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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Kennedy's vaccine panel votes to remove preservative long targeted by activists
ATLANTA — A panel of vaccine advisers selected by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted Thursday to recommend that no one get a flu vaccine that contains thimerosal — a preservative that has long been a target of the anti-vaccine movement and Kennedy himself. Five members voted to recommend that no children, pregnant women, or adults get any flu vaccine with thimerosal. If the CDC adopts the recommendation, it will mark one of the first major changes in federal vaccine guidance and access as Kennedy embarks on his goal of remaking immunization policy in his image. 'The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent, as far as we know, risk from thimerosal,' said Dr. Cody Meissner, the only panel member who voted no. 'I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine because the only available preparation is with thimerosal." The CDC director usually needs to endorse the recommendations before they are official. But Kennedy will likely be the one to endorse these recommendations because there is currently no CDC director or acting director. The decision came after a presentation from Lyn Redwood, a former president of the Kennedy-founded anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, who identified herself as a 'private citizen.' The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Kennedy had hired Redwood to work in the CDC's vaccine safety office. The HHS directory lists Redwood as an 'expert' in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Department spokespeople and Redwood didn't respond to requests for comment on Redwood's role. Redwood's presentation largely argued that thimerosal, a preservative that has been used in vaccines since the 1930s, should be removed from the products because of safety concerns. The CDC website says that there is 'no evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site.' A CDC background document for members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, posted by the agency on Tuesday and later removed from its website, also diverges from Redwood's conclusion, arguing there is overwhelming evidence that thimerosal-containing vaccines do not cause neurological problems. ACIP member Dr. Robert Malone said the document was removed because 'it was not authorized by the office of the secretary.' Redwood's presentation argued there is evidence that thimerosal can cause serious complications, especially for pregnant women. 'The fact that thimerosal from vaccines has been documented to raise blood mercury levels over known thresholds where developmental effects have been documented to occur during the first few months of life, means that particular 'windows of vulnerability' may have been breached,' Redwood said. Thimerosal continues to be used as a preservative in multi-dose vaccine vials to inhibit germ growth, but the vast majority of FDA-licensed flu vaccines are already thimerosal-free — 96 percent of all flu vaccines in the U.S. last season didn't contain the preservative, according to the CDC document removed from the website. It was largely removed from childhood vaccines in 2001, and several pediatric products — including the measles, mumps and rubella and varicella shots — never included the ingredient. In 1999, the FDA and CDC announced plans to work with manufacturers to reduce or remove thimerosal from vaccines. But the move was a precautionary measure, and further research has identified no link between the ingredient and neurological defects. Several ACIP members agreed with Redwood, including committee Chair Martin Kulldorff, who argued that while the level of thimerosal in vaccines may be safe, it could contribute to high cumulative mercury exposure. But Meissner, a pediatrics professor at Dartmouth College's medical school, pushed back strongly against Redwood's assertion. 'I'm not quite sure how to respond to this presentation,' Meissner said. He went on to note that thimerosal is metabolized into ethylmercury and thiosalicylate, not methylmercury, which is found in fish and shellfish and is highly toxic to humans. 'Ethylmercury is excreted much more quickly from the body, and is not associated with the high neurotoxicity that methylmercury has,' Meissner noted. 'Of all the issues that I think ACIP needs to focus on, this is not a big issue,' he added. Many public health experts on the call also pushed back. Jason Goldman of the American College of Physicians asked whether the committee would get an 'actual CDC presentation done by staff, scientists, physicians and those who are subject matter experts with accurate, peer-reviewed scientific data or the ability for the committee to review [the data]' or if they would just hear 'layperson presentations.' Separately, the panel also recommended the updated influenza vaccine for the upcoming fall and winter season. Six members voted to approve, while Vicky Pebsworth, a public health scientist and nurse who's served on the board of an anti-vaccine group, abstained. Members of the press were not allowed to leave the press area, largely preventing them from speaking with the members of the committee. Kulldorff declined to answer questions following the meeting. 'This committee strongly supports the use of vaccines and other counter measures predicated on evidence-based medicine, including rigorous evaluation and expansive credible scientific data for both safety and efficacy,' the committee said in a statement after the meeting concluded. 'All stakeholders, including healthcare providers, parents, children, schools, nursing homes, insurance providers, public health agencies, manufacturers and the rare few who may be harmed by recommended interventions need to have understandable, digestible, scientifically correct information.' The CDC's vaccine advisory committee may consider at its next meeting a proposal to advise against giving a combination shot against measles and chickenpox to children under 4, Kulldorff said Thursday after delivering a presentation on the product. Under the current childhood immunization schedule, the CDC recommends that children receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the varicella vaccine — the first between 12 and 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years of age. An MMR-chickenpox combination vaccine, known as MMRV, may be used, but the agency advises that the first dose be administered as two separate shots. ACIP updated its recommendation in 2009 to recommend separate MMR and varicella vaccinations for younger children due to an increased risk of febrile seizures in children under 2 who received the combination shot compared with those who got the two distinct vaccines. Fever-induced seizures are common in young children — the CDC estimates the risk at 5 percent — but don't cause permanent harm. 'A proposed recommendation — we're not going to vote on that this time, but possibly at the next meeting — could be that, as there exists a safer, equally effective alternative, the MMRV vaccine should not be administered to children under the age of 47 months,' Kulldorff said.
