Aluminium based adjuvants and a disease hypothesis by Gherardi

The UK doesn't use aluminium adjuvants, at least it didn't.

 

Gardisil (hpv) had aluminium in original formulation.

ETA link

https://www.rxlist.com/gardasil-drug.htm

 

In France, Gherardi's claims on the side effects of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines, especially macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF), have been going on for years.

Regarding the video in the original post, ANSM never cut Gherardi's funding. They gave him a one-off grant in 2013 for two studies to investigate the safety concerns that he reported, as they would do if such concerns arose acutely for other drugs and medical devices. In 2017 the scientific council of ANSM (which is independent from ANSM itself) concluded that, like his previous studies, they were methodologically flawed and that they could not support his claims. ANSM thus reiterated that vaccines containing aluminum are safe. [1]

Previously, the French National Academies of Medicine (2013) and Pharmacy (2016) had established working groups on the subject and their reviews came to the same conclusion. [2, 3]

But Gherardi kept asking for more funding afterwards, even though ANSM is not a research agency that is capable of funding such research grants [1]:

Unfortunately Gherardi won't back down. He and his close collaborator Jérôme Authier (who headed one of the working groups of EUROMENE) have tried to associate MMF and ME/CFS for years now. For their reputation it would have been much more sensible to drop MMF altogether and focus only on ME/CFS, as the French medical world mostly sees them as pariahs and considers that MMF exists in only place in the world -- CHU Henri Mondor in Créteil, just outside Paris, the university hospital where they are based --. But they're not in a position to do so as they have built their careers on MMF and they are backed by patient associations. [4, 5]

Gherardi and Authier's papers associating MMF and ME/CFS haven't really been picked up on, so at least the controversy that surrounds their work hasn't spread to ME/CFS in France. If they get more attention though, I fear it would put off French biomedical researchers from ever looking into ME/CFS even more (it is already seen and taught in French med schools as a functional somatic disorder / psychosomatic condition).

The silver lining, though, is that the many MMF patients who fulfill ME/CFS criteria can be included in Authier's neuroimaging research studies on ME/CFS. In Paris, he is the only one conducting research on ME/CFS and the only ME/CFS specialist.

[1] https://translate.google.com/transl...ontenant-de-l-aluminium-sont-surs-Communique_

[2] https://www.academie-medecine.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/adjuvants-vaccinaux-rapport-ANM1.pdf

[3] https://www.acadpharm.org/dos_public/Rapport_Adjuvants_aluminiques_VF_CORR_5.pdf

[4] https://www.vaccinssansaluminium.org/

[5] https://www.asso-e3m.fr/

 

I am not disputing aluminium is toxic and not recommended as an adjuvant IMHO but vaccine aluminium exposure pales beside exposure from antiperspirants, cooking utensils and "tin" foil used for food packaging, cooking and storage and to line our hats of course.

So IF there was a proven causal link between aluminium exposure and neurological pathology, which currently I think is not established but is not entirely impossible, these sources would still be MUCH more relevant concerns to any pathology even though aluminium adjuvants are not ideal IMHO.

Its not appropriate to frame this as an antivax issue when the real issue is aluminium toxicity from common cooking aids and beauty products.

Since this is the Science for ME forum my comment would be that politically the ME lobby has enough on its plate trying to get ME taken seriously and its not in our interests to be associated with gratuitous controversy which would result in being labelled antivax crazies as this would just be a gift to the BPS insurance shills who seek to undermine our credibility.

Also I do not believe the idea of a causal link between ME and aluminium as I have carefully reduced my aluminium exposure and it has not lead to improvement or recovery. I did that because I noticed I got trigeminal nerve pain associated with eating food which had been in contact with aluminium and using aluminium based antiperspirants but it alleviated in days and when I avoided aluminium it did not return suggesting the aluminium was removed and ceased to be toxic. So I believe aluminium is transiently toxic but see no evidence that it causes ME. As I see it my constitution under the influence of ME has become much less able to deal with toxins like this, alcohol, mono and di amines etc and so I believe my sensitivity to aluminium is a continuation of this phenomenon and is a symptom of ME not its cause.