CoMeD Files Evidence of Miscarriage after Thimerosal-containing Flu Shots

March 24, 2010

In its pursuit of banning the use of mercury in medicine, unless proven safe by appropriate toxicity studies, today the nonprofit Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD, Inc.) filed declarations from pregnant women harmed by Thimerosal-containing influenza shots in the US District Court for the District of Columbia (case: 1:2009cv-00015). 

These declarations report that health care providers seemed to be largely unaware of the continuing presence of mercury in vaccines and that these providers often failed to accurately disclose the known risks to the patient from these Thimerosal-containing vaccines, which are specifically recommended for pregnant women and children.

Thimerosal, used as a preservative in vaccines without the required proofs of safety, is half mercury by weight and a known bioaccumulative human poison, neurotoxin, carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen and immune-system disruptor.  In order not to exceed the EPA’s safe daily reference dose (RfD) for mercury ingestion from the mercury contained in one 0.5-mL Thimerosal-preserved flu shot, a pregnant woman or child would have to weigh more than 550 pounds.  Worse, the Material Safety Data sheets for Thimerosal list: fetal death, miscarriage, mental retardation and gross motor impairment as possible outcomes of in utero exposure to Thimerosal.

CoMeD, Inc. originally sought injunctive relief regarding the use of Thimerosal-preserved flu shots for pregnant women in August 2009.  In oral arguments, CoMeD’s attorneys detailed the danger posed by Thimerosal and the denial of informed consent accompanying its administration in most cases.  CoMeD’s attorneys also argued that federal regulations mandating that “any preservative used shall be sufficiently nontoxic so that the amount … will not be toxic to the recipient” [21 CFR § 610.15(a)] have been illegally ignored in the case of Thimerosal. 

To establish that Thimerosal used as a preservative is “sufficiently nontoxic…”, toxicity studies must prove its safety.  Yet, as the US Food and Drug Administration and the drug manufacturers have repeatedly admitted, they have not conducted the toxicity studies required to prove the Thimerosal in a single vaccine dose is “sufficiently nontoxic …”.

Half a year after CoMeD filed a request for a preliminary injunction, which has not yet been granted, to stop the administration of mercury-preserved flu shots to pregnant women, CoMeD members now seek to establish with this filing, that damage they predicted to unborn children sadly has occurred.  Declarations filed today detail fetal deaths, miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births following the administration of Thimerosal-preserved/containing flu shots.  In addition to personal declarations, CoMeD has filed copies of records from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), maintained by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, documenting reports of more than one hundred fetal deaths, miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births attributed to flu shots in the period from September through December of 2009 alone, as well as an additional sixty-plus personal accounts of similar flu-shot-related harm.

With safer alternatives to Thimerosal and the proven ability to make vaccines without any preservative, the use of Thimerosal or any other mercury compound in vaccines without the toxicological proofs of safety required by drug law is both indefensible and illegal, according to CoMeD.

CoMeD, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation that is actively engaged in legal, educational and scientific efforts to stop all use of mercury in medicine, and to ban the use of all mercury-containing medicines.Visit their site at http://mercury-freedrugs.org.

For more information on understanding the flu shot and adverse events, please see Mothering's Monthly VAERS Report page which has expert VAERS analysis on flu related events by Dr. Steven Rubin.