For years, antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who’s now the secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS), has asserted that thimerosal, the ethyl mercury preservative in some vaccines, causes autism. Earlier this month, he fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the federal advisory committee that develops suggestions on the usage of vaccines for civilians in america.
Kennedy has since changed them with handpicked appointees who share his beliefs. On Thursday, the brand new members voted to substantiate the secretary’s unscientific claims in regards to the illusory risks of thimerosal by not recommending flu vaccines that comprise the preservative. Multi-dose vaccine vials containing thimerosal comprise about 4 p.c of all annual flu photographs. Remember the fact that thimerosal was eliminated from most vaccines in 2001.
Amusingly, on Tuesday, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) issued a brand new report reviewing quite a few research that conclusively discovered no connection between the minute amount of thimerosal in vaccines and autism. That report mysteriously disappeared a day later from the CDC’s web site.
As a substitute, the brand new ACIP members have been handled to a presentation from Lyn Redwood, Kennedy’s fellow longtime antivaccine activist. After being posted on-line, a research Redwood cited in regards to the alleged neurotoxicity of thimerosal was discovered to be nonexistent. (Gold-standard science certainly!) The false quotation quietly disappeared. RFK, Jr. is now reportedly hiring Redwood to work within the CDC’s vaccine security workplace.
“The fearmongering and hypothesis by the mainstream media that this committee would solid doubt on vaccines to advertise hesitancy weren’t simply improper, they have been reckless and defamatory,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon advised The Washington Put up. “The members of this committee are revered consultants who take their accountability to public well being significantly. What they did at this time is what Secretary Kennedy appointed them to do, which is evaluation the proof, debate it with scientific rigor, and ship suggestions rooted in information and medical integrity. The general public deserves nothing however this.”
Reviewing the proof, debating it with scientific rigor, and delivering suggestions rooted in information and medical integrity is fairly clearly not what the ACIP did on this case. The general public deserves a lot better than this.
