Merck and Co continued to supply infant vaccines which contained thimerosal, a mercury based preservative for up to two years after they released statements that their infant vaccine line was free of all preservatives.

Apparently, in 1999 when the announcement was made, Merck had at that time begun to manufacturer preservative free infant vaccine, what the press release failed to note was that Merck would continue to distribute their current stock of preservative containing vaccines until the expiration date of 2002.

Many people are rightly upset at being misled. Parents having their infants vaccinated in 2000 to 2002 wrongly assumed that the vaccine being administered was preservative free. Many parents allege that their children suffered autism or other neurological disorders from mercury in their shots but there is no hard scientific evidence to prove the small amounts of mercury in the vaccines cause any harm. Regardless of scientific proof or not, parents have a right to decide for themselves whether or not they want to subject their children to mercury containing preservatives and Merck should have been more forward with the information about the phasing out of the mercury containing vaccines.