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CDC Pulls Vaccine Slide After Expert Cites Study Doesn’t Exist

By I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on June 26, 2025.

THURSDAY, June 26, 2025 — A presentation scheduled for a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine meeting today claimed that a vaccine preservative could cause long-term brain effects — but the study it cited doesn’t appear to exist.

The slide, posted online Tuesday, cited a 2008 paper titled "Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure: Long-term consequences in the brain," and was said to have been published in the journal Neurotoxicology.

The slide said the research showed that thimerosal, a vaccine preservative, caused lasting brain changes in rats, CNN reported.

But the scientist named on the slide, Robert Berman of the University of California-Davis, says he never wrote such a paper.

“I don’t have a publication in Neurotoxicology by that title,” Berman told CNN. “The reference in the slide set, as far as I know – at least with me as a coauthor – does not exist.”

Berman did publish a similar-sounding study in 2008, but it was in Toxicological Sciences, involved mice — not rats — and came to a dramatically different conclusion, CNN said.

“My study was published in Toxicological Sciences and did not find evidence of thimerosal exposure at vaccine levels in mouse behaviors that we thought were relevant to autism,” Berman said.

He added that he was “concerned and displeased” that his research was cited incorrectly.

The CDC quickly removed the original presentation and replaced it with a new version that doesn't include the citation.

The error was first noticed by Dr. David Boulware, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, who told CNN that he tried to find the paper but couldn’t.

The presentation was scheduled to be given by Lyn Redwood, a registered nurse and former leader of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group.

It lists U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a founder.

Redwood is scheduled to present at the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting today. Neither she nor HHS immediately responded to CNN’s request for comment.

Thimerosal has long been a focus of false claims linking vaccines to autism. But studies have shown no such link. In fact, thimerosal was taken out of most vaccines about 25 years ago, and research has not found it to cause any harm in relation to vaccines.

Redwood has said in a video on Children’s Health Defense’s website that she believes thimerosal led to her son’s autism.

The thimerosal topic was added to the vaccine advisers’ agenda at the last minute, raising concerns that the panel might give attention to debunked claims.

The controversy comes after Kennedy removed all 17 members of the vaccine panel, saying they had conflicts of interest. He replaced them with eight new members, many of whom are vaccine skeptics.

Many public health leaders say this move is troubling. U.S. Sen, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor and Republican who chairs the Senate Health Committee, said the meeting should be delayed until the panel has more balanced representation, CNN reported.

This isn’t the first time Kennedy’s team has been linked to incorrect citations. A recent report from the Trump-era “Make America Healthy Again” initiative also included references to studies that couldn’t be verified.

When asked about it during a congressional hearing, Kennedy said the claims in the report were accurate and that the citation errors “were corrected within 24 hours.”

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted June 2025

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