Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s revamped Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has struck its first blow against established vaccine practice, recommending against the use of flu shots which contain a preservative that has been used in shots for decades.

ATLANTA — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new vaccine advisory committee backed another option to protect infants against a dangerous virus — before turning to questions about fall flu vaccines and a preservative in a small fraction of them that some antivaccine groups have falsely tied to autism.

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.