Shake That Vial: Flu Shot Thimerosal Content Can Vary by Draw
An experiment conducted by a researcher at a major university (who wishes to remain anonymous) provides evidence that the amount of the mercury in a vaccine can vary by draw from the same vial. Depending on the location of the draw (top or bottom of vial), as well as whether or not the vial was shaken immediately prior to the draw, the amount of mercury differs.
This had been suspected by consumer-safety-advocates for some time. Concerns were that if correct, and they are, certain vaccine recipients could be receiving more mercury than others. Worse, we wouldn’t know who they were or how much that was.
Consumers of Thimerosal containing multi-dose flu vaccine, for example, are reported to be receiving 25-micrograms of mercury per injection. This is based on the assumption that each draw from the vial contains a consistent amount of 25-micrograms, provided that all vaccine vials are shaken immediately prior to being drawn, thereby evenly distributing the 250 mcg in every 5-mL vial that holds ten 0.5-mL draws.
But, the researcher wondered, what if that’s not the case? What if someone forgets to shake it? What if a vial sits overnight or for say, twenty minutes? And does it matter from where the draw is then taken (top or bottom of the vial), shaken or not?
As this experiment shows, it does. Here’s how it was done.
Laboratory Method for Mercury Analysis of Vaccines
A 5-mL sample of multi-dose Flulaval flu vaccine by GlaxoSmithKline was obtained.
To test for mercury content, all sample manipulation was conducted under particle-free conditions in exhausting laminar flow hoods equipped with HEPA filters.
Three subsamples were obtained and analyzed from the 5-mL multi-dose vaccine. Subsamples were drawn from the top, bottom, and bottom-after-settling for 20 minutes, respectively. The entire content of each sample was drawn into a 1 mL rubber-free plastic syringe with a 23-gauge stainless steel hypodermic needle.
Sample volumes of 0.5 mL were estimated using the graduation on the 1-mL syringes. The content of the syringe was dispensed into a trace metal free glass bottle prefilled with 450 mL mercury-free water and 2.25 mL BrCl solution (preparation according to EPA Method 1631).
The samples in glass bottles were periodically shaken and stored overnight to allow the oxidation of mercury. Bottle contents were further diluted as necessary then analyzed using a Tekran 2600 automatic mercury analyzer via Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (CVAFS) with dual preconcentration.
Results
After allowing a 5-mL vial of flu vaccine (from which two draws had already been taken) to settle for only 20 minutes after being shaken and then pulling a third 0.5-mL draw from the bottom of the vial, the content of the mercury in the draw had increased. Instead of 25 mcg, it had 27.
The finding is significant.
One, it provides evidence that mercury does in fact settle at the bottom of the vial. And although a 2-microgram increase may not seem like a big deal, consider this. In the first draw, 25 mcg represents 10% of the 250-micrograms of total mercury in the vial. But, in the third draw, 27 mcg represents 13.5% of the remaining 200-micrograms of mercury in the vial. That’s over a 25% increase.
Two, it weakens the epidemiology done on the relationship between autism and Thimerosal even further. Those studies, which are the only kind of studies being used to debunk “the mercury myth”, as well as upon which the Institute of Medicine relied exclusively to dismiss the hypothesis, are based on research that assumed precise, consistent amounts of Thimerosal per draw and per child in the studies they used.
That assumption was wrong. Because…
Three, as this experiment shows, we will never know exactly how much mercury a child actually received. Parents who have taken comfort in believing their child received “only” 25-micrograms, per se, actually have no idea, and never will, what their child was truly injected with. Did they get a draw from the bottom? Was the jar shaken? How much prior to the draw was it shaken?
No one knows.
Four, it provides yet one more reason Thimerosal belongs absolutely nowhere near a human being. Besides being a neurotoxin that has never been tested for safety, the argument the dose makes the poison simply doesn’t fly when you consider…
They don’t actually know the dose they are giving.
Julie Obradovic is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism.
