of measles, whooping, in non -vaccinated communities.”

What should I do?

Leask says people should use their critical faculties to judge what they read, especially online.

“When you seem to be bombed with frightening information on vaccines, which is often very tested,” she said.

“Keep an eye on the advice of Australia.

“You can always trust what you can read from sources authoritative in Australia, including NCIR and government.”

Grohmann says that the rejection of disinformation and fear of rare side effects, people should understand the advantages of vaccines to save lives and for the economy.

Each dollar spent on vaccination saves $ 16, he says.

“There is a positive economic advantage in terms of hospitalizations, visits to general practitioners, parents who are not lacking in work, there is no shortage of children,” he said.

His other advice is “to listen to experts, not youtubers”. “We will vaccinate for a reason,” he says. “It is to prevent people from dying.”

And, says Leask, there will be interesting fights in the United States between those who know the evidence and those who would deform it.

“There are still heroes in American agencies that fight a silent internal battle to keep good evidence under the spotlight,” she said.