Vaccine advisers recently appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted on Thursday to stop recommending flu vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used to prevent bacterial contamination, to children and pregnant women.

Opening the first meeting of Kennedy’s handpicked seven-member panel, committee chairman Martin Kulldorff said he was appointing a work group to evaluate the “cumulative effect” of the children’s vaccine schedule — the list of immunizations given at different times throughout childhood.