In an announcement video, HHS Secretary RFK JR. claims that mercury in vaccines (through the preservative thimerosal) is a dangerous toxin that was never proven safe, can harm the brain and body, and should not have been given to children or pregnant women.

We know a lot about thimerosal. Thimerosal, a mercury compound used in some flu vaccines today, has caused concern due to its name being confused with a harmful type of mercury. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, which is safe and quickly leaves the body. It’s different from harmful methylmercury found in some fish. Thimerosal has been used safely in vaccines, drugs, and contact solutions since the 1930s.

Studies on babies, including those preterm and low-weight babies, show that ethylmercury leaves the body quickly. About half of it is gone in three to seven days, and the rest is flushed out in the baby’s stool. Within a month after getting a vaccine, mercury levels in the blood return to normal, so it does not accumulate over time.

Studies also show that thimerosal does not increase the risk of autism and does not harm the brain or body. Additionally, thimerosal has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001. Autism diagnoses continued to rise following the 2001 removal of thimerosal from all childhood vaccines. The continued rise of autism diagnoses is, in fact, mostly due to growing awareness and changing diagnostic criteria.

On his television show, Bill Maher argues that natural immunity from getting sick with COVID should count as protection, says vaccines can weaken people before helping them, and claims vaccines are only for for high-risk groups of people.

Getting sick is not a safe way to build protection against a disease. Natural immunity is unpredictable, and any virus can make people very sick or even cause death. Vaccines give protection with fewer dangers, like getting sick, being disabled from the disease, or even death.

Another claim is that vaccines weaken instead of helping your immune system. That is not true. Scientists have studied vaccines very carefully and found no proof that they damage immunity. Instead, vaccines train your body to recognize the virus in a safe way, so you can fight it off if you are exposed.

He also claims that only high-risk groups, like older adults, really need the vaccine. While those groups do benefit the most, everyone can spread the virus, and even young, healthy people can get very sick. Vaccines protect you and also help protect the people around you, like children, grandparents, or friends with weak immune systems.

In the end, science is clear: vaccines are the safer, more reliable way to stay protected from COVID compared to natural infection. They lower your risk, protect your loved ones, and help communities stay healthier through every surge, season, and variant.

A widely circulating graph claims CDC data proves that the number of reported deaths after the MMR vaccine is about 16 times higher than the number of deaths from measles since the year 2000.

The claims in this graph come from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. According to the VAERS website, anyone can file a report about a bad reaction after getting a vaccine. But that doesn’t mean the vaccine actually caused the problem. VAERS is partly run by the CDC, but the CDC only hosts the data—it does not collect or verify it.

When you visit the VAERS website, it warns that “VAERS reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable.” Because of this, scientists must be very careful about how they use VAERS data. The graph itself shows this problem too—it says vaccine deaths are only suspected, not proven. In fact, the reports don’t always mean there is a real link to vaccines at all.

It’s also important to remember why there are so few measles deaths today. Kids get vaccinated, which means they don’t catch measles and don’t die from it. Before the vaccine, about 500 children used to die from measles every year in the United States.