Truth About Thimerosal in Vaccines

Thimerosal is a mercury-containing organic compound (i.e., a preservative).  It serves as an antiseptic and antifungal agent in select vaccines, especially the flu vaccine in the US.  But is thimerosal safe for humans to inject into their bodies? As a father of four and chemist, I wondered about this over 15 years ago when we had our first child…

What the FDA says about Thimerosal

The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) and the FDA insists that thimerosal is safe when used in doses found in vaccines. (1) Taking a pragmatic approach over a scientific one, the status quo insists, “The active form of mercury [thimerosal] in vaccines is different than that found in contaminated fish,” and “only in trace amounts.”

True. But both forms of mercury are toxic. (2)

These government agencies also parrot The American Academy of Pediatrics who chirp, “The continued benefits of thimerosal use in vaccine manufacturing clearly outweigh any perceived risks.” (3)

But, you can’t make informed decisions about thimerosal based on these ridiculous statements. Parents who do are in for a wake-up call. A lifetime of unimaginable pain, suffering, isolation, and madness are lurking nearby for those who choose to play roulette with the silvery sludge.

What’s Being Hidden about Thimerosal

The last entity to fund a thimerosal study in the United States was Eli Lilly, back in 1929. They’re not even a health agency; they’re a pharmaceutical drug company. That hardly offers proof of safety and efficacy. And, their test churned out horrific results, showing that 100% of the kids jabbed with trace amounts of Merthiolate — the trade name for thimerosal — died from meningitis. How could that possibly be considered safe? Meanwhile, the Pharma-funded authors (using ghostwriting) still concluded that there was no causal association between mercury in vaccines and harm. (4)  Future court documents revealed, “Upon closer inspection, however, it is apparent that Lilly Scientists, deliberately withheld facts and, in doing so manipulated and distorted their conclusions, leading to corruption of published scientific literature concerning thimerosal.”

In time, the devastating effects could no longer be ignored. On January 5, 1982, the FDA published its notice of proposed rule-making regarding thimerosal. Their scientific panel’s opinions and recommendations were the culmination of five years of research concerning the potential hazards and safety of thimerosal. (5) Published in the Federal Register, the panel concluded:

“At the cellular level, thimerosal has been found to be more toxic for human epithelial cells in vitro than mercuric chloride, mercuric nitrate, and merbromim (mercurochrome).”

“Exhibit 34 (Exhibit ELI-512). The FDA specifically found that thimerosal was significantly more toxic for living tissue than it was for the bacteria it was supposed to kill.”

“It was found to be 35.3 times more toxic for embryonic chick heart tissue than for staphylococcus aureus [top killer in hospitals today].”

“The Panel concludes that thimerosal is not safe for [over-the-counter] topical use because of its potential for cell damage if applied to broken skin and its allergy potential.”

The FDA’s findings clearly should have settled the matter — that thimerosal is not safe for humans, let alone children, to use.

How Much Thimerosal Are Kids Getting?

In 2001 the pharmaceutical industry promised removal of thimerosal from vaccines. Sadly, it’s still lurking in select shots.  The irony of promising to remove a “safe” preservative is proof that thimerosal is risky. If you need more, a little math goes a long way.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s acceptable dose for mercury is 0.1 microgram per kilogram of body weight, per day. Running simple conversions, this means a 10-pound baby who gets jabbed with a thimerosal-rich vaccine receives an insurmountable 55 times the safe upper limit for mercury exposure. For an adult giving the same injection, that’d be four times the safe supper limit!

Pleading for thimerosal removal, Congressman Dan Burton wrote to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make his case. He insisted, “During a review required by the Food and Drug Modernization Act, it was learned that infants receive more mercury [from thimerosal] in the first six months of life than is considered safe according to federal guidelines. For a twelve-to-fourteen month old child receiving vaccines on the Universal Childhood Immunization Schedule as they are typically delivered (four to six shots in one doctor visit), they may receive forty or more times the amount of mercury than is considered safe according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines. The EPA guidelines were confirmed to be accurate through an independent evaluation conducted by the National Research Council (NRC).”

If you read the vaccine package inserts, the danger of thimerosal becomes even more apparent. The DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur warned, “A review by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found evidence for a causal relation between tetanus toxoid and both brachial neuritis and Guillain-Barré syndrome [pain and loss of nerve and motor function].”

Makers of the Tripedia vaccine for DTaP (which is rich in thimerosal) stated, “The vaccine is formulated without preservatives, but contains a trace amount of thimerosal [(mercury derivative), (≤0.3 µg mercury/dose)] from the manufacturing process.”

Certain negative outcomes are so frequent that the manufacturer had to list them in a public warning:

• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
• Anaphylactic reaction
• Cellulitis (a bacterial skin infection)
• Autism
• Convulsion/Seizures
• Brain dysfunction
• Low muscle tone and strength
• Nerve damage
• Hyperventilation/apnea

In his extremely well-researched book Thimerosal: Let The Science Speak: The Evidence Supporting the Immediate Removal of Mercury—a Known Neurotoxin—from Vaccines, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. showed there’s more global scientific muscle power than what it took to build the space station proving that thimerosal is ruining the health of our nation. And yet, with unconstrained malice and well-calculated schemes, Pharma continues to profit by selling cheaper, mercury-rich vaccines in 40 other countries. Once the country’s citizens are riddled with shots, research shows that continents like Africa, as well as citizens living by the Amazon river, are forever scarred from neurological damage.

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thimerosal in Vaccines. October 27, 2015. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/thimerosal/

2. Kathleen Stratton, Alicia Gable, and Marie C. McCormick, Editors, Immunization Safety Review Committee, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Immunization Safety Review: Thimerosal – Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. ISBN: 0-309-56573-1, 136 pages, 6 x 9, (2001)

3. AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics). 1999. Thimerosal in vaccines—An interim report to clinicians. American Academy of Pediatrics. Committee on Infectious Diseases and Committee on Environmental Health. Pediatrics 104(3 Pt 1):570–574.

4. Madison, James H. (1989). Eli Lilly: A Life, 1885–1977. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. p. 65. ISBN 0-87195-047-2.

Powell HM, Jamieson WA. Merthiolate as a Germicide. American Journal of Hygiene 1931;13:296-310.

5. FDA Federal Register.  PLAINTIFFS’ RESPONSE TO ELI LILLY AND COMPANY’S SUPPLEMENTAL MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT.