NBC News
The aluminum that is together with other ingredients in some vaccines that babies receive for their protection have been the target of the skeptics of the inoculation, which blame aluminum to cause alleged health problems. However, a new medical study that reviewed more than 1 million people and was published in the magazine with pairs review Annals of Internal Medicine indicates that there is no verified link between aluminum and an increased risk of suffering from some of 50 chronic conditions such as allergies, autism or autoimmune diseases.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States, is one of the people who have spread erroneous information about vaccines for years. For example, in 2024 he said during his appearance in a podcast that aluminum in vaccines is “very neurotoxic.” (A spokesman for the Secretariat did not respond to applications to clarify whether Kennedy continues to hold this idea).
The main author of the new study, Anders Hviid, says that being a father himself understands that there are doubts about certain ingredients in vaccines and the security of applying them.
But he stressed that the new study “addresses many of these doubts and concerns, and It provides clear and robust evidence pointing to childhood vaccines are safe to receive. This is the evidence that parents need to make the best decisions in pursuit of their children, “said Hviid, who directs the Epidemiology area of the State Institut Statens, part of the Ministry of Health of Denmark.
(Measles cases reach their maximum point in the US since the disease was eliminated in the country 25 years ago)
To perform the analysis, HVIID and his team used the Danish National Registry to study any possible link between exposure to aluminum through vaccines received in childhood and 50 chronic diseases, including 36 autoimmune disorders, nine allergies or asthma conditions and five neurodevelopmental issues such as autism and ADHD.
With the analysis, the research team studied more than 1.2 million people born between 1997 and 2018 in Denmark, following them for years. The health records in Denmark are meticulous, so the researchers could even have the data of children who for the age of 2 had received vaccines with more aluminum content compared to those who had received vaccines with lower aluminum. The analysis did not include children who would not have been vaccinated.
The researchers found no link between aluminum in children’s vaccines and none of the 50 conditions studied.
It is important that parents understand that they are not injecting metal to their children “
Anders Hviid Epidemiologist
Ross Kedl, a professor of immunology and microbiology at the University of Colorado, said that medical studies made with public data in Scandinavian countries are especially good quality.
“In part because, for a long time, they have a unified health system,” said Kedl, who was not involved with the analysis but who was asked to review it. “Everyone is followed from childhood, so you can see a single case for many years and be able to answer the question: can a link between something that happened before and something of now?”
HIVID said they decided to carry out the Danish study after another very controversial analysis published in 2022 and partially funded by the Centers for the Control and Prevention of American Diseases (CDC).
He suggested that there may be a slight greater risk of having asthma for aluminum in vaccines, but that review never distinguished between aluminum in children’s vaccines and aluminum that someone can be exposed for any other reason. There were also inconsistencies, such as that the data on a group analyzed by the researchers showed that none of those people had a greater risk of asthma, and still in the conclusion it was suggested that this risk existed.
“If you study instead of the people who received vaccines who had more aluminum traces compared to those who received inoculations that did not have it you can control that possibly confusing factor of not knowing if aluminum came or not from vaccines in themselves,” said doctor Paul Offit, who practices in the infectious disease unit of the Children’s Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, when he was asked to offer his opinion on the new study.
Offit says that the 2022 study of the CDC did not make that distinction.
Aluminum is the third most abundant metal on the planet, and people can be exposed through the water it drinks, the water that breathes and even breast milk, according to Offit.
And why is there aluminum in vaccines?
To different vaccines are added different ingredients for different reasons.
Aluminum, added to the vials of inoculation in the form of salts, is an adjuvant; That is, an aggregate that enhances the reaction of the immune system to detect potential invaders and make the body produce antibodies against an antigen, whether virus or bacteria, to prepare in case of a real infection.
“Not only can you have an antigen and an immune response: some stimulus is necessary that disappoints the reaction,” said Kedl, from the University of Colorado. “The adjuvant is the substance that alerts the body about having to react to the antigen in the vaccine. Without the adjuvant even do not create tolerance, which is the opposite of what is sought to achieve with a vaccine.”
(A change in FDA guidelines can limit access to vaccines against COVID-19 of healthy adults and children)
In the United States, aluminum salts are used in diphtheria, tetanus and coughing vaccines, as well as inoculations to protect against pneumonia, hepatitis B and papillomavirus (HPV).
“It is in very small traces of salts, which is not the same as vaccines have aluminum in general as metal,” said Hviid. “It is important that parents understand that their children are not being injected with metal.”
When the vaccine is injected, aluminum salts enter the muscle and are mostly leaked by the kidneys within two weeks.
“It is important that we keep science and political opinions separate when it comes to our baby and children’s immunization program. If not, our children, American children, are going to suffer the consequences,” Hviid said.
