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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Robert De Niro insist they are pro-vaccine. But their Washington press conference Wednesday has sickened science advocates.

“The event was a showcase of some of the most thoroughly discredited claims about vaccines, from the notion that they cause autism, to the suggestion that vaccines are a huge source of mercury that’s making kids sick,” Vox reported. “Kennedy also suggested journalists and the government have been colluding to cover up the truth about vaccine safety, and that the shots have ‘caused the autism epidemic.’”

But Kennedy and De Niro write: “Both of us had all of our children vaccinated and we support policies that promote vaccine coverage. We want vaccines that are as safe as possible, robust transparent science and vigorous oversight by independent regulators who are free from corrupting conflicts-of-interest.”

Their World Mercury Project is offering $100,000 “to the first journalist, or other individual, who can find a peer-reviewed scientific study demonstrating that thimerosal is safe in the amounts contained in vaccines currently being administered to American children and pregnant women.”

They said a “cascade of recent science” confirms that thimerosal is a “potent neurotoxin that damages children’s brains.”

Vox quoted Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, as saying: “There is no link between thimerosal — mercury that was previously found in vaccines — and autism.”

“The only major thimerosal exposure to children is during maternal immunization with multidose flu vaccine, he added, but a large recent study in JAMA also found no link with autism,” Vox added.

Other coverage:

Robert De Niro, Bobby Kennedy Jr & @WorldMercury Project offer $100,000 to anyone proving thimerosal in our vaccines is safe. @CBNNews pic.twitter.com/L5xldnvyQM — Paul Strand (@PaulStrandCBN) February 15, 2017

What an exciting day we had working with actor Robert De Niro and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.from The World Mercury Project @WorldMercury pic.twitter.com/8ZdzB2rucC — PitchingMonkeysMedia (@pitchmonksmedia) February 15, 2017

De Niro, Bobby Kennedy son offer $100K for anti-vaccine journalism was last modified: by

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