CDC Advisory Group Votes to Eliminate Flu Vaccines With Thimerosal Preservative
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices ended a nearly 30-year push to remove thimerosal from vaccines.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently voted to recommend removing thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, from all flu vaccines.
The committee’s decision, passed with a 5-1 vote, restricts flu vaccines to those free of thimerosal, a mercury-containing compound that has been scrutinized for potential links to autism spectrum disorder and other developmental issues.
Thimerosal was largely phased out in 2001, but it remains present in some flu shots. The committee’s ruling mandates that flu vaccines for children 18 and under, as well as pregnant women, must be thimerosal-free.
This decision follows a significant restructuring of the advisory committee, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissing the previous 17 members and appointing a new, smaller panel.
Besides voting to eliminate thimerosal, ACIP also voted to include other immunizations in federal programs.
Now at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy rattled the establishment medical world in early June when he replaced all 17 ACIP members with a leaner crew of eight, including vaccine skeptics like Dr. Robert Malone and Lyn Redwood, former head of Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group.
Redwood’s plea to reject thimerosal wasn’t flawless—she overstated its common dosages—but the committee leaned into the mercury-free messaging. “There are other preservatives that don’t rely on mercury,” Dr. Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, told Fox News Digital with a nod of approval.
The committee didn’t stop there. They unanimously backed annual flu shots for everyone six months and older who do not have a risk of side effects.
The group also gave a 5-2 thumbs-up to Merck’s clesrovimab (Enflonsia), a new Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) prevention drug for infants eight months and younger who were born during or entering their first RSV season. It was also approved for coverage under the Vaccines for Children (VCF) program.
#3 – RFK Jr’s new ACIP vaccine panel votes AGAINST flu shots with thimerosal.
Kennedy spent decades fighting to get thimerosal—a compound containing mercury and a known neurotoxin—out of vaccines.
Thimerosal was phased out of childhood vaccines in the early 2000s, but it’s… pic.twitter.com/QHaUAeGSIh
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) June 26, 2025
It must be noted that many news reports and pharmacological experts assure us that thimerosol is “safe” and only a small percentage of flu vaccines still contain the compound.
In the recent evidence review published by the CDC, they reiterated that thimerosal is already almost entirely removed from the US vaccine supply. In the 2024 to 2025 influenza season, approximately 96% of all influenza vaccines were thimerosal-free. Additionally, the proportion of pregnant women receiving a thimerosal-containing flu vaccine has decreased over time, with only 0.3% of doses in 2024 containing thimerosal.
Patients are empowered to check the ingredients of a vaccine they are receiving for the presence of thimerosal, but can be assured that based on the abundance of meaningful evidence available, it is safe.
However, in the post-COVID era, such assurances aren’t nearly as meaningful. Additionally, one of the panelists, Dr. Robert Malone, points out that mercury-free preservatives are available. So why the drama?
Now, for some reason, the pharmaceutical industry and corporate media see this as some sort of existential threat – that eliminating 3% of the influenza doses that contain thimerosal is a crisis for the entire vaccine industry and their academic and media supporters. I don’t get it, but that seems to be the meme, and the strange thing is that it has left media and pharma arguing in favor of injecting mercury into Americans.
Dr. @RWMaloneMD explains to me why he voted to recommend the removal of thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, from influenza vaccines during the recent CDC advisory panel meeting:
“97% of all influenza vaccines currently administered in the United States are administered… pic.twitter.com/8aXB3vHiKM
— Jan Jekielek (@JanJekielek) July 5, 2025
Some critics claim this could lead to greater vaccine hesitancy. Yet, few things have likely done more to erode Americans’ trust in vaccines than the COVID vaccine mandates and the strong messaging around them being “safe and effective.”
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Comments
When I first got contact lenses 40(!) years ago, there was thimerosal in the solution. I had a bad reaction to it. A lot of people did, so it was phased out, voluntarily, IIRC.
Exactly the issue I had when I wore contacts in the 80s. My eye doctor gave me salt tablets to make my own saline solution with distilled water, which of course wasn’t sterile so I had to use a special “cooker” to sterilize the contacts after the daily cleaning.
It was a huge PITA but it was better than looking like a drug addict with bloodshot, burning eyes.
preservatives might be an evil or not
….not sure how much is political and just radical groups not liking anything that reeks of capitalism
but in so many years the cry and screams are going to be heard loudly that “things dont last” and
my food use to last 2 weeks and now it doesnt
or
it was never proven that these things are bad for you
again some might be and some might not be
but the only thing for sure is that politicians play games and peoples lives are on the line when they do
They’re not goig to make the vaccine with NO preservative, they’re going to make it with a DIFFERENT preservative.
It’s not preservatives. Thimerisol’s main ingredient is ethyl mercury, and mercury is not safe to consume in any amount.
Particularly organic mercury compounds, including ethyl mercury.
There are different types of mercury and I think the argument is the type in Thimerisol can not pass that brain/blood barrier and is ejected from the body. I’ve read the science behind it and IDK. If there is something else that can be used, though, why not use it?
There is no such thing as a substance that is not safe to consume in any amount. The most basic principle of toxicology is that the dose makes the poison. There is no substance that doesn’t have a safe dose, and there is probably no substance that doesn’t have a beneficial dose.
“it was never proven that these things are bad for you”
When the government studies a substance, proving it’s bad for you isn’t the objective. Proving the substance is safe should be the goal. “Not bad” might only mean “adverse effects not recognized.” “Safe” is supposed to mean “safe.”
Exactly. Especially when there are non controversial alternatives. Which begs the question ‘why are Pharma and their surrogates so determined to oppose the removal of the mercury based thimerosal and prohibiting its use’? If it was only used in such a small % of products why is there such resistance to removing it?
“It must be noted that many news reports and pharmacological experts assure us that thimerosol is “safe”
Yeah, like we’re going to accept that “assurance” instead of interpreting it as the “run, don’t walk” signal it is.
I kind of like everything I deal with to be mercury free thank you very much. No mercury in my vaccines and none in my lightbulbs thank you very much,
I was certain that thimerosal had been removed from all vaccines over 20 years ago. It’s about time—this committee is making an obvious good decision.
Other preservatives are available, and I don’t care to use or ingest anything containing mercury. In grad school I had a bad exposure to metallic mercury (broken diffusion pump), and I don’t ever want to add to the mercury in my body.
It’s a disturbing how frequently we find out that things that were “phased out decades ago” are still being used in some products.
Like secret smallpox stockpiles…
I remember in jr high science class if a thermometer broke, the boys would try to pick up the mercury and play with it.
I also remember painting myself with Mercurochrome for every little cut and scratch. I imagined it was war paint.
Not just the boys
Malone is not a vaccine sceptic any more than Kennedy is. Their concerns are quite reasonable. Autism rates have skyrocketed in conjunction with the massive increase in childhood immunizations which are now at something like 80 shots. Something is causing it and only a fool would totally ignore the increased vaccinations. Not saying they are causing it but they should be studied. The most vociferous objectors of even looking at them is Big Pharma which makes a boatload off them and just happens to fund most of the commercials on TV not to mention a great deal of the CDC and NIH funding.
It’s already been studied to death, and whatever the various causes of autism may be, vaccines are not among them.
The most likely cause of any increase in autism, above that accounted for simply by better diagnosis, is genetics. Carriers are meeting and marrying and having children with each other in far greater numbers than used to be the case, and therefore more of those children end up with it.