By Michael Erman
(Reuters) -An inspection of the use of conservative thimerosal in vaccines planned to be presented on Thursday to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Committee on External Vaccines cited a study that does not exist, the scientist indicated, as the study’s author says.
The report, called “Thimerosal as a vaccine preservative”, published on the CDC website on Tuesday, should be presented by Lynn Redwood, a former leader of children’s child protection against the vaccine.
This refers to a study called “Exposure to newborns of low levels: long -term effects in the brain” published in the magazine neurotoxicology in 2008 and co -authored by Professor of UC Davis Emeritus Robert Berman.
According to Berman, “this does not refer to a study I have published or did.”
Berman said he was a co -author of a similar name in a different journal – toxicological sciences – which come to different conclusions from those suggested by Redwood.
“We did not look at the effects of Thimerosal in the microglyia … I do not support this misrepresentation of the study,” he said.
Reuters is the first to report the inaccurate citation of the planned Redwood presentation.
The meeting is becoming more and more, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., just weeks ago, abruptly fired all the previous 17 members of the expert staff and indicated eight new members, half of whom are overlapping against vaccines.
Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaxine activist, bases the protection of children’s health.
And the US Republican Senator was Cassidi of Louisiana and the US Democratic Senator Patti Murray of Washington said the meeting on June 25 and 26 should be delayed.
The summary of the presentation suggests that there are enough flu vaccines without thymerosis and that all pregnant women, babies and children should receive only these photos. It was unclear whether the new consultation panel would be asked to vote for such a move.
Redwood’s presentation was contrasting with a separate report published by CDC employees on the CDC website on Tuesday, saying that the evidence did not support a link between Timerosal -containing vaccines, and autism or other neuro -developmental disorders.
Kennedy has long been pressing a link between vaccines and autism, contrary to scientific evidence.
Redwood could not be immediately reached for comment. A HHS spokesman said the study, which was indicated, was the study of toxicological sciences that Berman said he was wrong.
The CDC briefing has been reviewing some studies on the results of neur development and vaccines that contain thimerosal, which has long been used in the United States in many doses of medicines and vaccines to prevent germs in them.
According to the CDC report, 96% of all flu vaccines in the United States were threatened during the flu season 2024-25. He also added that the number of pregnant women receiving a thimerosal vaccine containing the flu has decreased over time, with only 0.3% of the doses given in 2024 containing thimerosal.
Kennedy wrote a book in 2014, claiming that Timerosal, a preservative, based on Mercury, causes brain damage.
On Monday, Cassidy, who heads the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the US Senate, called on the meeting to be delayed, saying that it should not be held with a relatively small panel and without a CDC director.
Murray, a senior member and former chairman of the Aid Committee, also called on the members of the dismissed group to be restored or to delay the meeting until the new members are appropriately presented.
(Brother Michael’s reporting is Newman New Jersey, Adhiyalealre Princes