Kennedy adopts a controversial recommendation from the ACIP on the Thimérosal

The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., officially accepted recommendations that would oblige all the manufacturers of vaccines to be stopped using the conservative Thimérosal in influenza vaccines.

A press release published by the ministry called on Wednesday the decision to achieve “an commitment to restore confidence with the Americans by removing risks while supporting access to vaccines”.

Supporters of vaccines have questioned this decision, noting that there is overwhelming evidence that the amount of thimérosal used in vaccines does not have health risk. And the practical effect of the decision will be limited, because only about 4% of doses of flu vaccine provided on the American market contain the curator.

The recommendations were adopted at the June meeting of the Vaccination Practices Advisory Committee, a group that guides the vaccination policy for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a rule, the recommendations of the ACIP are accepted by the director of the CDC, but as this position is still vacant, Kennedy has signed the recommendations, the HHS press release said.

“After more than two decades late, this action has long been expected to protect our most vulnerable populations against unnecessary Mercury exposure,” Kennedy said in the statement.

Thimérosal contains ethylmercure, which does not present the health risks associated with the consumption of methylmercury, which can be encountered by consuming diets rich in fish. In the past, Thimérosal has been used in a number of vaccines packaged in multidose bottles, to ensure that they have not become contaminated by harmful bacteria during use.

Although there is abundant evidence that Thimérosal was not a health risk, the Food and Drug Administration ordered vaccine manufacturers to stop using the curator in vaccines for children in the late 1990s, as it had become a lightning rod for the anti-vaccine movement.

Kennedy, a long -standing critic of the vaccine, dismissed the 17 members of the AIPI in early June, replacing them with seven nominated by a limited context in questions related to the vaccine.

At the first meeting of the new committee at the end of June, the group adopted three recommendations requiring the manufacturers of flu vaccinations to interrupt the use of Thimérosal in the production of doses of influenza intended for children, pregnant and adults. There was no explanation to explain why three separate recommendations were voted when the final objective was to stop using the curator in all the flu vaccines provided to the American market.

The only pediatrician of the new AIPI, Cody Meissner, voted against the recommendations of the Thimérosal, arguing that the committee did not need to take this stage. “Backing the industry through hoops for something for which there is no evidence of prejudice, I think, is a problem that requires a more in -depth discussion,” said Meissner, who teaches the Geisel School of Medicine of Dartmouth College.

The three recommendations were adopted with five votes for, an opposite and an abstention.