Gabriela Emanuel
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Thimerosal is a preservative that prevents vaccine vials from getting contaminated.
It's been safely used in this way since the 1930s.
However, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
says the mercury in thimerosal is a neurotoxin.
William Moss of Johns Hopkins says this ingredient is rare in the U.S., which mostly relies on single-dose vials, but it's necessary in less expensive multi-dose vials.
In a statement, Gavi said any changes would be guided by scientific consensus.
14% of its vaccines currently contain thimerosal.
The trial is receiving $1.6 million from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the hepatitis B vaccine as it's given to some 14,000 infants.
Physicians and bioethicists have called the study unethical and unnecessary, pointing to decades of evidence showing the vaccine to be safe and effective.
Quinhen Nantote, the minister of public health in Guinea-Bissau, spoke in Portuguese through an interpreter.
He says the correct local medical authorities will now review the study and decide whether it can proceed.
Department of Health and Human Services contradicted that in a statement to NPR.
It said the study has not been suspended.
A report from the Women's Refugee Council found that one year after the cuts, 88% of U.S.
funding for maternal and child health has been cut.
That's in addition to cutting nearly all funding for sexual and reproductive health.