HHS adopts advisory board's recommendation to remove mercury-based compound from flu vaccines

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it has adopted the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' recommendation to remove the mercury-based compound thimerosal from flu vaccines.

Last month, the ACIP voted to limit flu vaccines to only those free of thimerosal. The mercury-containing preservative, largely phased out of childhood vaccines by 2001, still lingers in some multi-dose flu shots. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on Tuesday signed the advisory board's recommendations, the department said Wednesday.

“After more than two decades of delay, this action fulfills a long-overdue promise to protect our most vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Injecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility. Today, we put safety first.”

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