Updated on July 23, 2025
By Meaghan Lee Callaghan
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. signed the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from all influenza vaccines distributed in the United States.
"The effort to remove mercury from childhood vaccines began in 1999 when the U.S. Public Health Service, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and vaccine manufacturers jointly