Typo on previous link. This one here is correct: ¹https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US1862896-1.png
Posted by: Narad | September 07, 2016 at 12:21 AM
At first I was skeptical, but after some consideration I have found that this assertion is most likely correct. Although Thimerosal is fully soluble in water; it is not stable, as can be seen by a patent¹ filed by its' inventor Morris Kharasch which details its' spontaneous disassociation into ethylmercury and dithiocarboxyphenol in solution. It is a well-known fact that ethylmercury has a great affinity for the cysteine side-chains of proteins², and this is what is responsible for Thimerosal losing its' bacteriostatic effect over time³. Egg-ovalbumin is present in flu vaccines as residual artifact⁴ from the culturing process⁵. We also know from the package insert⁴ that the flu vaccine is a "slightly opalescent suspension with some sediment" indicating that the egg protein sinks to the bottom. It is highly reasonable to conclude that the ovalbumin in the flu vaccine has a good amount of ethymercury bound to its' cysteine groups, and that this increases with storage time³.
¹https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US1862896-1.png>this patent
²http://seafood.oregonstate.edu/.pdf%20Links/The%20Chemical%20Form%20of%20Mercury%20in%20Fish.pdf
³http://www.sarnet.org/lib/Engley%20Study%201956.pdf
⁴http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM220730.pdf
⁵http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/how-fluvaccine-made.htm#egg-based
Posted by: Narad | September 07, 2016 at 12:15 AM
I think this may have been what happened to me. After spraining my ankle and scraping my knee my doctor INSISTED I get a tetanus booster. A few days later the neuropathy began as well as seizure type shaking. Shortness of breath, anxiety and depression followed. I lost 35 lbs (200 down to 165) in less than one month!!! I had a feeling it was related to the shot but all doctors just said to take Xanax. I then found out a few months later from a naturopath doctor that I had toxic levels of mercury in my blood. The last 9 months have been a roller coaster and probably the most difficult in my 42 years.
Posted by: David | October 10, 2013 at 11:29 AM
Something else to consider regarding the concentration of mercury is how accurate the percentage was when the Thimerosal was first added. If the Thimerosal was added to, let's say, a fifty gallon container, and it was not properly mixed before filling the individual vials, there would be differences in each vial right from the beginning. And if Thimerosal is added to each vial as it is being filled up bottle-by-bottle, the concentration would depend on the accuracy of the dispenser. I don't know what standard practice is in vaccine making. I presume there are procedures in place. Having worked as a lab technician, however, I know that some of the automatic dispensers are notoriously inaccurate, and the quality control depends on the meticulousness and responsibility of the attending technician. I have watched some incredibly shoddy work regarding preservatives because they are perceived as harmless and if somebody thinks Thimerosal contains the "safe kind of mercury", the difference between one vial and the next can be much larger than is desirable. I have watched lab workers fudge and seen some huge fluctuations in concentration of preservatives added to solutions at the lab where I worked.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | June 26, 2013 at 03:22 AM
Nurse: "Oops, I gave that kid the vaccine and it had already been given yesterday"
Nurse: "Oops, That was a different size of syringe. I just gave that kid one cc instead of half cc.
Nurse: "Oops, some of the vaccine leaked back out; Ill just give him a second dose to make sure"
Nurse: "Oops, I just gave that kid the wrong vaccine. Let me find the right one and give it quickly before anyone finds out"
Why do we have to live with this absurdity- A toxic ingredient in vaccines with no margin for error?
Posted by: Cherry Sperlin Misra | June 26, 2013 at 03:13 AM
This flu vaccine issue is geting absurd. First of all the vaccine has questionable effectiveness because most of the people who supposedly were killed by the flu were never actualy tested for the flu, so the number of deaths attributable to the flu is probably not known. Bottom line is that the people who died could have died from bacterial infections or food poisoning or at least three or four other things including other viruses. And even if someone does have the flu the effectiveness of the vaccine is relatively small because it has to be a good match for the current virus, has to be given at just the right time--not too late (it takes a while to take) or too early (it might have worn off), and the person has to have a healthy immune response. Basically, the effectiveness is very questionable and now it looks like there is a chance of getting mercury poisoning if the vial isn't shaken. I don't understand why anyone would ever take a flu shot. I'm so glad I don't have one of those jobs that require it.
