A decades-long coverup

If the government is lying about this–then, what else?

This article was first published on SHARYL ATTKISSON‘s free Substack.

• Thimerosal was not removed from all vaccines, or “all vaccines given to children,” at any point since 1997, 1999, 2001, or any other date that health authorities commonly claim.

Key points:

• The government has long insisted there are no risks with thimerosal, a mercury-based chemical, used in some childhood vaccines in the 1980s and 1990s, and still an ingredient in some shots today.
• Numerous studies and scientists have found a heightened risk of brain disorders, including autism, in children who get vaccines with thimerosal.

• When autism and other neurological developmental disorders spiked in the late 90s and early 2000s, the government claimed that thimerosal was taken out of all vaccines that children get in 1999 (or 1997, or 2001, depending on the reference). However, that’s untrue.
• There’s been a concerted propaganda campaign to mislead the public on scientific links between thimerosal and autism, as well as other neurodevelopmental disorders.

It’s important to note that among scientists who have found thimerosal is implicated in autism, thimerosal is not said to be the only factor in the autism or neurodevelopmental disorder epidemics. Numerous studies have found genetic susceptibilities can play a role in making a child more vulnerable to vaccine injury. Various studies also implicate additional environmental exposures such as chemicals in our food, water, and medicine.

This investigation will:

• Show proof that thimerosal was never removed from all vaccines as the government and other health authorities claimed
• Provide the scientific background, timeline, and basis for thimerosal safety concerns
• Expose a propaganda campaign and decades-long coverup of scientific information, from the infamous Simpsonwood meeting to the controversial Verstraeten study.

Read on for details.

False Claims that Thimerosal was “Removed”

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is one of the most blatant propagandists on this topic. For years, its thimerosal information webpage, approved by none other that of vaccine industry insider Dr. Paul Offit, has contained this misleading statement:

“Thimerosal was removed from vaccines after an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Modernization Act was signed into law on Nov. 21, 1997.”

Most readers would take this to mean there has been no thimerosal in any vaccines since about 1997. That’s untrue, as you’ll see in a moment.

The CDC’s webpage likewise has long contained misleading statements such as, “Thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines in the United States in 2001.” The website changed in recent weeks but still contains a form of the same false information. For example here (screen shot below). it states: “Fact: Thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines in the United States in 2001.” But that’s false.

Another CDC webpage, recently removed, falsely stated:

“Is thimerosal still used in vaccines for children?

No. Thimerosal hasn’t been used in vaccines for children since 2001.”

Each of these claims would receive five outrageous Pinocchios from any neutral fact-checking organization.

Government and establishment medicine websites generally promote a singular view. It’s very difficult to find unbiased, straight facts. Everything they publish is designed to persuade you that thimerosal is safe, while paradoxically, insisting they’ve worked had to eliminate it from all vaccines, anyways. On the one hand the government implies people are crazy to believe there’s a risk. On the other hand, they congratulate themselves for supposedly removing the chemical in question.

“FDA is continuing its efforts toward reducing or removing thimerosal from all existing vaccines. Much progress has been made to date. FDA has been actively working with manufacturers…to reach the goal of eliminating thimerosal from vaccines,” reads one FDA page.

Why— if it’s unquestioningly harmless?

If you know where to search, the government and vaccine makers do admit there’s thimerosal in vaccines even today— from both manufacturing and used as a preservative. And they admit some “thimerosal-free” vaccines do actually contain thimerosal—but brush it off as a “trace” amount that’s allowed under government guidelines, as if it doesn’t matter.

The Evidence

So how long has thimerosal persisted in vaccines beyond the date that authorities often claim it was removed?

Remember, their claim is that thimerosal was removed from all shots, or all children’s shots, in 1997, 1999, or 2001. The following is additional specific evidence, some of it now wiped from the original Internet pages, showing how long, and how widespread the disinformation is on this topic.

In 1999, long after some claimed thimerosal was gone, the CDC actually issued instructions regarding ongoing thimerosal still contained in childhood vaccinations: “Hepatitis B, DTaP, and Hib vaccines that contain thimerosal as a preservative can continue to be used in the routine infant schedule beginning at age 2 months…[emphasis added]”

In 2000, the CDC acknowledged that while thimerosal had been “reduced,” some remained in Hepatitis B vaccines for babies.

