Earlier this month, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine critic, urged countries around the world to follow the lead of the United States and disallow the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines.
Infectious diseases experts generally do not think either Kennedy or the U.S. currently has the clout to convince nations elsewhere to act on that advice, particularly because thimerosal plays an important role in safeguarding vaccines in much of the world. But they worry that by pushing the very suggestion that the preservative presents a risk in shots — despite peer-reviewed scientific studies that have found otherwise — Kennedy may plant seeds of doubt that could erode vaccination rates in other parts of the globe.
