Did the ACIP Thimerosal Vote Get Rid of 60 Percent of Flu Shots?

Why do some folks think that RFK Jr’s ACIP committee vote to drop the use of thimerosal containing flu vaccines is a seismic move that will affect 60 percent of our flu shots?

Anti-vaccine folks won this one, but they shouldn’t get used to it, as it helps bring their extreme ways of thinking into the open.

The usual suspects…

Did the ACIP Thimerosal Vote Get Rid of 60 Percent of Flu Shots?

Of course, this isn’t true.

While it wasted a lot of the committee’s time, the vote only affected, at most, about 4-5% of the flu vaccine supply in the United States.

That’s how many flu vaccines with thimerosal are distributed each year.

It doesn’t account for how many are unused, though.

Tragically, at least 10 to 20 percent of flu vaccines that are distributed, actually aren’t used each year.

To his credit, James Lyons-Weiler admitted his mistake, but it makes no sense that he would have confused aluminum with mercury. Very few flu vaccines contain aluminum and of course, no vaccines contain mercury.

So of the 5.9 million flu vaccine doses with thimerosal (148 million total doses have been distributed), up to 1 million probably aren’t even used.

That means even fewer doses of flu shot with thimerosal are given.

Given to whom?

Sherri Tenpenny is another anti-vaccine influencer who doesn’t understand what happened at the recent ACIP meeting. While the new committee members did get rid of thimerosal containing flu shots, the universal flu vaccine recommendation stands.

That would actually be good to know!

Before they got rid of them, a little research into who is getting them and why, would have been nice.

After all, multi-dose vials do have some benefits - in addition to acting as a safe preservative.

They cost less than thimerosal-free flu vaccines, for one thing.

Robert Malone implied that only poor children and pregnant women would be stuck getting flu vaccines with thimerosal, but many of them would hopefully be able to get free vaccines via Vaccines for Children or Medicaid.

How many millions of dollars extra will we be spending on flu vaccines each year now?

Multi-dose vials also take up less space in a vaccine refrigerator than single dose syringes. Space that becomes tight when many of your flu vaccines get delivered at the beginning of flu season!

Is a small office going to buy a bigger vaccine refrigerator to make room for single dose flu vaccines next season, or will they simply stop giving flu shots?

And while neither of these factors should be an issue if thimerosal had ever been found to be unsafe, the reality of the matter is that thimerosal in vaccines is known to be safe!

Taking away flu shots with thimerosal also eliminates one more option if something ever happens to our flu vaccine supply.

Of course, there is no need to reformulate any flu vaccines. We have had thimerosal free versions of flu vaccines for years now. And “Big Pharma” probably makes more money from single dose flu vaccines. But yes, it should be clear that anti-vaccine folks do want to once again put kids at risk to get congenital hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis B, liver failure, and cancer.

This was a politically motivated decision and a nod to anti-vaccine folks who are hoping that RFK Jr and his new ACIP committee members take away even more vaccines.

Moves that will simply bring us closer and closer to what life was like in the pre-vaccine era.

For a glimpse, take a minute to catch up on this year’s measles outbreaks!

We are close to hitting a record number of cases and there have already been three deaths, including two unvaccinated children.

References

Flawed ACIP Process Leads to Confusion and Distrust https://www.nfid.org/flawed-acip-process-leads-to-confusion-and-distrust/

Impact of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Recommendations on State Law https://www.astho.org/topic/resource/impact-of-acip-recommendations-on-state-law/