Politico
2 days ago
- Health
- Politico
Kennedy's vaccine panel met for the first time. Here's what to know.
ATLANTA — The first meeting of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handpicked vaccine advisers concluded Thursday — setting the stage to change the childhood vaccine schedule and voting to stop recommending flu shots with an additive that has long been a target of the anti-vaccine movement. The meeting offered a glimpse into how the new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will operate — and how federal vaccine policy is beginning to reflect Kennedy's personal views. Earlier this month, he fired 17 members of the panel and replaced them with eight members, several of whom have histories of vaccine skepticism. One resigned before the meeting began, leaving seven members. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told reporters that 'the members of the committee are respected experts who take their responsibility to public health seriously' and who 'deliver recommendations rooted in data and medical integrity.' Here are the takeaways from the two-day meeting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta: Its agenda was Kennedy's The panel voted Thursday to stop recommending that anyone get a flu vaccine that contains thimerosal, a preservative that Kennedy has long wanted gone. Kennedy, in 2014, wrote a book about thimerosal, arguing that it likely causes autism and should be banned. But many public health agencies have long considered it to be safe — including the CDC, according to its website. 'Scientists have been studying the use of thimerosal in vaccines for many years. They haven't found any evidence that thimerosal causes harm,' the website reads. The CDC director usually needs to endorse the recommendations before they are official. But Kennedy will likely be the one to endorse these recommendations because there is currently no CDC director or acting director. What it means: If endorsed, the new recommendations will mark one of the most prominent examples of Kennedy's own views reflected in U.S. vaccine policy since becoming HHS secretary. 'Even though this move only affects a small portion of the flu vaccine supply and likely won't impact access in the US this season, the symbolism is powerful. It signals that falsehoods may have a place in shaping vaccine policy in America,' Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who has consulted for the CDC, told POLITICO. 'The ripple effects could undermine trust in vaccines, vaccine access globally and weaken pandemic preparedness.' Thimerosal continues to be used as a preservative in some multi-dose vaccine vials to inhibit germ growth. But its use in FDA-licensed flu vaccines has declined over the last 25 years as manufacturers reformulated their products and shifted to single-use vials. Most of those contain little or no thimerosal, according to the CDC. That shift was tied to concerns raised in the late 1990s and early 2000s that thimerosal, a mercury-containing compound, could be linked to autism in children. In 1999, the FDA and CDC announced plans to work with manufacturers to reduce or remove thimerosal from vaccines as a precaution. The preservative was largely removed from pediatric vaccines by 2001. One member's pushback The panel's lone pediatrician, Dartmouth's Dr. Cody Meissner, was the only voting member to push back on views presented that contradicted scientific consensus, a development that encouraged some public health experts who were otherwise troubled by the meeting. 'He's dealt with vaccine-preventable diseases. He's talked to parents about vaccines, so I thought he was generally a voice of reason,' said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician who serves on the FDA's external vaccine panel. What it means: It remains to be seen how Meissner will approach controversial topics at future meetings. He's also publicly agreed with Kennedy's move to pull the Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for pregnant women despite ample evidence of its benefits. Meissner told Reuters in May he thought politics had caused officials to overemphasize the importance of Covid vaccination for pregnant women and young children. Offit and former federal health officials applauded his participation and his defense of science. Meissner was critical of the American Academy of Pediatrics for not participating in the meeting. Several professional groups send liaisons to ACIP meetings to weigh in, though they don't have voting privileges. 'It's somewhat childish for them not to appear,' Meissner said near the end of the meeting Thursday. 'It's dialogue that leads to the best recommendations for the use of vaccines.' Dr. Sean O'Leary, the AAP's committee liaison, defended the organization's decision to not participate, saying ACIP 'has drifted so far from its long standing focus on science, evidence, public health.' 