This page (screen shot below), wiped from its original place, shows “Thimerosal Content in Some US Licensed Vaccines” as of 2001, with brand names deleted

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Here is an FDA list from 2004 (screen shot below), long after it was claimed that thimerosal was “removed.” It lists “Mercury Content from Thimerosal in the Routinely Recommended Pediatric Vaccines in the United States” and in vaccines recommended for “some children.”

It lists thimerosal in 13 separate vaccines, most of them used in children, including:

• Tripedia DTaP
• Some Td shots
• One of the offered DTaP-Hib shots
• A pediatric HepB shot
• Flu shots

Additionally, it lists thimerosal in these vaccines recommended for “some” children:

• All DT shots
• TT Tetanus Toxoid
• Other flu shots

This product information (screen shot below) from December 2005 shows thimerosal used in Japanese encephalitis vaccine approved for people age one and over, years after claims that thimerosal had been removed.

This chart from 2009 (screen shot below) has been wiped from its original place but shows a list of “excipients” in vaccines, including thimerosal, other adjuvants and preservatives, as well as substances used during the manufacturing process. (It doesn’t work to search the page for “thimerosal,” you have to look thru each vaccine on the list.) This is years after thimerosal was said to be “removed.”

Here’s what appears on the page where the chart used to be:

Here is a 2010 list of thimerosal in vaccines (screen shot below). This is more than a decade after thimerosal was said to have been “removed.”

The CDC lists thimerosal as an ingredient in at least four shots in 2016 (screen shot below). (The page was since wiped from the website.)

This TDVAX vaccine (screen shot below) against diphtheria and tetanus (label dated Sept. 2018) contained thimerosal and was given to children as young as seven, according to the CDC.

The FDA posted a label for a meningococcal vaccine, Menomune – A/C/Y/W-135, in 2019 (label dated 2016). It notes that thimerosal was added as a preservative. The page has been wiped but can be seen archived here (screen shot below). The shot was approved for ages 2 and up.

In 2021, the CDC listed thimerosal as an ingredient in Afluria, Flucelvax, Flulaval, and Fluzone shots (screen shot below). The list is wiped from the website but available here. The CDC recommends that all children aged 6 months and older, including those with egg allergies, receive an annual flu vaccine

Here is a list of thimerosal-containing vaccines at the Institute of Vaccine Safety as of 2022 (screen shot below). The list is now wiped from the website.

Here is what now appears on the original page

Here is a version of the “excipient” list as of November 2024 (screen shot below).See TD, flucelvax, fluzone, flulaval, and alfluria. Also, this CDC page shows a chart of thimerosal-containing flu shots (2023-2024). See “Table 1.”

This Tetanus Toxoid, recommended for some children age seven and over, contains 25 mg mercury/dose, according to an active posting in 2025 (screen shot below).

Current CDC posting and vaccine labeling in 2025 (screen shots below) state that a Tetanus and Diphtheria (Td) vaccine approved for kids as young as age 7 still contains thimerosal.

Background

First, you may ask: Why is thimerosal used in vaccines when we know mercury, even in the tiniest amounts, can be toxic?

Dr. Dick Johnston explained in 2000 at a secretive medical conference convened by the CDC at the Simpsonwood Retreat in Norcross, Georgia to discuss thimerosal’s link to neurodamage. He was an immunologist and pediatrician with a primary focus on vaccine adverse events.

“Thimerosal is in many vaccines because it is a preservative and it lowers the rate of bacterial and fungal contamination that may occur during the manufacturing process, packaging and the use of vaccines in the field,” he stated. “[Contamination] is particularly a concern in multi-dose vials because of the issue of re-entry [of needles] multiple times in the vials. And [thimerosal] is also important in the manufacturing process for a number of vaccines, including inactivated influenza and some of the earlier DPT [diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus] vaccines, and is a constituent of all DPT vaccines, but not all DTaP [diphtheria, tetanus & pertussis] vaccines.” (p. 15)

Complicating matters, Dr. Johnston also explained in 2000 that there was scant data on the safety of the combination of metals injected into babies through vaccines.

[A]luminum and mercury are often simultaneously administered to infants, both at the same [injection] site and at different sites,” Dr. Johnston pointed out. “However…there is absolutely no data, including animal data, about the potential for synergy, additivity or antagonism, all of which can occur in binary metal mixtures that relate and allow us to draw any conclusions from the simultaneous exposure to these two salts in vaccines.” (p. 15)

Dr. Bill Weil, a pediatrician representing the Committee on Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics at the same meeting warned, “The potential for aluminum and central nervous system toxicity was well established by dialysis data. To think there isn’t some possible problem here is unreal.”

