Mercury Rising: Kennedy Moves to Ban Controversial Chemical
Opponents insist it's perfectly safe and also that it's already been banned hahahaha
It was only a matter of time, and even a tipsy fortune teller could have called the ending: This week, the reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—yes, the one led by allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—voted to stop recommending flu shots containing thimerosal to the American people, “despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the compound is safe.”
The experts, you will be floored to learn, were shocked by this possibly drug-fueled decision. Especially since we already stopped putting thimerosal in most childhood vaccines more than two decades ago! (The multi-dose flu vaccine for some reason is the single lone holdout.) The committee basically said, “Hey, maybe we should officially reflect the reality everyone’s quietly agreed on for two decades.”
Apparently that was too much truth for some folks.
Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative used to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination. Our “public health” agencies insist there is no evidence that it’s dangerous or linked in any way to autism or any other undesirable outcome. The decision to ban it came after a presentation from Lyn Redwood, former president of Kennedy-founded Children’s Health Defense.
“The fact that thimerosal from vaccines has been documented to raise blood mercury levels over known thresholds where developmental effects have been documented to occur during the first few months of life, means that particular ‘windows of vulnerability’ may have been breached,” Redwood said.
The committee’s decision was fairly unanimous, minus the support of Dr. Cody Meissner of Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine—the lone dissenter on the vote and, naturally, a longtime pal of the CDC, FDA, and everyone else who’s never admitted they got anything wrong. Meissner said:
“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent risk as far as we know from thimerosal.”
That’s a beautiful sentence. The risk, you see, is “nonexistent… as far as we know”—which is the scientific equivalent of “probably not, I guess?”—which is a perfectly legitimate defense of a decades-old mercury-based additive that is literally banned around much of the world. Stunning work.
But wait, it gets better.
The rest of the media—in peak “trust us, we’re the experts” mode—latched onto a single half-quote from Dr. Adam Ratner, who told the New York Times it was “striking how little the voting members seem to know” about vaccines.
FWIW, Ratner runs an NIH-funded pediatric infectious disease lab and (I am not making this up) wrote a book called Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health.
No, really. Their big closer was the guy who wrote a love letter to vaccine mandates and named it after booster shots. Ratner’s quote reads like a Yelp review of a restaurant where the new chef had the audacity to change the soup. Sure, the old chef was famous for poisoning the customers with his version, but at least he had a degree from the Le Cordon Bleu.
The needle-huggers are nervous—and they should be. For the first time in a generation, someone’s asking real questions. Should we be jabbing kids with a one-size-fits-all vaccine schedule designed in 1994? Are combination shots like MMR always the best choice? Should pregnant women be advised to get flu shots with mercury when a preservative-free version is widely available?
You can disagree with the answers. But pretending the questions are dangerous? That’s not science, it’s religion.
The same panel also dared to float reevaluating the MMR + chickenpox combo shot for kids under four, citing a (very real, very documented) elevated risk of febrile seizures. The CDC already recommends separating the doses for the first round—but when this new panel mentions it? It’s suddenly labeled “anti-vax extremism” and portrayed as “Kennedy embarking on his goal of remaking immunization policy in his image.”
And don’t even get them started on RSV vaccines—apparently there was an offhand comment about private discussions among panelists, and now the press is shrieking about “potential violations of federal transparency laws.” Imagine if they’d shown half this concern when Pfizer was negotiating its contracts in total secrecy.
So, to recap:
The committee recommends removing thimerosal, an ingredient already largely removed over safety concerns
They ask if we should rethink combo vaccines that are unequivocally associated with more side effects than single shots.
They bring up options that most parents didn’t even know existed, like preservative-free shots.
The media reacts like someone just set fire to their precious mask collection.
You don’t need a tinfoil hat to find that funny.
Imagine driving down the highway and your car’s engine starts knocking and rattling and half the passengers start screaming “Whatever you do, do not pull over and look under the hood!” That’s essentially the reaction here. I think it’s absolutely bananas… but let me know your thoughts in the comments. :)
"You can disagree with the answers. But pretending the questions are dangerous? That’s not science, it’s religion". I am using that one, thanks.
Jenna as always you have the perfect way of summarizing things. You're like my main news source these days 🤣 The way people run things through ChatGPT for summaries, you're like my funny ChatGPT for the news. You chew it up and spit it out in a palatable way.
(But...wearables 😲 I cannot hear anything else about MAHA or RFK now without thinking about him praising them the other day - what the what. Are you going to write about him praising them? I was waiting for your deconstruction of that particular CONFUSION.)