What is Thimeralal, consistant of vaccine, called “toxic” by the American Head of Health? | Health news

During the first health and human services meeting Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr Recently reduced the vaccine, the group voted to stop recommending influenza vaccines containing Thimérosal, a vaccine curator.

In a long post of June 24, which preceded the meeting, Kennedy, who spent two decades as chief of anti-vaccine movement, described the Thimérosal using terms such as “toxic” and the hundreds of studies identify it as a “powerful neurotoxin”. He also said that there were high doses of mercury in influenza vaccines recommended for pregnant women and children.

The meeting of the Consultative Committee for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States on vaccination practices (ACIP), on June 25 and 26, included the discussion of the vaccines containing Thimérosal before its vote on the flu vaccines.

ACIP is an independent group that provides vaccination recommendations that the CDC director examines and decides to officially adopt. Earlier in June, Kennedy rejected 17 members of the AIPI, replacing them with seven new members, including people who have expressed doubt about the effectiveness of vaccines and Anti-Vaccinal fumeaux promoted.

Doctors and scientists who have been studying vaccines have been looking for the use of Thimérosal for decades. Here is what we know about the conservative of the vaccines and its withdrawal of influenza vaccines.

What is Thimérosal?

Thimérosal is a mercury preservative used in certain vaccines.

Many people – especially those who are pregnant or breastfeeding – meet mercury consumption warnings, as in seafood. But these warnings concern methylmercury, which is in certain types of fish and is known to be toxic to people when consumed at high levels.

Thimérosal contains ethylmercure – a unique difference that may not seem significant, but the east.

Human bodies can decompose and excrete ethylmercure quickly, which means that it is less likely to harm. On the other hand, methylmercury is more likely to accumulate in the body and to harm.

In vaccines, Thimérosal is added to prevent harmful microbes such as bacteria and fungi from developing in vaccination bottles.

“The introduction of bacteria and fungi has the potential to occur when a syringe needle enters a bottle because a vaccine is being prepared for administration,” said the CDC website. “Germ contamination in a vaccine could cause serious local reactions, serious illness or death. In some vaccines, preservatives, including Thimérosal, are added during the manufacturing process to prevent the growth of germs. ”

Thimérosal was at the heart of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism for 20 years.

In 2005, Kennedy wrote an article co-published by Rolling Stone and Salon which presumed of the main health agencies, in particular the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, had compared to vaccine manufacturers to hide a study which revealed that the Thimérosal “could have caused autism in thousands of children”. Scientists and researchers said Kennedy’s argument was inaccurate and misleading. Continuous research has not found any connection between Thimérosal and Autism. Kennedy’s article was removed from Rolling Stone and Salon retracted it in 2011.

In 2015, Kennedy wrote a book opposed to the use of thimeralosal in vaccines.

What vaccines use Thimérosal?

Thimérosal is not used in the vast majority of vaccines.

All vaccines that the CDC recommends regularly for children aged six or under is available without Thimérosal.

Children who receive the calendar of routine pediatric vaccines “can be completely immune without any vaccine containing Thimérosal,” said Dr. Mark Sawyer, professor of pediatrics at San Diego School of Medicine from the University of California and pediatric infectious doctor.

Some infant vaccines have never contained Thimérosal. These include measles,, mumps and rubella – or mmr – vaccinechickenpox or vaccine against chickenpox, inactivated polio vaccine and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

Thimérosal has been removed from most vaccines – including all infant vaccines – from 2001, the CDC said.

Thimérosal is still used in vaccines today, but not as largely.

The curator is only a small fraction of the flu vaccine bottles, in particular the multi-doses bottles that constitute a small part of the American supply against the flu, Dr. Jake Scott told Politifact. Scott is specialist in infectious diseases of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The FDA said that the use of Thimérosal has decreased, as vaccine manufacturers have developed more single dose vaccines that do not require preservatives.

Scott said the CDC lists 12 influenza vaccine formulations for the 2024 to 2025 flu season, which will also cover the 2025 to 2026 season because no flu vaccine has been dismissed. Of these 12 vaccines, only three are multi-doses vaccines that contain thimerosal to 25 micrograms-equal to 25 million grams-per dose, he said.

CDC supply data show that syringes without dose and without Thimérosal represent approximately 96% of the US supply of influenza vaccines, leaving about 4% as multi-dose bottles, said Scott.

“Single dose syringes are the default value for pediatrics and prenatal care, so real exposure is even lower,” he said.

Given that the flu vaccines in Thimérosal are a small part of the influenza vaccination supply, public health experts have told Washington Post that the Committee vote to stop recommending them would have a limited impact, although it can make the flu more expensive and less accessible in certain parts of the United States.

What does the research on Thimérosal show?

Since the attention of anti-vaccine activists has focused on the question of whether the Thimérosal causes autism, many scientific studies have studied a potential link and have found no causal relationship between the conservative and autism.

When scientists have evaluated Thimérosal’s impacts and potential risks, they found:

• Giving infants of vaccines containing thimérosal “does not seem to increase blood concentrations of mercury above secure values ​​in infants” because ethylmercure “seems to be quickly eliminated blood via stool” after vaccination.
• Three controlled observational studies and two uncontrolled “providing in a coherent way evidence of non-association” between vaccines containing thimérosal and autism.
• “There is no scientific evidence that the vaccines containing Thimérosal are a cause of undesirable events in children born of women who received a vaccine against flu during pregnancy.”

Vaccine researchers told Politifact that Thimérosal had been removed from vaccines by abundance of prudence, not because research has proven that Thimérosal was not sure.

Thimeralal was removed from vaccines because people thought it could cause problems, said Rachel Roper, professor of microbiology and immunology at East Carolina University. But finally, “studies were carried out and it turned out to be sure”.

There is no evidence to date that the Thimérosal “causes damage,” said Sawyer.