Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel dominated by vaccine skeptics is signaling it will review the use of aluminum salts used in many vaccines during the coming year, despite strongly held beliefs by medical experts that the additives are safe and necessary.
Aluminum has been added to vaccines for nearly 100 years as an "adjuvant" to help the body build a stronger immune response. Without them, many vaccines simply wouldn't work or would provide only short-lasting protection.
The additives are used in half the U.S. supply of childhood vaccines, such as those against hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus and human papillomavirus.
But aluminum salts have also become a target for vaccine skeptics, including some public figures who have called them harmful in spite of evidence to the contrary contained in many major studies.
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