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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is now recommending flu vaccination for all individuals aged 6 months and older for the 2025–2026 season, emphasizing that any age-appropriate vaccine should be delivered without preference for a certain product or formulation, as posted in a prepublication release in Pediatrics. Contrasting with recent federal moves, AAP is advising against avoiding or delaying vaccination in order to seek out specific thimerosal-free options. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recently restructured Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended single-dose, thimerosal-free vaccines for certain populations, AAP has posted a fact check webpage outlining the safety of thimerosal, while also saying that it’s only used in a small number of multidose flu vaccines and has not been used in routine childhood vaccines for nearly 25 years. Extensive studies have shown no harmful neurological effects from thimerosal, according to the academy.
Flu season begins again soon: AAP issued the flu vaccine guidance in part because the waning 2024-2025 flu season has been especially severe with 253 reported pediatric deaths. Historically, up to 80% of influenza-associated pediatric deaths have occurred in unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children, AAP says.
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