Citation and extracts below.
CITATION: Editor's Choice, Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief
Aluminium and vaccine safety: false hypotheses rarely die
BMJ 2026; 393 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s886 (Published 08 May 2026)
Cite this as: BMJ 2026;393:s886
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Last year Robert F Kennedy Jr extended his attack on aluminium “adjuvants” used in vaccines by demanding that the Annals of Internal Medicine retract a carefully done study that didn’t support his view that vaccines containing these adjuvants caused harm (doi:10.1136/bmj.r1765)... Christine Laine, the journal’s editor in chief, refused...
Kennedy’s attack on vaccines, and specifically aluminium adjuvants and other similar components, continues. This week we publish a new systematic review addressing the same question: whether aluminium adjuvants in vaccines cause harm (doi:10.1136/bmj-2025-088921). All drugs have some side effects, and more research and data on harms are always helpful, but the review rejects the notion that vaccines containing aluminium compounds are unsafe. We have over half a century of experience in using these products. Will this new study be enough to quieten the noise? On the basis of scientific principles, it should, but we know that it will not. Harmful hypotheses are hard to put to bed: the more sensational they are, the more they endure...
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HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org