'When that focus returns, we will, too,' he said. More scrutiny of vaccines is ahead The committee's agenda items in the months ahead signal that Thursday's thimerosal votes were just the beginning of policy shifts that could affect vaccine access in the U.S. ACIP Chair Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and former Harvard Medical School professor, said Wednesday the panel will review childhood vaccines and shots not studied in more than seven years, opening up the possibility of significant changes to the pediatric schedule. And he said Thursday the panel may consider at its next meeting advising against use of a combination shot known as MMRV against measles and chickenpox to children under 4. The CDC currently recommends that children under 2 get their first measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and varicella vaccine as separate shots because of an elevated risk with the MMRV shot of febrile seizure, which is common in young children but doesn't cause permanent harm. Why it matters: The thimerosal vote and the potential MMRV recommendation change wouldn't affect a wide swath of the population, given ample supply of alternatives. But those shifts could disproportionately impact vulnerable groups that already face issues accessing health care, like rural state residents and low-income families because they are more likely to get flu shots from wide-scale vaccination drives, public health experts say — not to mention plant the seeds for distrust in other vaccines. Anti-vaccine activists have long alleged links between vaccines and autism. They've theorized that thimerosal, the number of vaccines given to young children and post-immunization fevers could all contribute to the rise in diagnoses, despite peer-reviewed science finding no connections. While the CDC says just 4 percent of the U.S. flu vaccine supply last season contained thimerosal, scientists worry that the ACIP votes will reinvigorate unfounded worries about the ingredient that could generally suppress vaccine confidence — not to mention create access issues for the sliver of the population served by those multi-dose vials. The MMRV vaccine is also not widely used in children under 4. 'The goal was to scare people … the goal was to say, 'Here, look, these companies are putting things in vaccines that are dangerous,'' Offit said.
Politico
2 days ago
- Health
- Politico
Kennedy's vaccine panel votes to remove preservative long targeted by activists
ATLANTA — A panel of vaccine advisers selected by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted Thursday to recommend that no one get a flu vaccine that contains thimerosal — a preservative that has long been a target of the anti-vaccine movement and Kennedy himself. Five members voted to recommend that no children, pregnant women, or adult get any flu vaccine with thimerosal. If the CDC adopts the recommendation, it will mark one of the first major changes in federal vaccine guidance and access as Kennedy embarks on his goal of remaking immunization policy in his image. 'The risk from influenza is so much greater than the non-existent, as far as we know, risk from thimerosal,' said Dr. Cody Meissner, the only panel member who voted no. 'I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine because the only available preparation is with thimerosal.' The CDC director usually needs to endorse the recommendations before they are official. But Kennedy will likely be the one to endorse these recommendations because there is currently no CDC director or acting director. The decision came after a presentation from Lyn Redwood, a former president of the Kennedy-founded anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, who identified herself as a 'private citizen.' The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Kennedy had hired Redwood to work in the CDC's vaccine safety office. The HHS directory lists Redwood as an 'expert' in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Department spokespeople and Redwood didn't respond to requests for comment on Redwood's role. Redwood's presentation largely argued that thimerosal, a preservative that has been used in vaccines since the 1930s, should be removed from the products because of safety concerns. The CDC website says that there is 'no evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site.' A CDC background document for members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, posted by the agency on Tuesday and later removed from its website, also diverges from Redwood's conclusion, arguing there is overwhelming evidence that thimerosal-containing vaccines do not cause neurological problems. ACIP member Dr. Robert Malone said the document was removed because 'it was not authorized by the office of the secretary.' Redwood's presentation argued there is evidence that thimerosal can cause serious complications, especially for pregnant women. 