עיתונאית: רעלן עצבי בחלק מחיסוני השפעת לילדים

Parents, listen up. Are you considering giving your kids a flu shot this season? If so, beware of a neurotoxin that's in them. It's a mercury compound. We're going to learn more about what harm it can do and how to keep it away from your kids. Megan Redshaw, attorney and investigative journalist, joins us now. Thank you for your time, Megan. What is thimerosal, this neurotoxin in vaccines? Thimerosal is an organic mercury compound. It's been used since the 1930s as a preservative in vaccines. It's about 50 percent or 49.6 percent mercury by weight. And it was removed from vaccines or supposed to be removed from vaccines phased out somewhere between 2000 and 2003. But it was then reintroduced into vaccines in the influenza vaccines, which are recommended currently by the CDC for all individuals, including pregnant women and children. Right. Those are children's vaccines that this thimerosal has been reintroduced to. So how can parents keep their kids safe from this? Well, first of all, I think that they need to check the CDC's website. There's a list of the vaccines that they offer each year. This year, they're using all quadrivalent vaccines, which mean that there are influenza vaccines designed for four strains of the influenza virus. And they need to look and see if those vaccines contain mercury or it will be called thimerosal or ethylmercury. And there are several influenza vaccines that contain up to 25 micrograms of thimerosal. What can thimerosal do to the brain? Well, mercury is like the second most naturally occurring toxic substance on the planet. So when you get a vaccine and it contains ethylmercury, that doesn't just leave your body with no effects. It gets stored in your brain and in your tissue. Some of it's eliminated, but a lot of it's not eliminated. And over time, that can have very neurotoxic effects on the human body. There's been over 75 years of research that has shown that all forms of mercury, including ethylmercury, is not safe for humans in general, but especially children. So walk us through this process. When parents are reviewing this and they see there's some mercury there, they should just stop? Well, there are forms of influenza vaccines that do not contain mercury. I'm not sure on the specific brand names that don't include the thimerosal. I just know that the CDC has a list and it states which vaccines have the thimerosal. And I would definitely avoid that one if you are a parent who has young kids and you're considering getting the influenza vaccine for them. Do you have any final remarks for us? Well, I would just say that this is one preservative that does not need to be in vaccines. The CDC, the EPA, the FDA, they all say we should avoid mercury. Pregnant women need to avoid eating tuna and fish contaminated with mercury. Granted, it's methylmercury, but it's still an organic form of mercury, just like ethylmercury. So it's crazy to think that we should avoid all forms of mercury. But the ethylmercury that is contained in some of these vaccines, both the influenza vaccines and the multivial vaccines, when your kid goes in and gets a combo shot, is somehow safe for the human body. It's not safe, not even close.