一位知情人士向ABC新闻证实，卫生部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪已经聘请了一名反疫苗倡导者和长期盟友担任卫生与公众服务部的职位。
林恩·雷德伍德曾担任肯尼迪创立的反疫苗组织“儿童健康保护”的主席多年。她在HHS的确切角色尚不清楚。
国务院发言人安德鲁·尼克松拒绝置评。
与此同时，Redwood预计将于周四在免疫实践咨询委员会(ACIP)会议上发表一篇关于以下内容的报告局部抗菌剂根据一位作者的说法，这份报告目前在网上可以找到，其中包含误导性信息，并引用了一个显然不存在的来源，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，他在报告中被错误引用。
硫柳汞是疫苗中的防腐剂，用于防止污染。它目前用于大约4%的流感疫苗，但在2001年从常规儿童疫苗中去除。
“据我所知，Lyn Redwood在计划的CDC演示中提到的将Berman RF列为第一作者的大鼠研究并不存在，”加州大学戴维斯分校名誉教授Robert F Berman博士说。
“我没有在2008年的《神经毒理学》杂志上发表过那个标题或那组合著者的论文。此外，我的研究中没有一项陈述了硫柳汞可能对大脑中的小胶质细胞产生影响或导致神经免疫影响，”伯曼说。
该引文已从在线修改后的演示文稿中删除。
《华盛顿邮报》第一个向HHS报告了雷德伍德的任命。
Redwood长期以来一直认为，通过含有硫柳汞的疫苗接触汞会导致自闭症。具体来说，她直接将她儿子的自闭症归因于儿童疫苗中的汞暴露，就在2024年10月小RFK的播客
几十年的研究没有发现自闭症和疫苗或任何疫苗防腐剂之间的联系，包括硫柳汞。
“出于充分的谨慎，硫柳汞已从美国所有常规儿童疫苗中去除——它在世界上许多地方仍被用作防腐剂。许多研究表明，它是安全的，与神经发育障碍无关，”美国儿科学会传染病委员会主席、AAP与ACIP的联络人肖恩·奥利里博士告诉ABC新闻。
对现有证据的全面报告2004年医学研究所结论是，“大量流行病学证据支持否定含有硫柳汞的疫苗和自闭症之间的因果关系。”
这疾病控制和预防中心还说，“研究没有显示硫柳汞和自闭症之间有任何联系。”
虽然这种防腐剂在美国并不常用，但如果在剩余的流感疫苗中去除或不再推荐使用，医生担心这可能会导致疫苗接种中不必要的缺口，以及由于没有保护这些人而造成的潜在伤害。
“可用流感疫苗数量的任何减少都可能导致接种疫苗的人数减少，从而导致更多的住院和死亡。它的删除也可能向公众发出不必要的安全担忧的信号，”奥利里说。
至少有一名疫苗专家说，她周三一想到雷德伍德加入HHS就不寒而栗。
从事疫苗政策工作13年的CDC老兵菲奥娜·哈沃斯(Fiona Havers)在一份声明中告诉ABC新闻，“利恩·雷德伍德(Lyn Redwood)因传播疫苗错误信息而闻名。令人不安的是，Redwood现在可能在HHS担任官方角色，并有可能干涉关于疫苗安全的官方信息。”
美国广播公司新闻部联系了雷德伍德，请其发表评论。
雷德伍德和肯尼迪一直很亲密。在他们两人去年在肯尼迪的播客上的一次对话中，肯尼迪称赞雷德伍德是“协调”母亲们的“跟踪运动”的人物，这些母亲说服肯尼迪在21世纪初开始研究疫苗的潜在危害。
根据竞选网站上的注册页面，雷德伍德还参与了肯尼迪最近的总统竞选，在她的家乡佐治亚州协调志愿者和请愿收集培训。
RFK Jr. appoints longtime anti-vaccine ally Lyn Redwood to HHS position
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hired an anti-vaccine advocate and longtime ally to a position at the Health and Human Services Department, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Lyn Redwood served for years as president of Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization founded by Kennedy. Her exact role at HHS is unclear.
Andrew Nixon, a department spokesman, declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Redwood is expected to deliver a presentation at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting on Thursday using a report onthimerosalthat is currently available online, which contains misleading information and cites a source that apparently does not exist, according to one author, who told ABC News he is falsely cited in the report.
Thimerosal is a preservative in vaccines meant to prevent contamination. It's currently used in about 4% of flu shots but was removed from routine childhood vaccines in 2001.
"To the best of my knowledge, the study in rats referred to in the planned CDC presentation by Lyn Redwood listing Berman RF as first author does not exist," Robert F Berman, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of California Davis, said.
"I have not published a paper with that title or with that set of co-authors in the journal Neurotoxicology in 2008. Also, none of my research has made any statements about possible thimerosal effects on microglia in the brain or resulting in neuroimmune effects," Berman said.
That citation has since been removed from the revised presentation online.
The Washington Post was first to report Redwood's appointment to HHS.
Redwood has held a longstanding belief that mercury exposure through thimerosal-containing vaccines causes autism. Specifically, she has directly attributed her son's autism to mercury exposure from childhood vaccines as recently as October 2024 in apodcast with RFK Jr.
Decades of research has found no link between autism and vaccines or any vaccine preservative, including thimerosal.
"Thimerosal was removed from all routine childhood vaccines in the US out of an abundance of caution - it is still used as a preservative in much of the world. Many studies have demonstrated that it is safe and has no association with neurodevelopmental disorders," Dr. Sean O'Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases and AAP's liaison to ACIP, told ABC News.
A thorough report of existing evidence by theInstitute of Medicine in 2004concluded, "the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism."
TheCenters for Disease Control and Preventionalso says, "research does not show any link between thimerosal and autism."
While this preservative is not used frequently in the U.S., if it is removed or no longer recommended in those remaining flu shots, doctors worry it could lead to unnecessary gaps in vaccine access and the potential for harm by not protecting these people.
"Any decrease in the number of flu vaccines available will likely result in fewer people being vaccinated and subsequently, more hospitalizations and deaths. Its removal could also signal to the general public unwarranted safety concerns," O'Leary said.
At least one vaccine expert said she shuddered Wednesday at the idea of Redwood joining HHS.
Fiona Havers, a 13-year CDC veteran who worked on vaccine policy, told ABC News in a statement, “Lyn Redwood is well-known for spreading vaccine misinformation. It is troubling that Redwood may now have an official role within HHS and will potentially be in a position to interfere with official messaging about vaccine safety.”
ABC News has reached out to Redwood for a comment.
Redwood and Kennedy have long been close. In a conversation between the two of them on Kennedy’s podcast last year, Kennedy credited Redwood with being the figure who “coordinated” the “stalking crusade” by mothers who convinced Kennedy to begin looking into the potential harms of vaccines in the early 2000s.
Redwood was also involved in Kennedy’s recent presidential campaign, coordinating volunteer and petition-gathering trainings in Georgia, her home state, according to sign-up pages on the campaign’s website.