Dr. Martin Myers, Acting Director of the National Vaccine Program Office added, “Clearly it’s a confounding issue in that exposure to vaccine includes exposure to things other than thimerosal.” (p. 24)

Timeline

In 1997, Congress required the FDA to review use of mercury (thimerosal) in drugs and biologics, due to safety concerns. (p. 12)

In 1998, the FDA asked manufacturers to provide detailed info about mercury (thimerosal) in their products.

In April of 1999, European authorities met with manufacturers to discuss thimerosal safety concerns. “In the U.S. there was a growing recognition that the cumulative exposure [of mercury in all the shots] may exceed some of the [government] guidelines.” (p. 12)

In July of 1999, the Public Health Service and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stated it was desirable to remove mercury from vaccines because it was a potentially preventable source of exposure, and that if it were able to be removed, that it should be removed as soon as possible. (p. 12)

In August of 1999, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee and the Inter-Agency Working Group on Vaccines convened a special meeting to consider the risks of thimerosal in vaccines. They agreed that “the greatest risk for mercury exposure from vaccines would be to low birth weight infants and to infants born prematurely… [and] that it would be desirable to remove mercury from U.S. licensed vaccines.” (p. 14)

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After the August meeting, a thimerosal working group was convened that included representatives from several public health service agencies, academia, and other organizations. They suggested starting what became the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) analysis.

Phase 1 of the analysis would look for vaccine links with a range of “plausible” neurologic, neurodevelopmental, and renal conditions related to mercury such as autism, attention deficit disorder (ADD), speech delay, stammering, epilepsy, and tics. “If there was any hint of association with any specific conditions,” then the scientists would do a confirmatory study or hypothesis-testing study. (pp. 29-30)

Phase 1 uncovered alarming and unexpected findings that seemed to connect mercury to neurologic diseases.

On June 7-8 of 2000, the CDC invited other government health officials, advisors, and vaccine makers to a secretive meeting at the Simpsonwood Retreat in Norcross, Georgia (not far from the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters) to discuss the alarming, interim findings from the Vaccine Safety Datalink analysis. (A transcript of the meeting was later obtained by parents through a Freedom of Information Act request.) The meeting was officially titled, “Scientific Review of Vaccine Safety Datalink Information.”

At the meeting, Dr. Walter Orenstein, Director of the CDC’s National Immunization Program, stated: “Initial concerns were raised last summer (1999) that mercury, as methylmercury in vaccines, might exceed safe levels. As a result of these concerns, CDC undertook, in collaboration with investigators in the Vaccine Safety Datalink, an effort to evaluate whether there were any health risks from mercury in any of these vaccines…Analysis to date raise some concerns of a possible dose-response effect of increasing levels of methylmercury in vaccines and certain neurologic diseases.” (pp. 1-2)

Dr. Oreinstein told attending scientists, advisers, and vaccine makers that “the screening analysis suggests a possible association between certain neurologic developmental disorders, namely tics, attention deficit disorder (ADD), speech and language disorders and exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines before the age of six months.” (p. 50)

This was especially concerning since the analysis only included a “pure” sampling of previously healthy babies, and presumably would have been even worse if it had included vulnerable premature infants and children with other health issues, who are more likely to suffer vaccine adverse events.(p. 32)

It was further worrisome that an association between brain disorders and thimerosal showed up in the limited sample of children mostly aged six and younger since that’s typically too young to be diagnosed with ADD and autism. Those disorders are typically diagnosed from ages 6-12. (p. 204)

Numerous officials at the meeting questioned the analysis or downplayed the importance of the data. But others saw it as significant.

Dr. Weil stated, “The number of [vaccine] dose related relationships are linear and statistically significant. You can play with this all you want. They are linear. They are statistically significant.” (p. 207)

Dr. Isabelle Rapin, a neurologist for children at Albert Einstein College of Medicine with in interest in developmental language disorders and autism stated, “The data that are there—they won’t go away. They are going to be captured by the public and we had better make sure that (a) we counsel them very carefully and (b) that we pursue this because of the very important public health and public implications of the data.” (p. 197)

Dr. Johnson stated,“The data suggests that there is an association between mercury and the endpoints, ADHD, a well known disability, and speech delay.” (p. 199)

Toward the end of the meeting, Dr. Johnson concluded: “My gut feeling? It worries me enough. Forgive this personal comment, but I got called out at eight o’clock for an

emergency call and my daughter-in-law delivered a son by C-section. Our first male in the line of the next generation, and I do not want that grandson to get a thimerosal

containing vaccine until we know better what is going on. It will probably take a long time. In the meantime, and I know there are probably implications for this internationally, but in the meanwhile, I think I want that grandson to only be given thimerosal-free vaccines.” (pp. 199-200)

The public officials were privy to this important health information at the meeting and able to make their own personal decisions as to the safety of their loved ones, but the information was kept secret from the general public, whom they are supposed to serve.

