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Why do Drugmakers Still Defend the Use of Mercury in Their Vaccines?
Health advocates have expressed outrage over a CDC recommendation that pregnant women, infants and children should continue to receive injections of thimerosal-containing flu vaccines, which contain mercury.
This recommendation comes despite an Institute of Medicine advisory that mercury-containing vaccines should not be injected into these sensitive populations.
Thimerosal's harmful effects on the immune, metabolic and nervous systems have been widely documented. However, Dr. Jay Lieberman, while making a presentation for the CDC regarding the recommendation, ignored the bulk of peer-reviewed research, and instead focused on a small number of highly criticized and flawed epidemiological studies that have found no harmful associations.
Dr. Lieberman has been a consultant to Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi-Pasteur, and is on the speakers' bureau for all three vaccine-makers. Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi-Pasteur all currently use thimerosal in their products.
The majority of flu shots contain 25 micrograms of mercury, an amount considered unsafe for anyone weighing less than 550 pounds.
Medical News Today February 24, 2007
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