The CDC's newly rebuilt Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) took aim Thursday at a mercury-based preservative long targeted by vaccine skeptics, recommending that children, pregnant women, and all other adults use only single-dose seasonal influenza vaccines without thimerosal.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine panel votes to stop recommending flu shots containing thimerosal, which government agencies and medical experts say is safe.

The preservative thimerosal has been removed from all but a few vaccines, and studies have confirmed no link to neurodevelopmental issues including autism. So public health experts were puzzled when it appeared on the agenda for this week’s meeting of outside vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.