Posted by: Kapoore | June 26, 2013 at 01:39 AM
re vaccines withdrawn from an upside down vial:
I'm not first and foremost a visual memory person, and I can't say I'm particularly observant either, but I hope I didn't somehow invert the few memories I have by nearly 180 degrees?
A rushed internet search for me found a lot of administration videos and instructions, usually dated around 2009-2010, that say to turn the vial upside down, but there is a discussion of vaccine administration techniques in the dissertation here (I think from the 1980s),
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/etd1/id/1154
that on pages 15-16 (22 in my PDF window) describe drawing the vaccine up into the syringe, which is how until today I've pictured the process.
Have there been multiple methods, or a transition in practice recently, or "up" doesn't literally mean up in this case and I must assume my last 2 or 3 believed-to-be-fully-functioning brain cells are also on the fritz?
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | June 26, 2013 at 01:20 AM
Donna, I bet the vial was left right-side up, and the syringe needle was inserted to whatever depth they were measuring- bottom, middle, or top of the vial. Of course, you're right, in real life, the vial is inverted to stick it with the syringe.
I guess my interpretation is that there is less mercury variability than I would have thought. Thank God someone has finally looked at this. Among the many ingredients of the vaccine is probably some sort of emulsifier or stabilizer (plastic? nano-particles? human-animal hybrids?) that hold the product in suspension, to some degree.
No doubt the manufacturers have already looked at this issue. Like the tobacco companies, they are well-aware of the toxicities of their products, and know the ins and outs of all these details.
Posted by: Craggy | June 25, 2013 at 08:39 PM
Just occurs to me, that if this amount of uncertainty re product uniformity existed in gasoline or an engine additive, it would be pulled immediately.
nice, huh, cars are more "protected" than kids..
Posted by: Just Occurs to me | June 25, 2013 at 06:53 PM
It's really important to know how high the concentration can become, especially when it gets to the dregs of the vial. Just because something is freely soluble doesn't mean that it is always equally dispersed particularly when dealing with a heavy substance like mercury. Some people's minds are so set that they are unwilling to change their mindsets.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | June 25, 2013 at 05:40 PM
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
just changed my profile picture on Facebook.
Posted by: IAngus Files | June 25, 2013 at 05:32 PM
Not that it matters all that much, but in order to properly fill a syringe, you would insert the needle, then turn the vial upside down, and then withdraw the contents into the syringe. So it seems that saying more of the mercury would be at the bottom of the vial that is not shaken is kind of irrelevant, if the vial and its contents are turned upside down (the bottom becomes the top). Either way, the amount of mercury in each dose would vary. Bottom line, we're entrusting our infants and children to people who don't necessarily follow proper protocol and to people who don't necessarily know what the hell they are doing, and to people who bear zero responsibility if/when things go terribly wrong. Great.
Posted by: Donna L. | June 25, 2013 at 04:21 PM
Thanks for the information.
So, do we have a spectrum of exposure dosing with each vial to consider? Obviously, more testing needs to be done, not really with any eye towards trying to equally distribute the junk, but with and eye towards determining what doses do happen in real-life, imperfect scenarios, to know what levels need to pass safety testing, and now belatedly to know what levels to test for possible role in the epidemics of chronic illness today.
And I'm grateful that someone attempted to look into this issue. It's one that I suspect negatively impacted my daughter. I'm also concerned that it seems industry and the FDA (if they can be considered separate) do not already have this testing data (ideally separate versions of such testing) available for public scrutiny and establishing research guidelines, though maybe I do not know where to look.
