Redwood is expected to deliver a presentation at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting on Thursday using a report on thimerosal that is currently available online. This document contains misleading information and cites a source that apparently does not exist, according to one author, who also pointed out that he is falsely cited in the report.
Thimerosal is a preservative in vaccines meant to prevent contamination. It’s currently used in about 4% of flu shots but was removed from routine childhood vaccines in 2001. “To the best of my knowledge, the study in rats referred to in the planned CDC presentation by Lyn Redwood listing Berman RF as first author does not exist,” Robert F Berman, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of California Davis, said. “I have not published a paper with that title or with that set of co-authors in the journal Neurotoxicology in 2008. Also, none of my research has made any statements about possible thimerosal effects on microglia in the brain or resulting in neuroimmune effects.”
Redwood has held a longstanding belief that mercury exposure through thimerosal-containing vaccines causes autism. Specifically, she has directly attributed her son’s autism to mercury exposure from childhood vaccines as recently as October 2024 in a podcast with RFK Jr. However, decades of research has found no link between autism and vaccines or any vaccine preservative, including thimerosal.
“Thimerosal was removed from all routine childhood vaccines in the US out of an abundance of caution – it is still used as a preservative in much of the world. Many studies have demonstrated that it is safe and has no association with neurodevelopmental disorders,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases and AAP’s liaison to ACIP. A thorough report of existing evidence by the Institute of Medicine in 2004 concluded, “the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirms, “research does not show any link between thimerosal and autism.”
At least one vaccine expert said she shuddered Wednesday at the idea of Redwood joining HHS. Fiona Havers, a 13-year CDC veteran who worked on vaccine policy, stated: “Lyn Redwood is well-known for spreading vaccine misinformation. It is troubling that Redwood may now have an official role within HHS and will potentially be in a position to interfere with official messaging about vaccine safety.”
Redwood and Kennedy have long been close. In a conversation between the two of them on Kennedy’s podcast last year, Kennedy credited Redwood with being the figure who “coordinated” the “stalking crusade” by mothers who convinced Kennedy to begin looking into the potential harms of vaccines in the early 2000s. Redwood was also involved in Kennedy’s recent presidential campaign, coordinating volunteer and petition-gathering trainings in Georgia, her home state, according to sign-up pages on the campaign’s website.
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The appointment is yet another piece of convincing evidence for the frantic ‘rush to the bottom’ of the US government in general and Kennedy’ team in particular.
16 Responses to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hired well-known anti-vaccine activist, Lyn Redwood, to the CDC’s vaccine safety office
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Listen to the other side of the argument:
https://www.vigilantfox.com/p/rfk-jr-unloads-disturbing-vaccine
haven’t you got used to the fact that Kennedy is telling untruth and is demented?
where is, for instance, the Verstraten study; perhaps eaten by a brain worm?
THERE IS NO OTHER CREDIBLE SIDE OF THE ARGUMENT!
Kennedy said in a interview: “My opinion— I always tell people— is irrelevant. We need to stop trusting the experts. Trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy– it’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism.” He then continues arguing that we all need to do our own research, read the studies etc.
This sounds almost reasonable.
But, to do that you need to be trained and bright.
He is neither!
HE IS JUST BULLSHITTING!
He has also said, in past interviews, that experts disagree because he has litigated cases where the experts from the prosecution (Harvard trained etc) say one thing while the experts for the defence (Harvard trained etc) say the opposite and they cannot both be right.
This does not mean that you have to be an expert to compare both sides of the argument, which is why the jury is random (not specially selected experts).
don’t bullshit me; answer my question: where is the Verstraten study?
First result in Googling “Verstraten study”:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14595043/
Quote
“…Results: In phase I at HMO A, cumulative exposure at 3 months resulted in a significant positive association with tics (relative risk [RR]: 1.89; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05-3.38)…
end-of-quote
Conclusion: “No consistent significant associations were found between TCVs and neurodevelopmental outcomes.”
Thanks for confirming that, to read a scientific paper, one needs more the prejudice.
In fact, one needs things neither Kennedy nor you possess.
… and even if that study had shown something of concern, WE ALWAYS NEED TO CONSIDER THE TOTALITY OF THE RELIABLE EVIDENCE!!!
And this happens to yield a very clear picture about the matter at hand.
