Robert F. Kennedy -Most often taught his criticism of vaccines for a common ingredient: aluminum, which, as he suggested, is responsible for the network of childhood diseases, including Food allergiesIN autism And depression.
“You wonder why the entire generation of children has an allergy to things,” said Mr. 2021 interviewsThe field “This is because we cause allergies, pumping them full of aluminum.”
For many scientists on aluminum vaccines, is a strange goal. These are some of the most studied ingredients in vaccines and, possibly, in modern medicine.
“There is a huge amount of information that is going,” said Dr. Andrew Rasin, a pediatrician and chief medical director in the healthcare system in Montefiora. “If something jumped out about the lack of security, we would most likely have seen it somewhere, and it simply would not appear.”
Aluminum salts, a more soluble shape of the metal, are added to vaccines, such as a TDAP shot to strengthen the body's immune response. The ingredient has been repeatedly evaluated as part of vaccines in clinical trials and is introduced into Billions of doses For several decades.
Despite this, when Mr. Kennedy is preparing for hearings to confirm as Minister of Health and Social Services, many experts fear that the reserve will face new control and can even serve as an excuse to restrict access to several children's vaccines, such as shots for hepatitis B and pneumococcal disease.
Aaron Siri, lawyer and close ally of Mr. Kennedy, represented customers c STRIPMENTION ON THE FEDERAL Regulators To suspend the distribution of more than a dozen vaccines until the manufacturers provided more information about the amount of aluminum in the compositions.
Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Siri did not respond to requests about comments.
The origin of added aluminum in vaccines can be traced for almost a century. In the stable on the outskirts of Paris, the young veterinarian made a kind of discovery: the mixing tapioki in the vaccines of his horses made them more effective.
The doctor, Gaston Ramon, noticed that horses who had a slight infection at the injection site had much more reliable immunity against diphtheria. He suggested that adding something to his pictures that caused inflammation – he The adjuvants were later namedobtained from the Latin root “to help” – helped to cause a stronger immune response.
After testing several candidates, including bread crumbs, vasels and rubber latex, he found success with a tapioca injection, which led to light edema and much larger antibodies.
Tapioka never captured an adjuvant. But in 1932, a few years after the publication of Dr. Ramon, the United States began to include aluminum salts in Diphtheria immunizationHow they were Found to call A similar, but more reliable effect.
Today, aluminum adjuvants are found in 27 routine vaccinesAnd almost half of those who are recommended for children under 5 years old.
This additional growth in immunity is not required in all types of vaccines. Pictures that contain the weakened form of the virus, for example, the joints of measles and rubella, or created using MRNA technology, such as Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, create quite strong immune answers on their own.
But in vaccines that contain only small fragments of pathogen, which will attract little attention of the immune system, adjuvants help stimulate a stronger answerIN Allowing vaccines to provide in a smaller amount of doses.
Scientists believe that aluminum salts work in two ways. Firstly, aluminum is associated with the main component of the vaccine and makes it more slowly diffuse in the bloodstream, giving immune cells more time to build an answer.
It is also believed that aluminum works more directly, enhancing the activity of certain immune cells, although this mechanism not completely clearField
Although aluminum salts Not the only adjuvants In the market, vaccines manufacturers often prefer them from a long track record of security data.
Each time a new vaccine is developed, which uses an aluminum adjuvant, it undergoes long clinical trials to evaluate its safety, and side effects are continuously controlled after approval. One of the earliest tests, including an aluminum adjuvant, was Published in 1934Field
Late tests revealed some minor side effects, such as redness, body pain and, in rare cases, painful nodules at the injection site. But there is little reliable evidence that aluminum in vaccines causes serious, long-term side effects, as Mr. Kennedy suggested.
People who are usually exposed to a large amount of aluminum, such as workers who breathe in aluminum dust, or patients with dialysis who regularly receive drugs rich in aluminum, can experience respiratory, bones and neurological complications.
However, the amount of aluminum in children's vaccines is trivial compared to the fact that people are usually exposed to the environment and food, said Dr. Tony Moody, director of the Vaccine Duke Civics vaccine center.
“We are constantly subjected to aluminum,” he said. “If you breathe dust outside, you come into contact with aluminum.”
In the first six months of life, vaccines expose them by approximately 4.4 milligrams aluminum. One piece of American cheese, on the contrary, may contain up to 50 milligrams aluminum.
When scientists compared the level of aluminum in the blood and hair of children who were given aluminum vaccines compared to those who did not have this, they found There is no significant differenceField
Some scientists believe that one potential side effect requires additional research.
In 2022, after Federal study I discovered a slight relationship between the effects of aluminum from vaccines and asthma, CDC noted that the link justifies “” “”Further investigation. (The agency said that it would not change the recommendations on vaccines “based on one study”.)
Mr. Kennedy, who was then the chairman of the defense of children in the field of healthcare, a non -profit, often critical vaccine, paved the study as evidence that immunization caused an “epidemic of asthma.”
But the authors of the article were careful to indicate the restrictions on their conclusions, especially that the effect was small and that the study was observant, which means that it cannot prove a causal relationship.
In the article, they warned that their results “do not represent convincing evidence for the safety of aluminum in vaccines.”
Independent experts also marked The fact that the authors did not collect data on several key risk factors, for example, whether the participants were subjected to cigarette smoke or had a family story of asthma – any of which could explain the difference that they observed.
In response to the study, a group of researchers from the Statenst Institute of Serum, the Denmark public health agency, conducted a similar analysis at the national data set of more than 450,000 children.
Their preliminary results did not show the connection between aluminum adjuvants and asthma, they informed the CDC Consulting Committee on Immunization Practice in 2023.
Nevertheless, the press secretary of the CDC said that the agency “discusses additional research” to study potential risk.
But until strict studies are able to confirm the results, the connection between aluminum and asthma at best will not become insignificant, said Dr. Stanley Plotkin, who played a key role in helping the vaccine vaccine.
“You cannot change the conclusions from any individual article,” he said. “You must look at the general literature.”
Anders Hviid, who led Danish study, said that he welcomed more studies in the field of adjuvant security, but added that these studies could never be enough to convince skeptics that aluminum does not cause long -term side effects.
“You cannot prove the negative,” he said. “This goal will always move, saying:“ Well, you have not looked at it, and you did not look at it in this way. ”