Assuming the first two draws were taken from the top and middle of the vial, what if all draws were taken from the bottom after 20 minutes of settling instead? Would the first dose have had something like 34 mcg which I believe is 13.5% of 250mcg with a diminishing distribution? Then if a child happened to get such a dose from all TCVs in the same well-baby visit...
Also, what happens with the last doses after a vial has been opened and stored, possibly for some time and possibly exposed to light for some time? Besides having one dose from a vial known to not have been shaken before prior removals, I watched a nurse meticulously siphon the last contents of another vial at another of my daughter's well-baby appointments and throw it away.
And of course, all this assumes a consistent 250 micrograms in each vial.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | June 25, 2013 at 02:25 PM
Lily Greene : Stick to your guns !
Boycott the vaccines !
Posted by: White Rose | June 25, 2013 at 01:32 PM
My mother swallowed a record player while I was in her womb, but it didn't effect me...didn't effect me...didn't effect me....
Posted by: Visitor | June 25, 2013 at 12:45 PM
My sister-in-law, a doctor, has admitted to me, at least, that's what happened to her younger sister resulting in her severe ASD. She say vaccines are still safe and effective, but the nurse administering the shot to her sister missed shaking the vial appropriately. She is quite combatant with me because I refuse to take that chance with my children Nice Huh?!
Posted by: Lily Greene | June 25, 2013 at 12:34 PM
this is one of the theories of how I ended up with mercury poisoning after the flu shot that almost killed me. Doctors speculated the nurse did not shake the vial well and I got a mercury shot.
Posted by: Lisa | June 25, 2013 at 10:37 AM
Sorry, but this does not pass scientific muster. Multiple measurements need to be taken and all numbers should be recorded to see if there is a trend. The difference could be just as easily the result of drawing slightly more out of the vial. I am not sure this is even worth the effort.
To Eindekker. You are right about thimerosal being readily soluble but that does not apply to all vaccine components. Could thimerosal react with another component that is not as readily soluble? We just don't know.
Posted by: Cassandra | June 25, 2013 at 10:29 AM
"...we will never know exactly how much mercury a child actually received. Parents who have taken comfort in believing their child received “only” 25-micrograms, per se, actually have no idea, and never will, what their child was truly injected with. Did they get a draw from the bottom? Was the jar shaken? How much prior to the draw was it shaken?
In the CDC's own words:
"Appropriate vaccine administration is a critical component of a successful immunization program. The following information provides general guidance for those who administer vaccines and should be used in conjunction with professional stands of medication administration and vaccine manufactuer's guidelines:
These "rights" include:
The right patient
The right vaccine or diluent
The right time
The right dosage (shaking the vial containing mercury?)
The right route, needle length and technique
The right site
The right documentation
In addition .. the CDC strongly recommends:
"All patients should be screened for contraindications and precautions EVERY time a vaccine is adminstered, even if the patient has previously received a dose of that vaccine. The patient's status can change from one visit to the next or a new contraindication or precaution may have been added. Screening questions that should be asked of every patient are included in Chapter 2"
Unfortunately, even though the CDC makes a great effort to outline the "proper" administration of vaccines ... there are so many opportunities for human error in the vast numbers of vaccines recommended and approved for our loved ones .. it would be impossible to know for certain if the administration of EACH vaccine .. to EACH child .. was properly done.
Indeed, how will we EVER know if those administering the vaccines followed the CDC's own "safety" guidelines every time.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | June 25, 2013 at 07:03 AM
just as long as they are using that "safe mercury" I am happy !
Hate Slate .
Posted by: White Rose | June 25, 2013 at 06:22 AM
Your maths is totally flawed 27mcg as measured in the 3rd sample is an 8% increase over the nominal 25mcg content. What were values for other samples, whats inter-sample variability, how many times was this repeated, if they left it overnight did it all "settle" out? As I have pointed out before thiomersal is freely soluble in aqueous solution
Posted by: Eindeker | June 25, 2013 at 06:20 AM