Similarly, a statement that appeared on the CDC website<\/a> last month said that HHS is investigating whether aluminum in vaccines could be linked to autism. <\/p>\n Aluminum salts are not a \u201ccontaminant\u201d in vaccines: The compound is added as an adjuvant, an ingredient that boosts the body\u2019s immune response to a vaccine, allowing for a smaller dose to be used. Nearly a century of evidence has found it to be safe for this purpose. Aluminum salts are naturally present in soil and water, and the amount children are exposed to from vaccines is minuscule compared with cumulative daily exposures from food. (Exposure from infant formula or breastmilk<\/a> is higher than exposure from vaccines in the first six months of life, as well.) <\/p>\n \u201cThis is not the thing that you wrap your food in at the barbecue. \u2026 The purpose of them is to just help the immune system respond a little more robustly to that vaccine,\u201d said Dr. Michelle Fiscus, chief medical officer at the Association of Immunization Managers, a nonprofit that supports public vaccination programs.<\/p>\n \u201cAluminum adjuvants have made vaccines very, very effective and have helped us significantly reduce suffering and sickness and death,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Skeptical or negative statements about aluminum have cropped up repeatedly during federal health announcements and meetings in recent months. President Donald Trump in September said aluminum was being \u201ctaken out of the vaccines\u201d during a news conference in which he and Kennedy warned that Tylenol use in pregnancy<\/a> may be linked to autism. (The bulk of scientific research has not identified such a link.)<\/p>\n \u201cWho the hell wants that pumped into a body?\u201d Trump said of aluminum.<\/p>\n Then, during the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory panel meeting, Dr. Tracy Beth H\u00f8eg, acting director of the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, argued for adopting the vaccine schedule that Denmark uses, which is sparser than in the U.S., in part because doing so would reduce aluminum exposure.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not feel like we have the data to show that there is an established safe amount [of aluminum] that children can receive before the age of 2, before the age of 18,\u201d H\u00f8eg said.<\/p>\n Some public health experts worry that the investigation into aluminum is part of a broader push to restrict access to or approval of some childhood shots. <\/p>\n Last week, HHS postponed a planned announcement about children\u2019s health to the new year. The details are not yet known \u2014 CNN reported<\/a> that the Trump administration was considering decreasing the number of recommended childhood vaccines to align more closely with Denmark\u2019s, citing an unnamed source \u201cfamiliar with the plans.\u201d Several other outlets subsequently reported the same, though NBC News has not confirmed that plan. <\/p>\n Already, the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory committee voted to stop recommending the hepatitis B vaccine<\/a> for all newborns, and as a result, the CDC now advises women<\/a> who test negative for the virus to decide about the shot with their medical providers. <\/p>\n Changing vaccine recommendations based on concerns about aluminum salts would be a flimsy justification, several public health experts said. Even in Denmark, many recommended vaccines contain aluminum salts, including those for human papillomavirus (HPV), pneumococcal disease, tetanus and whooping cough.<\/p>\n Of the pediatric vaccines on the CDC\u2019s schedule that are missing from Denmark\u2019s universal recommendations<\/a>, just three \u2014 for hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal vaccines \u2014 contain aluminum salts. The others \u2014 for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rotavirus, flu and chickenpox \u2014 do not.<\/p>\n The shot that anti-vaccine activists most frequently and erroneously associate with autism \u2014 the combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine \u2014 also does not contain aluminum salts. <\/p>\n A study of more than 1.2 million children in Denmark<\/a>, published in July in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found no link between aluminum salts from vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. <\/p>\n But Kennedy \u2014 who has made unsubstantiated claims that aluminum in vaccines is linked to rising rates of allergies and autism in children \u2014 demanded the paper be retracted.<\/p>\n \u201cA closer look reveals a study so deeply flawed it functions not as science but as a deceitful propaganda stunt by the pharmaceutical industry,\u201d he wrote in an editorial on the website TrialSite News<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kennedy argued that the paper excluded some children who may have been at risk and did not include a control group. However, Annals of Internal Medicine stood by the study and said there was no reason to retract it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kennedy, a longtime critic of vaccines, had been involved in lawsuits against the pharmaceutical company Merck over allegations related to its HPV vaccine (which contains aluminum salts), but since taking office, he has said any fees earned would go to one of his sons. His focus on aluminum dates back to his time as chairman and chief litigation counsel at the anti-vaccine group Children\u2019s Health Defense<\/a>. The group has claimed for years that thimerosal \u2014 a mercury-based preservative \u2014 is linked to autism, and Kennedy said in a podcast appearance in 2020<\/a> that aluminum had replaced thimerosal in some vaccines, causing them to remain toxic. <\/p>\n In reality, the ingredients serve different purposes and aluminum salts have been used in vaccines for nearly a century. Thimerosal, meanwhile, was largely phased out of childhood vaccines in 2001, and under Kennedy\u2019s leadership, HHS in July pulled the ingredient from the roughly 5% of flu vaccines<\/a> that still had it.<\/p>\n A recent analysis<\/a> from the World Health Organization found no link between autism and vaccines containing thimerosal or aluminum.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this constant movement of the goal post to try to implicate vaccines in the development of these diseases, and there\u2019s just not science to back those claims,\u201d Fiscus said.<\/p>\n In 2021, Kennedy told food blogger Mikhaila Peterson<\/a> that all aluminum-containing vaccines had \u201cnegative risk profiles\u201d and that the brains of children with autism were \u201cloaded with aluminum.\u201d He suggested, too, that kids develop food allergies because \u201cwe\u2019ve been inducing allergies by pumping them full of aluminum.\u201d<\/p>\n A large German study<\/a> in 2011, however, did not find an increased risk of allergies in vaccinated children and even identified a decrease in hay fever among the group. In 2023, a study found<\/a> a positive association between vaccine-related aluminum exposure and persistent asthma, but the results couldn\u2019t be replicated and scientists said the research didn\u2019t properly control for confounding variables.<\/p>\n![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/251224-cdc-vaccine-meeting-gk-85edb4.jpg\")
Retsef Levi listens during a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Dec. 5 in Atlanta.Elijah Nouvelage \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/251224-chickpox-vaccine-gk-94f5b2.jpg\")
A person holds a vial of the Varivax vaccine, which protects against chickenpox, in Los Angeles on Oct. 24.Patrick T. Fallon \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n