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Re:Breakthrough in Synthetic Vaccine Technology Requires No ... by ridgeguy on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @11:51AM (#21126761)
>Never mind that it wasn't elemental mercury and was perfectly safe to ingest…

I’m sure you didn’t mean non-elemental forms of mercury are safe, but to forestall someone’s taking that meaning: “Organic” mercury compounds can be far more toxic than elemental mercury.

See dimethyl mercury [1]. A single drop exposure (through a latex glove) killed a scientist 10 months after exposure.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylmercury

Agree with your post, the amount of thimerosal (Hg-based preservative) made it a non-issue in vaccine safety.

Re:Breakthrough in Synthetic Vaccine Technology Requires No ... by olouv on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @12:24PM (#21127273)
> Agree with your post, the amount of thimerosal (Hg-based preservative) made it a non-issue in vaccine safety.

Any insights on why it has been banned from childhood vaccines since 2001? (see. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/thimerosal/index....)

Re:Breakthrough in Synthetic Vaccine Technology Requires No ... by ceejayoz on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @12:28PM (#21127317)
That page doesn't say banned, it says most of them never had it in the first place. (It also indicates that the multi-use flu shot vials still have it, which further refutes the 'banned' wording.)

The likely reason it was removed from those that did have it was "people are making a fuss about it, why not remove the ammo even if it's harmless?"

Re:Breakthrough in Synthetic Vaccine Technology Requires No ... by ridgeguy on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @07:31PM (#21132031)
No insights that I can support. My long-unrefreshed impression of thimerosal after looking into its toxicity as a vaccine preservative is that it was statistically insignificant. Impression not informed by data later than about 2005.