The FDA wants to reevaluate the use of aluminum adjuvants despite a long record of safe use in vaccines
Why Aluminum in #Vaccines Is Safe—And Often Essential
#Health
— Daniel🗽Shook (@fds3rd.bsky.social) 2025-10-19T11:05:56.053Z
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-aluminum-in-vaccines-is-safe-and-often-essential/
President Donald Trump said the aluminum in many vaccines is harmful during a wide-ranging press conference last month. The Food and Drug Administration is now examining the safety of the metal in vaccines in order to determine whether to remove it. But health experts say that the claims have no scientific basis and that taking such a step would endanger the country’s public health.
Vaccines containing aluminum “are incredibly safe,” says Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, who has played a key role in developing vaccines for neglected populations. A wealth of aluminum-containing vaccines are on the market, including those for HPV, hepatitis and pneumococcal disease, as well as the combined Tdap and polio vaccines. Halting their production to make formulas without aluminum “would have a devastating effect,” Hotez says, because the development of new formulas would likely stop the production of current vaccines.
Scientists began using aluminum salts in vaccines almost a century ago as adjuvants, ingredients that are used to help produce a stronger or more effective immune response. They activate parts of the immune system that boost the production of antibodies and T cells against specific invading substances. “Without the adjuvant, you don’t get enough of the immune response, and the vaccine won’t work,” Hotez says of certain vaccines. “It’s absolutely essential.”
Using adjuvants such as aluminum also help make vaccines more efficient by lowering the amount of material needed to produce an immune response, reducing the number of booster shots needed and improving the body’s immune memory of a pathogen. Vaccine makers thoroughly test adjuvants during vaccine development, and the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continuously monitor them after approval to ensure safety.
Dr. Hotez is an amazing doctor who specializes in vaccines.
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