As you say, “…we always need to consider the totality of the reliable evidence…”:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/government/foia/generation-zero-thomas-verstraetens-first-analyses-link-vaccine-mercury-exposure-risk-diagnosis-selected-neuro-developmental-disorders/
you link has nothing to do with the ‘totality of the evidence’!
If you think you can carry on tolling, you are mistaken. this was your last comment on this particular matter [the main reason being that you are too uneducated to comprehend what this is about]
@Old Bob
Could you please explain what the relevance is of this rambling against thimerosal?
– There is very good evidence that thimerosal in vaccines does not cause neurodevelopmental problems in children.
– One crucial part of this evidence is the fact that thimerosal was removed from almost all childhood vaccines in 2001, after which the vast majority of US children were no longer exposed to this substance – yet this abrupt change did not cause ANY change in children’s neurological health.
– Another part if this evidence is that In many western countries, thimerosal was never used in childhood vaccines, or abandoned many decades ago already. Yet many of these countries see comparable rates of autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental issues in their children.
– And there are also other (mostly developing) countries where thimerosal is still used in childhood vaccines(*) – yet many of those countries show far less neurodevelopmental issues than western countries.
*: The reason for this is that single-dose vaccines are far more expensive and require more careful storage than multi-dose vials with thimerosal as a preservative.
What all this means is that there is no link whatsoever between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental problems in children. And given that only very few US children are administered thimerosal-containing vaccines these days anyway, this whole rambling diatribe about thimerosal is pointless. It has no relevance to health issues in the US at all. It just goes to show that antivaxxers find it very hard to accept that they were wrong, and they find it even harder to let go of an idea once they have latched onto it.
If RFK Jr. wants to improve children’s health, then there are dozens of far more urgent problems that he could (and should) address, such as
– stimulating healthy foods while taxing junkfood,
– subsidizing exercise programs for children,
– urging the GOP to reverse the huge proposed cuts to the SNAP program (in order to pay for Trump’s Big Billionaire Bonus Bill),
– urging the GOP to reverse the huge proposed cuts to medicaid, taking away healthcare from the poorest children in the US,
– shutting down coal power plants and coal mines instead of reopening them as Trump wants to do (coal is the most deadly form of energy production per capita – not in the least place because these power plants belch out large amounts of mercury compounds(!)),
– levying a tax on Big Tech for their extremely addictive and otherwise unhealthy social media platforms, and banning younger children from accessing to those platforms,
– and lots more …
But digging up and beating this long-dead and fully decomposed thimerosal horse again is just plain stupid.
This is not just about ethyl-mercury, it is industry-wide, hence the deep-state’s reaction here is the most telling:
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/the-plot-to-remove-rfk-by-big-pharma
JFK Jr. is not the threat: It is the truth that he represents that they are afraid of, that and JFK Jr’s fearlessness, they killed his uncle and his father who were likewise not afraid of death (likewise Trump). These men cannot be bribed or coerced, *that* is what they fear.
who are ‘THEY’?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live
I think OB found some very special sunglasses….
@Old Bob
As usual, you don’t make any sense, and neither do the people you link to. EVERYONE wants RFK Jr. to hand in his resignation, because the man is utterly incompetent in matters of healthcare, lies almost as prolifically as Donald Trump, and believes in all sorts of crazy conspiracy stuff. And he is firing the very people with actual brains, experience and integrity with regard to healthcare.
He is in fact destroying public health in America instead of improving it.
(And oh, please note that Trump and the GOP are pampering Big Pharma by decreasing regulations and accountability, enabling Big Pharma to further increase profits at the cost of the taxpayer.)
@Edzard
Only a deeply stupid person can come up with something like this. Every single aspect of our society functions by the grace of expertise, the concept that for every job, there are people who are educated and trained to fulfil that role. And yes, the unspoken premise is that we can trust those experts to do their job and apply their expertise to the best of their ability and knowledge.
Calling on people to no longer trust experts is in fact telling people not to trust anyone any more, and to declare any sort of training or education to be pointless. When we no longer rely on other people’s expertise, modern society will fall apart.
“Yes, you may claim that you are the pilot flying this plane, but I no longer trust so-called trained experts like you – I only trust myself. So get out of that captain’s seat and let me at the controls.”