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Mercury will no longer be used as a preservative in vaccines, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced.
In a video posted to social media, Kennedy said thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in flu vaccines that are administered to pregnant women and children, will be banned.
“I’m proud to finally deliver on a long-overdue promise: protecting our most vulnerable from unnecessary mercury exposure,” Kennedy posted on X.
The main ingredient in thimerosal is ethylmercury, which has been designated as a neurotoxin, carcinogen, and mutagen, as well as being known to cause reproductive damage.
“The amount of ethylmercury in the flu shot that CDC just banned under my order is 25,000 times the EPA’s safety level for drinking water,” Kennedy said in the video.
Kennedy also had choice words for federal agencies, accusing them of ignoring mounting evidence about thimerosal’s toxicity, including an admission in 2001 by FDA official William Egan that thimerosal’s effects on humans had never been studied.
He also cited a study that shows mercury remains in the brain for up to 27 years, a CDC study linking flu shots to miscarriage and another study linking maternal vaccination during pregnancy to childhood autism.
“Why were we injecting this toxin into babies and pregnant women?” Kennedy asked.
“Federal and state laws classify expired thimerosal vaccines as hazardous waste. Yet they were good enough to put into your bloodstream?”
Kennedy has campaigned for decades to have thimerosal removed from vaccines, on the basis of its toxic effects.
“I’ve spent 20 years trying to get mercury out of vaccines,” he said in the video.
“I spent four years trying to get mercury out of fish, and nobody called me anti-fish.”
Although the use of thimerosal in all vaccines will now end, the flu vaccine will still be available in mercury-free, single-dose form.
“This decision sends a clear message,” Kennedy declared.
“The days of ignoring the science are over. The days of putting profits ahead of people are over.”
