A review on the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines slated to be presented on Thursday to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) outside vaccine committee cites a study that does not exist, the scientist listed as the study’s author said.
The report, called Thimerosal as a Vaccine Preservative published on the CDC website on Tuesday, is to be presented by Lyn Redwood, a former leader of the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense.
It makes reference to a study called Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure: Long-term consequences in the brain, published in the journal Neurotoxicology in 2008, and co-authored by UC Davis professor emeritus Robert Berman.
But, according to Berman, “it’s not making reference to a study I published or carried out”.
Berman said he co-authored a similarly named study in a different journal – Toxicological Sciences – that came to different conclusions than those suggested by Redwood.
“We did not examine the effects of thimerosal in microglia … I do not endorse this misrepresentation of the research,” he said.
Reuters is the first to report on the inaccurate citation from Redwood’s planned presentation.
The meeting has become increasingly controversial after the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, just weeks ago abruptly fired all previous 17 members of the expert panel and named eight new members, half of whom have advocated against vaccines.
Kennedy, a long-time anti-vaccine activist, founded the Children’s Health Defense.
Both the Republican senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Democratic senator Patty Murray of Washington state said the meeting on 25 and 26 June should be postponed.
The summary of the presentation suggested that there are enough thimerosal-free flu vaccines and that all pregnant women, infants and children should receive only those shots. It was not clear whether the new advisory panel would be asked to vote on such a move.
Redwood’s presentation was in contrast with a separate report posted by CDC staff on the agency’s website on Tuesday that says evidence does not support a link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Kennedy has long pushed a link between vaccines and autism contrary to scientific evidence.
Redwood could not immediately be reached for comment. An HHS spokesperson said the study being referenced was the Toxicological Sciences study Berman said was being misrepresented.
The CDC’s briefing material reviewed some studies on neurodevelopmental outcomes and vaccines that contain thimerosal, which has long been used in the US in multidose vials of medicines and vaccines to prevent germs from growing in them.
According to the CDC report, 96% of all influenza vaccines in the US were thimerosal-free during the 2024-25 flu season. It also added that the number of pregnant women receiving a thimerosal-containing flu vaccine has decreased over time, with only 0.3% of doses given in 2024 containing thimerosal.
Kennedy wrote a book in 2014 claiming that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, causes brain damage.
On Monday, Cassidy, who heads the US Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions (Help), called for the meeting to be delayed, saying it should not take place with a relatively small panel and without a CDC director in place.
Murray, a senior member and former chair of the Help committee, has also called for the fired panel members to be reinstated or the meeting to be delayed until new members are appropriately vetted.