{"id":9816,"date":"2025-07-02T15:12:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=9816"},"modified":"2025-07-02T15:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:12:11","slug":"a-preservative-removed-from-childhood-vaccines-20-years-ago-is-still-causing-controversy-today-%e2%88%92-a-drug-safety-expert-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/07\/02\/a-preservative-removed-from-childhood-vaccines-20-years-ago-is-still-causing-controversy-today-%e2%88%92-a-drug-safety-expert-explains\/","title":{"rendered":"A preservative removed from childhood vaccines 20 years ago is still causing controversy today \u2212 a drug safety expert\u00a0explains"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/a-preservative-removed-from-childhood-vaccines-20-years-ago-is-still-causing-controversy-today-a-drug-safety-expert-explains-259442\">The Conversation<\/a> An expert committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/shots-health-news\/2025\/06\/26\/nx-s1-5438485\/cdc-acip-rfk-thimerosal-vaccines\">voted on June 26, 2025, to cease recommending<\/a>&nbsp;the use of a mercury-based chemical called thimerosal in flu vaccines. Only a small number of flu vaccines \u2013 ones that are produced in multi-dose vials \u2013 currently contain thimerosal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thimerosal is almost never used in vaccines anymore, but vaccine skeptics have falsely claimed it carries health risks to the brain.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Health\/cdc-vaccine-advisory-committee-recommends-flu-vaccines-thimerosal\/story?id=123224218\">Public health experts have raised concerns<\/a>&nbsp;that the committee\u2019s action against thimerosal may shake public trust and sow confusion about the safety of vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The committee, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, was meeting for the first time since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/rfk-jrs-shakeup-of-vaccine-advisory-committee-raises-worries-about-scientific-integrity-of-health-recommendations-258674\">abruptly replaced its 17 members<\/a>&nbsp;with eight handpicked ones on June 11.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conversation An expert committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;voted on June 26, 2025, to cease recommending&nbsp;the use of a mercury-based chemical called thimerosal in flu vaccines. Only a small number of flu vaccines \u2013 ones that are produced in multi-dose vials \u2013 currently contain thimerosal. Thimerosal is almost never used [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vaccine-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9817,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9816\/revisions\/9817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}