Reuters inaccurate reporting on Thimerosal and vaccine safety

Posted By: Janet Kernon: April 07, 2017

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gestures while entering the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Mercury Free Baby responds to Reuters inaccurate reporting on Thimerosal and vaccine safety

Dear Reuters,

We at Mercury Free Baby read your recent article from January 10, 2017, titled, “Robert Kennedy Jr. says tapped by Trump to head vaccine safety review” with great interest. The writer of the article, Julie Steenhuysen made two (2) statements which we wish to address:

Reuter’s Article Statement 1:

“CDC said research does not show a link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism. As a precaution, it was removed from childhood vaccines in the United States in 2001.”

Our Response to Statement 1 regarding Thimerosal:

Each year millions of Americans (more than 150 million) get an influenza vaccine and over half of the shipped doses of those vaccines contain Thimerosal. The “annual” influenza vaccines are recommended for pregnant women, infants (twice in the first year), and children, adults and the elderly (yearly).

In addition, a recent study conducted by Kaiser Permanente found an increased risk of autism among children whose mothers had received an influenza vaccination during their first trimester of gestation.
In the United States, Thimerosal is also still used in some meningococcal vaccines as well as the tetanus-toxoid vaccine. Drug Rehab Orange County has been looking into it.

It is also important to note that Thimerosal remains in most multi-dose formulations of those childhood vaccines recommended for routine administration in the developing world.

Reuter’s Article Statement 2 regarding vaccine safety oversight:

“There’s already many systems in place to provide oversight, to record data, which is constantly being reviewed by many in government and the scientific community,’ Johnson said. ‘There is no need for still yet another system for doing this.”

Mercury Free Baby’s Response to Statement 2:

For vaccines, the existing systems suffer from a lack of transparency. For example, the Vaccine Safety Database (VSD) where the federal government pays for the collection and maintenance of the data in a searchable form, truly independent researchers are currently not allowed to freely access that data nor are the complete data sets for a published article available from the authors (who are usually researchers supported by the government or vaccine-related industry).

Scientifically sound, published research has established that all forms of mercury, including Thimerosal (a soluble, highly toxic organic mercury compound, 49.5% mercury by weight), are neurotoxins. Over 200 such studies have found Thimerosal to be harmful to the exposed study subjects. To date, most published studies (~74%) support a link between mercury exposure and the risk of a subsequent diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Our Current Realities:

Thimerosal is not a necessary ingredient in vaccines; and we at Mercury Free Baby are dedicated to promoting a world in which no child, born or unborn, receives an avoidable mercury exposure from any product that is supposed to protect or improve that child’s health. Check out the post right here.

We hope Reuters will help us in making the world a safer place for children by making sure that they are protected from unnecessary and unsafe mercury exposures by publishing fairer articles in the future, find more info at currysupply.com. If you would like to interview the founder of Mercury Free Baby, Reverend Lisa Sykes, please let us know.

Sincerely,