Also in 2000, “Bernard et al. published an extensive literature review which outlined the shared traits and biological abnormalities between mercury poisoning and autism. The review suggested that many cases of idiopathic autism may be induced by early mercury exposure and represent an unrecognized mercurial syndrome. They further postulated that genetic and non-genetic factors establish susceptibility whereby mercury’s adverse effects do not occur in all children exposed to mercury.”

In April of 2001, a published review, “Autism: a novel form of mercury poisoning,” noted that, “Thimerosal, a preservative added to many vaccines, has become a major source of mercury in children who, within their first two years, may have received a quantity of mercury that exceeds safety guidelines. A review of medical literature and US government data suggests that: (i) many cases of idiopathic autism are induced by early mercury exposure from thimerosal; (ii) this type of autism represents an unrecognized mercurial syndrome; and (iii) genetic and non-genetic factors establish a predisposition whereby thimerosal’s adverse effects occur only in some children.”

In October of 2001, the Institute of Medicine published a report that found a “biologically plausible” connection between thimerosal exposure and neurodevelopmental disorders. This sounded alarm bells with some in public health since the number of recommended vaccines and, thus, cumulative mercury exposure had exploded in the 80s and 90s, along with autism cases.

The pharmaceutical/government/scientific establishment launched a powerful propaganda campaign designed to discredit the scientists and studies unearthing vaccine-autism links, or investigating vaccine safety, in general.

This effort included flooding the scientific landscape with industry-friendly counterstudies claiming there was no reason to worry about thimerosal. It also included social media campaigns, pressure to smear and censor certain studies and reporting, the funding of nonprofits to misdirect people, influencing politicians and medical organizations including the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and exerting influence over the news media. At this time, the pharmaceutical industry was becoming a powerful multi-billion dollar customer of the media through newly-approved advertising of prescription drugs on television.

In 2001, while officially denying there’s anything harmful about thimerosal, the government nonetheless urged its removal from most vaccines. Today, many public health authorities falsely claim thimerosal was removed from vaccines in 1999.

2003 marked a major effort to rewrite the narrative in order to erase the links between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders

In 2003, the Vaccine Safety Datalink study that was discussed secretly at Simpsonwood in 2000 was finally published. It noted that Phase One had found a significant positive association with tics and increased risk of language delay with cumulative exposure of thimerosal in vaccines at three months and seven months.

But while the study raised serious concerns, they were glossed over through a propaganda campaign that highlighted an odd statement in the study that read,“In no analyses were significant increased risks found for autism or attention-deficit disorder.”

That statement turned out to be misleading, and the entire study controversial, for numerous reasons:

• It failed to acknowledge what had been noted at Simpsonwood: the analyses were mostly of children too young to typically be diagnosed with autism or attention-deficit disorder. So finding no “significant increased risks” in the studied population doesn’t imply there weren’t associations.
• The study also used wordplay. Although there were worrisome findings of “significant associations” and “increased risks” between thimerosal and neurological devlopmental disorders, the study wrote that it found: “Noconsistent significant associations.”
• Different drafts of the study that were later obtained by Congress reveealed what observers said was a clear effort to toy with data over time in order to to minimize the appearance of thimerosal risks.
• The study’s lead author, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, worked for CDC when he started the study—but was hired by vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline after the early revelations at Simpsonwood before the final study was published. This posed a clear conflict of interest, but was not admitted or disclosed in the study publication.
• Scientists who objected to Dr. Verstraeten’s undisclosed employment with GlaxoSmithKline petitioned and got a correction added to the study. It disclosed that Dr. Verstrateten went to work for vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline while conducting a study about safety risks directly related to GlaxoSmithKline products.
• Although the study conclusions noted “conflicting findings” and stated that “studies with uniform neurodevelopmental assessments of children with a range of cumulative thimerosal exposures are needed,” the study was peddled to the media as proof that vaccines don’t cause autism. Today, many in media still refer to this study as if it exonerated thimerosal. It did not.

