Kennedy's new US vaccine panel backs thimerosal-free flu vaccines

(Reuters) -U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s newly revamped vaccine advisory panel voted on Thursday to recommend Americans receive seasonal influenza shots that are free from the mercury-based preservative thimerosal after a presentation by the former leader of the anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy.

Thimerosal has been largely phased out of U.S. vaccines, and was only used in multi-dose vials of flu shots. In the 2024-25 flu season, fewer than 5% of the flu shots administered were from these multi-dose vials, according to the U.S. FDA.

Anti-vaccine groups for decades have linked thimerosal to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, and Kennedy wrote a book in 2014 in which he advocated for "the immediate removal of mercury" from vaccines.

CDC staff - in a report that had been briefly published and then removed earlier in the week - concluded that evidence does not support an association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.

The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, voted 5-1 in three separate votes to recommend the thimerosal-free shots. The now 7-person panel was installed by Kennedy earlier this month after he fired all 17 outside experts who had previously made up ACIP.

The panel advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on who should take specific vaccines and related products and when they should be given after Food and Drug Administration approval.

"The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent - as far as we know - risk from thimerosal. So I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine because the only available preparation contains thimerosal," Dr. Cody Meissner, the only panel member who voted against the recommendation, said as an explanation of his vote.

Lyn Redwood, formerly of anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, gave the presentation on thimerosal, arguing it was a neurotoxin.

Earlier in the day, the committee voted 5-2 to recommend use of Merck's recently approved RSV antibody drug, Enflonsia, for infants 8 months or younger whose mothers did not receive a preventive shot during pregnancy.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Christy Santhosh and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru, Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Frances Kerry and Bill Berkrot)