Health secretary claimed that study, showing safety of aluminum ingredients in vaccines to be safe, was flawed

An influential US medical journal is rejecting a call from the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to retract a large Danish study that found that aluminum ingredients in vaccines do not increase health risks for children, the journal’s editor told Reuters.

Kennedy has long promoted doubts about vaccines’ safety and efficacy, and as health secretary has upended the federal government’s process for recommending immunization. A recent media report said he has been considering whether to initiate a review of shots that contain aluminum, which he says are linked to autoimmune diseases and allergies.

The study, which was funded by the Danish government and published in July in the Annals of Internal Medicine, analyzed nationwide registry data for more than 1.2 million children over more than two decades. It did not find evidence that exposure to aluminum in vaccines had caused an increased risk for autoimmune, atopic or allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders.

The work is by far the best available evidence on the question of the safety of aluminum in vaccines, said Adam Finn, a childhood vaccination expert in the UK and pediatrician at the University of Bristol, who was not involved in the study.