US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr’s vaccine advisory panel has recommended Americans receive seasonal influenza shots that are free from thimerosal.
Thimerosal is only used in multi-dose vials of flu shots in the US during the 2024-25 flu season, despite decades of studies showing no related safety issues.
Fewer than 5 per cent of the flu shots administered were from such vials, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Anti-vaccine groups have linked thimerosal to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders for decades.
Mr Kennedy wrote a book in 2014 in which he advocated for “the immediate removal of mercury” from vaccines. In recent days, he has posted on X about its alleged dangers.
On its website, the FDA said: “There was no evidence that thimerosal in vaccines was dangerous.”
The decision to remove it previously was a precautionary measure to decrease overall exposure to mercury among young infants, it added.
Multi-dose forms of CSL’s CSL.AX Afluria and Flucelvax as well as Sanofi’s SASY.PA Fluzone use thimerosal as a preservative, according to the FDA’s website.
Paris-headquartered Sanofi said it would have sufficient supply of its flu vaccine to support customer preference for this season. CSL said it supplies a very low number of multi-dose vials of flu vaccine in response to demand.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff concluded in a report that evidence did not support an association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
The report was briefly published and then removed from the meeting’s online document site.
Panel member Dr Robert Malone said the directive to remove the staff report came from Mr Kennedy’s office.
The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), voted 5-1 in three separate votes to recommend thimerosal-free shots.
The now seven-person panel was installed by Mr Kennedy earlier this month after he fired all 17 previous ACIP outside experts.
The panel advises the CDC on who should take specific vaccines and related products and when they should be given after FDA approval.
It typically meets three times a year and intends to conduct its next meeting in the third quarter, the centres say.
“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent — as far as we know — risk from thimerosal,” Dr Cody Meissner, the only panel member who voted against the recommendation, said in explaining his vote.
Process called a ‘farce’
Lyn Redwood, formerly of the Kennedy-founded anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, gave the presentation on thimerosal, arguing that it was a neurotoxin.
Ms Redwood’s presentation posted on the CDC’s website earlier this week initially included a reference to a study that does not exist.
The report she presented to the committee was significantly shorter, removing a slide that made a reference to that study and another saying she did not have any conflicts of interest.
“With the vote on thimerosal this afternoon, the new committee has turned the ACIP process into a farce,” said former CDC vaccine adviser Dr Fiona Havers, who resigned last week over Mr Kennedy’s changes to vaccine policy.
She said it is unprecedented to have an outside speaker present and then move immediately to a vote.
Evidence is usually compiled formally by the CDC and reviewed by a work group, Dr Havers said.
She added that CDC experts did not present their data publicly to refute Ms Redwood.
CBS and The New York Times have reported that the agency hired Dr Redwood to work in its vaccine safety office.
Concerns raised
On Thursday, the committee voted 5-2 to recommend use of Merck’s MRK.N recently approved RSV antibody drug Enflonsia for infants eight months or younger whose mothers did not receive a preventive shot during pregnancy.
ACIP panel member Retsef Levi raised safety concerns about the antibody drug, which were addressed by experts at the FDA and CDC.
He said he would be concerned about giving the product to one of his healthy children and was one of the two votes against the recommendation.
The panel’s recommendations need to be adopted by either the CDC director or the Health and Human Services Secretary before becoming final.
There is currently no CDC director.
US President Donald Trump’s nominee for the post, Susan Monarez, spoke to a Senate committee yesterday as part of the confirmation process.
ABC/Reuters