Friday, 11 July 2025

Revamped CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel Takes Vote On Flu Shots Containing Thimerosal

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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which consists of members appointed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voted 5-1 on Thursday to recommend against flu vaccines containing the controversial preservative thimerosal.

Full text:

RFK Jr.’s New CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee Just Voted: Thimerosal Is Out of Flu Shots!

For decades, multi-dose flu shots contained thimerosal—a mercury-based preservative.

There’s never been a single study proving it’s safe, even at trace levels.

Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, which crosses the blood-brain barrier and metabolizes into the most toxic form of mercury—twice as fast as methylmercury.

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One flu shot could deliver 25 mcg of ethylmercury—25,000 times the EPA’s safety limit for drinking water.

Although thimerosal was phased out of all routine childhood vaccines by 2001, it remained in many flu shots given to kids and pregnant women.

Finally, the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee (ACIP) has voted to remove thimerosal from all flu vaccines going forward.

This is a long-overdue win for public health.

WATCH:

ABC News reports:

A few moments before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee voted 6-0 to recommend all Americans aged 6 months and older receive an annual influenza vaccine.

One committee member, Vicky Pebsworth, abstained on each vote.

Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative, which is used to prevent microbial contamination of vaccines. Most flu vaccines currently used in the United States contain little to no thimerosal, but both the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC say there is no evidence low doses of thimerosal in vaccines cause harm other than minor reactions at the injection site, such as redness or swelling.

Full text:

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices finally, decades after the res of the world, recommends that nobody get a flu vaccine containing mercury. earlier today they passed the following recommendations:

Vote#1, ACIP Recommends children 18 years and younger receive seasonal influenza vaccines only in single dose formulations that are free of thimerosal as a preservative.

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Vote #2, ACIP recommends pregnant women receive seasonal influenza vaccines only in single dose formulations that are free of thimerosal as a preservative.

Vote #3, ACIP recommends all adults receive seasonal influenza vaccines only in single dose formulations that are free of thimerosal as a preservative.

Per NBC News:

Before ACIP recommendations are implemented, the CDC director must sign off on them. However, there is currently no director in place as the nominee for the position, Susan Monarez, awaits confirmation by the Senate. In the absence of a director, Kennedy has the authority to adopt the ACIP’s recommendations. ACIP recommendations do not mean the multi-dose vials are banned; for that to happen the Food and Drug Administration would need to revoke approval.

Thimerosal-free flu shots account for the majority of the doses given in the U.S. Just 4%-5% of flu vaccines used during the 2024-2025 season were multi-dose, thimerosal-containing vaccines, Tracey Beth Høeg, a special advisor to the FDA commissioner, said during the meeting.

Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrician, was the lone dissenting vote.

“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent, as far as we know, risk from thimerosal,” Meissner said of his vote. “I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine because the only available preparation contains thimerosal. I find that very hard to justify.”

Meissner had initially followed up Redwood’s presentation by saying he wasn’t sure how to respond to it. “This is an old issue that has been addressed in the past,” he said.

Multiple infectious disease experts said on a Thursday press call following the ACIP meeting that multi-dose vaccines can be useful for vaccinating large groups such as workers. The decision not to recommend thimerosal-containing vaccines could also dissuade other countries — where multi-dose vials are more common — from using them, thereby reducing vaccine access, they added.


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