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