'The fact that thimerosal from vaccines has been documented to raise blood mercury levels over known thresholds where developmental effects have been documented to occur during the first few months of life, means that particular 'windows of vulnerability' may have been breached,' Redwood said. Thimerosal continues to be used as a preservative in multi-dose vaccine vials to inhibit germ growth, but the vast majority of FDA-licensed flu vaccines are already thimerosal-free — 96 percent of all flu vaccines in the U.S. last season didn't contain the preservative, according to the CDC document removed from the website. It was largely removed from childhood vaccines in 2001, and several pediatric products — including the measles, mumps and rubella and varicella shots — never included the ingredient. In 1999, the FDA and CDC announced plans to work with manufacturers to reduce or remove thimerosal from vaccines as a precautionary measure. But the move was a precautionary measure, and further research has identified no link between the ingredient and neurological defects. Several ACIP members agreed with Redwood, including committee Chair Martin Kulldorff, who argued that while the level of thimerosal in vaccines may be safe, it could contribute to high cumulative mercury exposure. But Meissner, a pediatrics professor at Dartmouth College's medical school, pushed back strongly against Redwood's assertion. 'I'm not quite sure how to respond to this presentation,' Meissner said. He went on to note that thimerosal is metabolized into ethylmercury and thiosalicylate, not methylmercury, which is found in fish and shellfish and is highly toxic to humans. 'Ethylmercury is excreted much more quickly from the body, and is not associated with the high neurotoxicity that methylmercury has,' Meissner noted. 'Of all the issues that I think ACIP needs to focus on, this is not a big issue,' he added. Many public health experts on the call also pushed back. Jason Goldman of the American College of Physicians asked whether the committee would get an 'actual CDC presentation done by staff, scientists, physicians and those who are subject matter experts with accurate, peer-reviewed scientific data or the ability for the committee to review [the data]' or if they would just hear 'layperson presentations.' Separately, the panel also recommended the updated influenza vaccine for the upcoming fall and winter season. Six members voted to approve, while Vicky Pebsworth, a public health scientist and nurse who's served on the board of an anti-vaccine group, abstained. Members of the press were not allowed to leave the press area, largely preventing them from speaking with the members of the committee. Kulldorff declined to answer questions following the meeting. 'This committee strongly supports the use of vaccines and other counter measures predicated on evidence-based medicine, including rigorous evaluation and expansive credible scientific data for both safety and efficacy,' the committee said in a statement after the meeting concluded. 'All stakeholders, including healthcare providers, parents, children, schools, nursing homes, insurance providers, public health agencies, manufacturers and the rare few who may be harmed by recommended interventions need to have understandable, digestible, scientifically correct information.' The CDC's vaccine advisory committee may consider at its next meeting a proposal to advise against giving a combination shot against measles and chickenpox to children under 4, Kulldorff said Thursday after delivering a presentation on the product. Under the current childhood immunization schedule, the CDC recommends that children receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the varicella vaccine — the first between 12 and 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years of age. An MMR-chickenpox combination vaccine, known as MMRV, may be used, but the agency advises that the first dose be administered as two separate shots. ACIP updated its recommendation in 2009 to recommend separate MMR and varicella vaccinations for younger children due to an increased risk of febrile seizures in children under 2 who received the combination shot compared with those who got the two distinct vaccines. Fever-induced seizures are common in young children — the CDC estimates the risk at 5 percent — but don't cause permanent harm. 'A proposed recommendation — we're not going to vote on that this time, but possibly at the next meeting — could be that, as there exists a safer, equally effective alternative, the MMRV vaccine should not be administered to children under the age of 47 months,' Kulldorff said.