In May of 2004, a group of scientists posited:“Thimerosal and autism? A plausible hypothesis that should not be dismissed.” They wrote: “Thimerosal, a preservative added to many vaccines, has become a major source of mercury in children who, within their first two years, may have received a quantity of mercury that exceeds safety guidelines. A review of medical literature and US government data suggests that: (i) many cases of idiopathic autism are induced by early mercury exposure from thimerosal; (ii) this type of autism represents an unrecognized mercurial syndrome; and (iii) genetic and non-genetic factors establish a predisposition whereby thimerosal’s adverse effects occur only in some children.”

Also in 2004, the IOM issued a reversal of sorts of its original findings. Three years earlier it had found a “biologically plausible” connection between thimerosal exposure and neurodevelopmental disorders. But the organization now took the position that, while it could not rule out a thimerosal-autism link, the scientific establishment should not to waste money studying the issue further.

This proclamation by the IOM was largely a death knell for any taxpayer-funded research honestly attempting to uncover vaccine safety issues involving thimerosal. The IOM report was then widely misrepresented in the media as having disproven or debunked any link between vaccines and autism.

From this point forward, it was as if more than a decade of documented scientific concern had been magically wiped away. Future studies and analyses, to the extent government-pharmaceutical had influence over them, would imply thimerosal was somehow now proven safe. The previous science finding otherwise was declared to be outweighed by “the scientific consensus,” “the greater body of evidence,” or “the credible studies.”

Meantime, thimerosal remained in numerous shots and—as of this writing—is still contained in commonly used multi-dose flu shots, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids (Td) shots, and meningococcal vaccine for menengitis. But, as we’ll see in a moment, you’d never know it based on the word play used by the government, public health officials, the vaccine industry, and the media.

Hundreds of studies since this time support a potential link between mercury in vaccines and autism. For example, in 2011, a study entitled The plausibility of a role for mercury in the etiology of autism: a cellular perspective noted, “There is emerging evidence supporting the hypothesis that autism may result from a combination of genetic susceptibility and exposure to environmental toxins at critical moments in development. Mercury (Hg) is recognized as a ubiquitous environmental neurotoxin and there is mounting evidence linking it to neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.”

Ongoing Deceit

Today, the Internet and news media are flooded with untrue or misleading claims on the topic of thimerosal in vaccines. Our public health agencies, trusted medical references, and supposed “fact check” groups are chief offenders.

For example, vaccines labeled as “thimerosal-free,” aren’t necessarily thimerosal-free.

The government permits manufacturers to represent shots with very small amounts of mercury as being “free” of thimerosal. The problem is, some researchers have said even trace amounts of mercury can prove harmful to susceptible children and can accumulate in their brains.

Another decoy phrase you may read on the label of a vaccine is, “thimerosal was not used as a preservative.” Most consumers would take that to mean there’s no thimerosal in the vaccine. Again—that’s not necessarily the case. That phrase typically implies thimerosal was used as part of the manufacturing process. Just not as a preservative.

In each case, the wordplay is designed to make you think something that’s not true. Otherwise the labeling would accurately state the information such as, “this vaccine contains thimerosal from the manufacturing process” rather than “thimerosal was not used as a preservative”; or “this vaccine contains trace amounts of thimerosal” rather than it’s “thimerosal-free.” If you’re allergic to peanuts and a product contains a teeny amount of peanuts, would it be okay to advertise it as “peanut-free”? Of course not.

Other misdirection states that mercury is just a normal organic thing found in our everyday surroundings, so why worry about tiny amounts being injected into babies? Yet by way of example, arsenic is also found in our environment but most people understand that even tiny amounts can be poisonous when people ingest it.

And lastly, great effort has been poured into the medical establishment trying to insist that the form of mercury in thimerosal is not like other mercury, and is not harmful.

Conclusion

After a strong body of scientific evidence pointed to thimerosal as a factor in the epidemic of neurdevelopmental disorders including autism, there was a concerted campaign to mislead the public on that and rewrite the “science.”

As you can see, thimerosal was not removed from all vaccines, or all vaccines given to children, at any point since 1997, 1999, 2001, or any other date that authorities commonly claim.

In fact, the cumulative exposure of thimerosal through recommended annual flu shots, combined with aluminum, formaldehyde, and other chemicals, continues to grow as the number of vaccines has expanded.

Read Sharyl Attkisson’s five star bestseller: “Follow the $cience: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails.”