Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday adopted recommendations from his newly remade vaccine advisory committee to remove a mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, from all U.S. flu vaccines.
Kennedy adopted the recommendations in the absence of a Senate-confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced the nomination of Susan Monarez to lead the agency earlier this month, but she has yet to receive a vote in the full chamber.
“We’re encouraging the CDC director to be appointed quickly because we need a CDC director who knows science, who is reviewing the [vaccine advisory board] recommendations,” HELP Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Wednesday when asked if thimerosal is what the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices should be focusing on.