Politico
20-06-2025
- Health
- Politico
RFK Jr.'s past claims shadow vaccine panel agenda
Presented by With help from Amanda Chu and Danny Nguyen Driving the Day ACIP AGENDA CHANGE — The agenda for next week's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting includes some notable differences from the notice posted in the Federal Register earlier this month, Sophie reports with POLITICO's Lauren Gardner. Most notably, the panel will hold two separate votes for the flu shot: one on influenza vaccines and another on influenza vaccines that contain thimerosal. In 2014, before he became health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a book in which he alleges the vaccine preservative thimerosal likely caused autism and should be banned — a claim that health agencies now under his control have said is unfounded. Thimerosal continues to be used as a preservative in multidose vaccine vials to inhibit germ growth. But its use in FDA-licensed flu vaccines has declined over the past 25 years as manufacturers reformulated their products and shifted to single-use vials. Most of those contain little or no thimerosal, according to the CDC. The meeting marks the first for Kennedy's revamped ACIP roster — following the firing of the previous 17 members — which includes several vaccine skeptics. No Covid vote: The agenda does not include a vote on Covid-19 vaccines, despite the Federal Register notice saying a vote is planned. Last month, Kennedy updated the CDC's Covid recommendations without a vote from the panel, breaking from tradition. Kennedy removed the recommendation that pregnant women get the shot, and the CDC changed the recommendation for healthy children to 'shared clinical decision making' — meaning children 'may' get vaccinated if their doctors and parents want them to. The HPV vaccine and meningococcal vaccine were also slated for a vote according to the meeting's Federal Register notice but aren't included in the draft agenda. Cut short? The agenda for the advisory committee's meeting includes only two days, June 25 and 26, but the initial Federal Register notice said the panel would also meet on June 27. A spokesperson for HHS did not comment on the thimerosal vote or why the agenda for the 27th wasn't included. WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE. For more on what next week's ACIP agenda holds, keep reading. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and sgardner@ and follow along @Kelhoops and @sophie_gardnerj. Vaccines 'THEY CROSSED THE LINE' — Dr. Fiona Havers, a CDC scientist who collected and compiled data on Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus before stepping down this week, told POLITICO that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s overhaul of the agency's outside panel of vaccine experts was her final straw. 'I knew at that point that they had crossed the line,' Havers said. 'As a physician and a scientist, and for my own personal integrity, I did not feel like I could stay and legitimize this process.' The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices votes on vaccine recommendations, playing an integral role in developing childhood and adult vaccine schedules. Last week, Kennedy fired the entire panel and replaced them with members he hand-selected. The first meeting of the new members is scheduled for next week. Havers often presented data to the panel to inform its decisions. I spoke with Havers about her decision to resign and what she will be watching for at next month's meeting. Here's our conversation, edited for length and clarity. What made you resign? [It was a] culmination over the last one to two months of RFK Jr. trashing the vaccine policy recommendation process at CDC. This has been building for a while. Several events have really undermined the vaccine policy process. One was in late May, when FDA officials released this regulatory framework suggesting that only those 65 years older and people with underlying medical conditions should receive [updated] Covid-19 vaccines. Then the following week, the HHS secretary announced on X that the Covid vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women had been removed from the CDC recommended vaccine immunization schedule … Basically, RFK Jr. was making CDC vaccine policy on X without involving CDC. And that was pretty shocking, because there's a very rigorous process in place. Then last week, when they announced the firing of all 17 ACIP members, I knew I was done. Can you share any thoughts on Kennedy's replacement picks? These people are, for the most part — with very few possible exceptions — not the people that should be sitting on ACIP. What will you be watching at the meeting next week? If CDC is presenting the data … the data coming out of CDC is still solid. As of now, I can speak to the fact that the COVID-NET and RSV-NET data is high-quality evidence and can be believed. How those data get used to make vaccine policy decisions is really what's in question right now. Seeing the kind of questions that they ask and what they say may give some clue as to how they may vote in the future. I am very concerned that there's going to be a restricting of access to vaccines for people that otherwise should be getting them, and we'll get some sense of if that's actually going to happen. HHS response: HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told POLITICO that HHS is 'committed to following the gold standard of scientific integrity,' and 'vaccine policy decisions will be based on objective data, transparent analysis and evidence — not conflicts of interest or industry influence.' AROUND THE AGENCIES GAIN-OF-FUNCTION CUTS — The National Institutes of Health is cutting and suspending funding for gain-of-function research, a move that will impact biomedical projects conducted globally, Danny reports. The NIH's directive, released Wednesday, will immediately terminate funding and other support for gain-of-function research conducted by 'foreign entities in countries of concern or foreign countries where there is no adequate oversight.' The order didn't explicitly name the targeted groups and countries. The NIH did not respond to a request for comment. The agency will also suspend funding and additional support for all other gain-of-function research and has asked researchers who receive NIH funds to identify other projects not yet identified by the agency that fit the category by June 30. Gain-of-function research