Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has employed an anti-vaccine advocate and longtime ally to a place on the Well being and Human Providers Division, an individual conversant in the matter confirmed to ABC Information.
Lyn Redwood served for years as president of Kids’s Well being Protection, the anti-vaccine group based by Kennedy. Her precise position at HHS is unclear.
Andrew Nixon, a division spokesman, declined to remark.
In the meantime, Redwood is anticipated to ship a presentation on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) assembly on Thursday utilizing a report on thimerosal that’s at present accessible on-line, which comprises deceptive info and cites a supply that apparently doesn’t exist, in keeping with one creator, who advised ABC Information he’s falsely cited within the report.
Thimerosal is a preservative in vaccines meant to stop contamination. It is at present utilized in about 4% of flu photographs however was faraway from routine childhood vaccines in 2001.
“To the very best of my data, the examine in rats referred to within the deliberate CDC presentation by Lyn Redwood itemizing Berman RF as first creator doesn’t exist,” Robert F Berman, Ph.D., professor emeritus on the College of California Davis, stated.
“I’ve not revealed a paper with that title or with that set of co-authors within the journal Neurotoxicology in 2008. Additionally, none of my analysis has made any statements about attainable thimerosal results on microglia within the mind or leading to neuroimmune results,” Berman stated.
That quotation has since been faraway from the revised presentation on-line.
The Washington Submit was first to report Redwood’s appointment to HHS.
Redwood has held a longstanding perception that mercury publicity by thimerosal-containing vaccines causes autism. Particularly, she has straight attributed her son’s autism to mercury publicity from childhood vaccines as just lately as October 2024 in a podcast with RFK Jr.
A long time of analysis has discovered no hyperlink between autism and vaccines or any vaccine preservative, together with thimerosal.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies earlier than the Home Power and Commerce Committee Well being Subcommittee, June 24, 2025 in Washington.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Photographs
“Thimerosal was faraway from all routine childhood vaccines within the US out of an abundance of warning – it’s nonetheless used as a preservative in a lot of the world. Many research have demonstrated that it’s secure and has no affiliation with neurodevelopmental problems,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Ailments and AAP’s liaison to ACIP, advised ABC Information.
A radical report of current proof by the Institute of Medicine in 2004 concluded, “the physique of epidemiological proof favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention additionally says, “analysis doesn’t present any hyperlink between thimerosal and autism.”
Whereas this preservative shouldn’t be used steadily within the U.S., whether it is eliminated or now not beneficial in these remaining flu photographs, docs fear it might result in pointless gaps in vaccine entry and the potential for hurt by not defending these folks.
“Any lower within the variety of flu vaccines accessible will probably lead to fewer folks being vaccinated and subsequently, extra hospitalizations and deaths. Its elimination might additionally sign to most people unwarranted security considerations,” O’Leary stated.
At the very least one vaccine professional stated she shuddered Wednesday on the thought of Redwood becoming a member of HHS.
Fiona Havers, a 13-year CDC veteran who labored on vaccine coverage, advised ABC Information in an announcement, “Lyn Redwood is well-known for spreading vaccine misinformation. It’s troubling that Redwood could now have an official position inside HHS and can probably be ready to intervene with official messaging about vaccine security.”
ABC Information has reached out to Redwood for a remark.
Redwood and Kennedy have lengthy been shut. In a dialog between the 2 of them on Kennedy’s podcast final yr, Kennedy credited Redwood with being the determine who “coordinated” the “stalking campaign” by moms who satisfied Kennedy to start wanting into the potential harms of vaccines within the early 2000s.
Redwood was additionally concerned in Kennedy’s current presidential marketing campaign, coordinating volunteer and petition-gathering trainings in Georgia, her house state, in keeping with sign-up pages on the marketing campaign’s web site.
