A nurse gives an influenza virus vaccine shot to a man at a Giant Pharmacy in Fairfax, Va., on Oct. 13, 2004. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
July 23 (UPI) -- The mercury-based preservative thimerosal will be removed from all flu shots distributed in the United States, Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday.
Kennedy made the change when he signed policies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, according to a news release Wednesday.
The committee voted 5-1 with one abstention for the changes at its meeting on June 25 and 26 in Atlanta. All people, including children, who receive a single dose of influenza will have them without mercury.
Kennedy, who hasn't acted on other panel recommendations from June, signed the decision instead of the leader of the CDC. Susan Monarez, who is President Donald Trump's nominee to head the agency, hasn't been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