involves genetically altering biological organisms to enhance transmission or other functions, which can help scientists identify therapeutic targets. Key context: The move comes months after the Trump administration marked gain-of-function research as dangerous. Earlier this year, the administration said the Covid pandemic was caused by a lab leak from gain-of-function research at a virology research institute in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first appeared. Many scientists, however, believe the disease was caused by natural spillover from an animal to a human. The Trump administration's theory, memorialized in a glossy website unveiled in April, prompted President Donald Trump to issue an executive order last month to eliminate federal funding for gain-of-function research in countries such as China, which Trump has criticized for inadequate research oversight. The NIH's latest missive delivers on this executive order. In other research news: The FDA announced Wednesday it would immediately review new clinical trials that 'involve sending American citizens' living cells to China and other hostile countries for genetic engineering and subsequent infusion back into U.S. patients — sometimes without their knowledge or consent.' The order, endorsed by the NIH, is another swipe at foreign research — particularly studies performed in China, which the administration has characterized as poorly regulated. Industry Intel BURR'S LOBBYING GIG — The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the world's largest biotech organization, has tapped former Republican Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) to lobby on issues related to drug pricing and supply chains, Medicare and Medicaid and reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, Amanda reports. Now health policy chair at law firm DLA Piper, Burr was the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and was a champion of reforming the FDA. Jamie Gregorian, a former senior policy adviser at the FDA and assistant to Burr in the Senate, will also represent BIO at DLA Piper, according to the law firm's disclosure submitted today. The outside hire from BIO marks the third for the group this year and comes as the biotech industry faces a steep drop in investor funding amid President Donald Trump's cuts to regulatory agencies. Earlier this week, BIO hired former Trump White House adviser Matt Mowers and Trump's campaign deputy director Bill Killion, who both now work at Valcour, a Washington-based lobbying firm. WHAT WE'RE READING POLITICO's Jordain Carney and Robert King report that Senate Republican leaders are seeking ways to tamp down moderates' worries about the megabill's possible impact on rural hospitals. The New York Times' Roni Caryn Rabin reports on the Trump administration's travel restrictions impacting medical residents.
Politico
18-06-2025
- Health
- Politico
Vaccine advisers to review ingredient RFK Jr. has long wanted banned
Before he became health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a book alleging the vaccine preservative thimerosal likely caused autism and should be banned — a claim that health agencies now under his control have said is unfounded. Next week, Kennedy-appointed advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will consider thimerosal's use in vaccines. The agenda for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, released Wednesday, says the panel will hold two separate votes: one on 'Influenza Vaccines' and one on influenza vaccines that contain thimerosal. In his 2014 book, Kennedy argued that 'there is a virtually unanimous scientific consensus among the hundreds of research scientists who have published peer-reviewed articles in the field that Thimerosal is immensely toxic to brain tissue' and called for its removal from vaccines. Myriad peer-reviewed scientific studies dispute that there's any link between thimerosal and health harms, and a federal vaccine court rejected arguments alleging a link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism in the late 2000s. The panel's move to examine thimerosal suggests Kennedy is using it to pursue the ban he's long sought, wrote MedPage Today Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Faust in a commentary. 'Elevating this debunked myth to national policy lends credence to misinformation, and sets the stage for other actions that may undermine vaccine confidence in the United States,' Faust added. Thimerosal continues to be used as a preservative in multi-dose vaccine vials to inhibit germ growth. But its use in FDA-licensed flu vaccines has declined over the last 25 years as manufacturers reformulated their products and shifted to single-use vials. Most of those contain little or no thimerosal, according to the CDC. Spokespeople for Sanofi and Seqirus, the two manufacturers of thimerosal-containing flu vaccines marketed in the U.S., didn't immediately comment on how much of those products they sell domestically versus preservative-free shots. That shift came amid concerns raised in the late 1990s and early 2000s that thimerosal, a mercury-containing compound, could be linked to autism in children. In 1999, the FDA and CDC announced plans to work with manufacturers to reduce or remove thimerosal from vaccines as a precaution. The preservative was largely removed from pediatric vaccines by 2001. Kennedy fired the advisory panel's 17 members last week and replaced them with eight new ones, several of whom have histories of vaccine skepticism. The agenda for the advisory committee's meeting only includes two days, June 25 and 26, but a Federal Register notice says the panel will also meet on June 27. A spokesperson for HHS did not comment on the thimerosal vote or why the agenda for the 27th was not included. No Covid vote: The agenda does not include a vote on Covid-19 vaccines, despite the Federal Register notice saying a vote is planned. Last month, Kennedy updated the CDC's Covid-19 recommendations without a vote from the panel, breaking from tradition. Kennedy removed the recommendation that pregnant women get the shot, and the CDC changed the recommendation for healthy children to 'shared clinical decision making' — meaning children 'may' get vaccinated if their doctors and parents want them to. The HPV vaccine and meningococcal vaccine were also slated for a vote according to the meeting's Federal Register notice, but are not included in the draft agenda.
