Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s war against vaccines has garnered another victory. An outside advisory panel newly reassembled by RFK Jr. has voted today to recommend against people using vaccines containing thimerosal, a once-common ingredient that anti-vaccination advocates have wrongly blamed for causing autism and other health problems.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met this week to issue several vaccine-related recommendations. In a majority vote, the ACIP recommended against children, pregnant people, and adults receiving certain flu vaccines with thimerosal, despite decades of data showing no harm. The decision is the strongest indicator yet that the country’s public health has been hijacked by anti-vax zealots.
The ACIP is a panel of outside experts organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their recommendations greatly influence which vaccines are routinely provided to the public. For example, states often mandate that children receive vaccines universally recommended by the ACIP, such as the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, before they can enter public school.
RFK Jr., who has a long history of spreading vaccine-related misinformation, has been busy stacking the deck against vaccines in several ways, including via the ACIP. In early June, he unilaterally fired all 17 members of the ACIP. He then quickly, without any public review, restocked the panel with new appointees, some of whom have misrepresented the science on vaccine safety or have financially benefited from testifying against vaccine manufacturers.
The new ACIP panel met for the first time Wednesday and Thursday. Its members did pass some non-controversial votes, such as recommending the routine use of clesrovimab, a recently approved antibody treatment, to prevent severe respiratory syncytial virus infection in infants not protected by maternal vaccines. And it continued to recommend a yearly seasonal flu shot for Americans aged six months and over with no contraindications.
But the ACIP was also tasked with reexamining a long-debunked talking point from anti-vaccination proponents concerning the supposed health risks of thimerosal in flu vaccines. Lyn Redwood, a former president of the anti-vaccine group founded by RFK Jr., Children’s Health Defense, gave a presentation to the ACIP Thursday morning blaming thimerosal for neurological issues.
Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative once commonly added to many vaccines in the U.S. In the late 1990s, it became a bogeyman of the anti-vaccination movement, who argued it was a possible culprit behind the supposed link between higher rates of autism and vaccines. In 1999, in an abundance of precaution, health agencies and some pediatric groups pushed for the removal of thimerosal from childhood vaccines. These days, in the U.S., it’s primarily used in multi-dose formulations of the flu vaccine, which is what the ACIP panel was asked to review.
But the vast majority of studies have since failed to find any solid evidence that thimerosal in vaccines causes any health issues, let alone autism. This week, prior to the ACIP meeting, CDC scientists even published a report that supported this conclusion and outlined the methodological flaws of the few studies contrary to it. But the document was soon taken down from the CDC’s website, purportedly because it did not go through the “appropriate process to be posted,” according to the HHS. Meanwhile, Redwood’s original ACIP presentation appeared to reference a study that doesn’t exist—not the first time something similar has happened recently (the presentation was later reuploaded without the fake citation).
None of this stopped Redwood from giving a presentation to the ACIP Thursday that ignored the scientific consensus on thimerosal. Kennedy has also now appointed Redwood, a retired registered nurse, to work in the CDC’s vaccine safety office. And despite misgivings from some ACIP members, the majority agreed to recommend against the use of thimerosal-containing flu vaccines.
The recommendation will hopefully have little practical effect, since most flu vaccines are single dose. Other available ingredients could replace its preservative effects if vaccine manufacturers so desire. But the decision is frustrating, given the complete lack of evidence behind it, and foreboding.
RFK’s reshuffling of the ACIP seems to have worked as expected in boosting the voice of the anti-vaccination movement and their nonsensical ideas. Today, it’s thimerosal. Tomorrow, it might be many of the most important vaccines we rely on.
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