Along the way, Wakefield and Bigtree have made a lot of new friends, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who, in addition to his work as the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a well-respected environmental organization dedicated to protecting the nations waterways, is one of the major proponents besides Wakefield of the belief that vaccines cause autism. In 2005, he wrote a now-infamous story, Deadly Immunity, published simultaneously on Salon and in Rolling Stone. The story charged that thimerosal, a preservative used in some vaccines, was linked to autism, and that government agencies had colluded to cover it up. (The story was retracted and subsequently deleted by Salon.) Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, a mercury compound that the World Health Organization says is safe and non-toxic in the amounts found in some vaccines.
(Kennedy declined to be interviewed for this piece after we failed to reach an agreement about the form it would take. Kennedy requested that Jezebel post only a transcript of any interview, unedited, which Jezebel refused to do.)
Thimerosal was removed from virtually all childhood vaccines in the U.S. in 2001 out of an abundance of caution (although its still used in some multi-dose vials of flu vaccines) and was never put in the MMR vaccine. But that hasnt stopped vaccine skeptics from believing vaccines still contain it and other ingredients they believe to be harmful. In January, Kennedy made waves by announcing that Trump had asked him to chair a vaccine safety commission. Since then, though, theres been no progress on that commission, and Kennedy has tweeted frequent, bitter criticisms of Trumps environmental policies, which seems to suggest the two arent on good terms.
