Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces removal of thimerosal from U.S. vaccines in recorded statement

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who identified himself in the recording as "your HHS secretary," said in a recorded statement that he approved a ban last week on thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative, in all U.S. vaccines.

Kennedy said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) voted in June to recommend a full ban on mercury-containing preservatives and that he "formally approved that recommendation last week." He described thimerosal and its component ethylmercury as a potent neurotoxin and cited a series of studies and government reports to support his decision.

The claim and the decision were the focus of the recording. Kennedy said the move aligns U.S. policy with other developed countries that removed mercury additives from vaccines years ago and urged global health organizations to follow suit.

In the recording, Kennedy described a range of scientific and regulatory findings, saying, "Thimerosal's own label advises against its use during pregnancy" and that the preservative "has never been shown to be safe." He also said a 2005 study commissioned by the National Institutes of Health and performed by the National Toxicology Program found that ethylmercury crosses the blood-brain barrier and "metabolizes into the most toxic form of mercury." Kennedy further stated that "the amount of ethylmercury in the flu shot that CDC just banned under my order is 25,000 times EPA's safety level for drinking water."

Kennedy accused vaccine manufacturers and regulators of protecting profits and "looking the other way," saying the pattern ends under the current administration. He also urged the World Health Organization and Gavi to stop using mercury-containing vaccines in their programs.

The recording references multiple agencies and reports by name, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, CDC, the National Institutes of Health, the National Toxicology Program, the National Research Council, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Those citations are presented as assertions in the speaker's remarks.

The recording includes several specific scientific and regulatory claims and numerical assertions about risk and exposure that the speaker attributes to studies and agency documents. The statement does not include independent documentation of the approvals or the ACIP vote within the recording itself, and the recording does not provide dates or copies of the referenced studies or official documents beyond the verbal references.

The recording ends with Kennedy saying, "We are remaking FDA and CDC under president Trump's leadership, your FDA and your CDC, into the vigilant public watchdogs that they were always meant to be." The statement is labeled in the transcript as "Produced by the US Department of Health and Human Services."