As CDC vaccine experts debate study data, U fact-checker finds errors

An infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota uncovered a fake citation and errors just before they were presented Thursday to an influential federal panel considering safety concerns over thimerosal, a little-used preservative in flu shots.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in Atlanta officially recommended on Thursday that Americans avoid seasonal influenza vaccines containing thimerosal, which few do. But it did not consider the disputed research before making its decision.

The U’s Dr. David Boulware raised concerns on social media this week after reviewing Thursday’s ACIP agenda and failing to find a study that was scheduled to be presented. A draft presentation slide suggested the missing study offered proof of long-term neurological consequences from exposure to thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury.

“It was a very strong statement, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m curious about that study,’ ” Boulware said in an interview. “I tried to look up the study and couldn’t find it ... and I’m pretty good at doing literature searches.”

Thursday’s ACIP meeting was the first since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced the entire panel and appointed several members who are skeptical of vaccines and vaccine safety.

The presentation on thimerosal was by Lyn Redwood, who used to lead a group called Children’s Health Defense, which is skeptical of vaccine safety and lists Kennedy as a founder. Redwood’s actual presentation excluded the disputed study and corrected an error that Boulware had also found, which suggested influenza vaccines contain a much higher amount of thimerosal than they actually do.

The disputed 2008 study in her draft presentation was purportedly co-authored by Dr. Robert F. Berman, an expert in neurodevelopmental disorders at the University of California, Davis. Berman told Boulware he had written a study that year in another journal but that it came to an opposite conclusion and did not find neurotoxic effects from thimerosal.

ACIP took three separate votes Thursday and recommended in 5-1 decisions that children, pregnant women and adults in general seek seasonal flu vaccines that don’t contain thimerosal. The panel issues expert guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before it sets national vaccination guidelines.

“We don’t really need it,” said Martin Kulldorff, the former Harvard biostatistician and epidemiologist whom Kennedy appointed as ACIP’s chairman.

Boulware said thimerosal content in vaccines was a “nonissue” and “a debate from the 1990s,” because 95% of current seasonal flu vaccines come in single-dose vials and don’t require the use of the ingredient as a multidose preservative. No pediatric versions contain thimerosal.

He was more troubled that a member of the panel came close to presenting false information, he said, possibly assembled with the help of artificial intelligence.

“This isn’t like you’re doing your high school book report or something,” he said. “This is for a serious federal panel.”

Boulware’s discoveries came weeks after the Trump administration released a “Make America Healthy Again” report that also cited nonexistent studies. HHS had dismissed those as “minor citation and formatting errors.”

Dr. Cody Meissner has the most traditional medical background of any of the current ACIP members, as a professor of pediatrics at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine. He offered the lone vote against the ACIP recommendations and said thimerosal “is an old issue that has been addressed in the past.”

However, he worried that people who only have access to flu shots from multidose vials containing the preservative would now refuse them. “The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent — as far as we know — risk from thimerosal,” he said.

Exactly who is getting these multidose shots is unclear, but ACIP members worried they are often provided to disadvantaged adults who can’t afford single-dose alternatives.

Redwood presented a statistic from the 2019-20 flu season, suggesting more than 60,000 pregnant women on Medicaid had received shots containing thimerosal. No citation was provided to support the statistic.

Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, criticized the panel in public comments during the meeting for putting too much stock in a “lay person.” He urged ACIP to hear from medical experts and consider decades of data showing that thimerosal isn’t a known health risk.

Kulldorff replied, “It is inappropriate to dismiss a presentation just because a person doesn’t have a Ph.D. or M.D. There are a lot of knowledgeable people we would like to hear from.”

Boulware has published prominent papers about HIV and meningitis, but he gained public notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic when he searched for existing medications that could treat the disease. He led multiple trials of hydroxychloroquine that failed to find any therapeutic benefit, making him a controversial figure among people who insisted that it worked.

Boulware watched the ACIP meeting remotely. He said some fear thimerosal exposure can lead to autism in children, but that is debunked by the fact that autism rates rose when the preservative was absent from childhood flu shots.

Consumption of certain fish products remains a source of mercury, along with airborne pollutants from coal-fired power plants, he said, adding that tougher federal clean air standards would reduce the risk.