The Trump administration vaccine advisers evoke an old debate on the flu: if it is time to erase the last small fraction of these vaccines which contain a controversial curator called Thimérosal.
This is a question apparently asked years ago, because studies have shown no evidence that the curator causes health problems.
“It’s really a non-problubme,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Here are some things to know about the substance.
Thimérosal is a preservative used in some vaccines since the 1930s, as well as in some other medical products.
It has been mainly used in multi-dose vaccine bottles, to prevent bacterial contamination because the ship has been perforated several times to remove a dose.
Questions about Thimérosal were raised in the late 1990s because it contains a form of mercury.
It is not the same thing as the toxic type found in certain seafood, called methylmercure. Instead, it is a different type called ethylmercury that the body can excrete, explained O’Leary.
The quantity of ethylmercury per dose of vaccine was small and studies found no evidence of damage. Nor was it used in all vaccines. For example, vaccines for chickenpox, polio and measles, mumps and rubella have never contained it, according to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But as a precaution, the United States has eliminated the conservative of infant vaccines. Since 2001, all vaccines have been systematically recommended for children aged 6 and under in the United States, have been in formulas that do not contain Thimérosal.
The exception is a small subset of influenza vaccine formulas in multi-dose bottles that could be used for adults or children. The vast majority of children, however, get their vaccination against flu from a single dose shot, said O’Leary.
According to the CDC, 96% of all flu vaccines in the United States administered last fall and winter – and an even higher share of those used in the programs financed by the federal government – were without Thimérosal.
The United States secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is a long-standing antivaccine activist, and he has long argued that there was a link between Thimérosal and Autism.
On Thursday, her new vaccine advisers were ready to hear a presentation by Lyn Redwood, a practitioner nurse who formerly led the anti -vaccine group that Kennedy founded.
She will suggest that influenza deputies containing the remaining Thimérosal should be deleted, according to meeting documents published earlier this week. Among the statements, it could be a risk for pregnant women.
A new analysis of the CDC staff prepared for the meeting has not shown no link between the curator and autism or any other neurodevelopmental disorder.
Some experts note that autism rates increased after Thimérosal has been removed from young children’s vaccines in the United States
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