CDC Whistleblower: 'We omitted statistically significant information on vaccines'

The Purveyor of Truth

Find it really odd that the mainstream media avoided reporting this story over the past ten days, when news of it broke, considering it's potential magnitude *IF* any of the allegations that have been made turn out to even remotely have merit. CNN did finally cover the story today (goo.gl/C8Zh7k) but did an utter whitewash of it, barely mentioning the whistleblower that has come forward. Talk about biased and spineless reporting.

Anyway, the gist of this (rather murky) story is that last year one Dr.Brian Hooker (board member of Focus Autism and well known for his concerns regarding vaccine safety and conflicts of interest within the CDC) approached the CDC under the freedom of information act requesting information. He was stonewalled but then out of the blue received phone calls from a CDC scientist (wishing to remain anonymous) who worked on the very studies which Hooker had been requesting full access to, confiding in him that the CDC had basically cooked the books back in 2004, purposefully omitting pertinent information and misrepresenting their findings in an concerted effort to show no link between vaccines and the autistic regression. Hooker, unbeknownst to the whisteblower, record these telephone conversations.

On the back of all this, with promoting from the Whistleblower, Hooker reanalyzed the data and published his findings in a journal on August 8th suggesting that African-American males were 3.4 TIMES more likely to develop autism when vaccinated with MMR prior to 36 months, compared to matched controls. A week or so later a laughable (in parts) 2+2=7 video appeared on YouTube with the one and only Andrew Wakefield (yes, the boogie man is back - doing nobody any favours it has to be said) narrating it, proclaiming that Hooker's paper, along the Whistleblower's comments, was clear vindication for him (nobody thinks this, only him, not even Generation Rescue) but not enough for Wakefield, he then had to go and name the Whistleblower and further release a new version of the video (goo.gl/pWxSzI) this time in which the whistleblower's real voice was revealed (initially it had being altered) proclaiming the guy didn't deserve anonymity (lovely chap that Wakefield is).

Few days ago Hooker's paper was pulled (just as Wakefield's was):

translationalneurodegeneration.com/content/3/1/16/abstract

The blogosphere (on both sides of this debate) have gone into meltdown and much of what has been written is not true, including the accusation that Thompson was escorted from the CDC headquaters. He wasn't and still retains his position, despite his remarks, which if anything, gives them more credence. The whisteblower by the way, is Dr. William Thompson, research scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and co-author of a number of papers on vaccine safety and has released many emails which he suggests back up his claims, some of which, I feel, are quite scandalous if they are saying what it implies they are, I will include some links to them below.

Today he released this statement through his solicitor:

August 27, 2014 Press Release, “Statement of William W. Thompson, Ph.D., Regarding the 2004 Article Examining the Possibility of a Relationship Between MMR Vaccine and Autism”

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM W. THOMPSON, Ph.D., REGARDING THE 2004 ARTICLE EXAMINING THE POSSIBILITY OF A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MMR VACCINE AND AUTISM

My name is William Thompson. I am a Senior Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, where I have worked since 1998.

I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.

I want to be absolutely clear that I believe vaccines have saved and continue to save countless lives. I would never suggest that any parent avoid vaccinating children of any race. Vaccines prevent serious diseases, and the risks associated with their administration are vastly outweighed by their individual and societal benefits.

My concern has been the decision to omit relevant findings in a particular study for a particular sub­ group for a particular vaccine. There have always been recognized risks for vaccination and I believe it is the responsibility of the CDC to properly convey the risks associated with receipt of those vaccines.

I have had many discussions with Dr. Brian Hooker over the last 10 months regarding studies the CDC has carried out regarding vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes including autism spectrum disorders. I share his beliefthat CDC decision-making and analyses should be transparent. I was not, however, aware that he was recording any of our conversations, nor was I given any choice regarding whether my name would be made public or my voice would be put on the Internet.

I am grateful for the many supportive e-mails that I have received over the last several days.
I will not be answering further questions at this time. I am providing information to Congressman William Posey, and of course will continue to cooperate with Congress. I have also offered to assist with reanalysis of the study data or development of further studies. For the time being, however, I am focused on my job and my family.

Reasonable scientists can and do differ in their interpretation of information. I will do everything I can to assist any unbiased and objective scientists inside or outside the CDC to analyze data collected by the CDC or other public organizations for the purpose of understanding whether vaccines are associated with an increased risk of autism. There are still more questions than answers, and I appreciate that so many families are looking for answers from the scientific community.

My colleagues and supervisors at the CDC have been entirely professional since this matter became public. In fact, I received a performance-based award after this story came out. I have experienced no pressure or retaliation and certainly was not escorted from the building, as some have stated.

Dr. Thompson is represented by Frederick M. Morgan,Jr., Morgan Verkamp, LLC, Cincinnati, Ohio, morganverkamp.com.

Source: goo.gl/RaOdgc

Another video which includes comments from him today making further allegations regarding vaccine safety:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EK4ZE-SPIc

A few of the emails released:

rescuepost.com/.a/6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d05e4614970c-pi
pbs.twimg.com/media/BwDiksmIcAExTDT.jpg:large
pdf-archive.com/2014/08/28/congress/preview-congress-1.jpg

No idea if this guy has lost the plot or not, or if there is any truth to what he says, but I do think it's pretty big news for a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control to be making the claims and comments which he has and so it begs the question as to why the mainstream media has, in the main, being ignoring this story. Some will say that they have ignored it because there is no truth to it, but surely that in and of itself is a story. He holds a pretty important position and his claims are a damning indictment on the CDC (if even partially true) and so one would think the media would be very interested in what this man has to say with regards to an organization that's job it is to watch over the health of millions of people and which ultimately impacts billions.

wazky

That's right yeah.

VinLieger

So by posting this your admitting your an anti-vaccer?

Your opinions are now meaningless.....

kneemos

3.4 times sounds significant but it depends on the actual rate of Autism,three times 0.1 is 0.3 for example so it may still be far preferable to not being vaccinated.

Hotfail.com

Will someone please do a TL;DR, we don't have all day.

Smidge

In before "Autism doesnt really exist. Its just bad parenting and bold kids.

cloud493

I don't understand what this is.

Hotfail.com

Smidge wrote: »

In before "Autism doesnt really exist. Its just bad parenting and bold kids.

Surely there aren't people who believe that?

El Weirdo

Hotfail.com wrote: »

Will someone please do a TL;DR, we don't have all day.

tl;dr

Utter bollocks.

The Moldy Gowl

Hotfail.com wrote: »

Will someone please do a TL;DR, we don't have all day.

I'm bat **** cray, take this tinfoil hat

Smidge

Hotfail.com wrote: »

Surely there aren't people who believe that?

You would think? But there are.

Scientist says something that MAY be significant to a subset of patients in receipt of one vaccine might have been deliberately omitted.

He then goes on to say:

I want to be absolutely clear that I believe vaccines have saved and continue to save countless lives. I would never suggest that any parent avoid vaccinating children of any race. Vaccines prevent serious diseases, and the risks associated with their administration are vastly outweighed by their individual and societal benefits.

So although he believes the protocol may not have been followed, he doesn't endorse anybody refusing vaccines.

kneemos

Hotfail.com wrote: »

Will someone please do a TL;DR, we don't have all day.

3.4 times increase in Autism after MMR vaccine in black American males under three.Cover up,media not reporting it etc.

Calibos

Smidge wrote: »

In before "Autism doesnt really exist. Its just bad parenting and bold kids.

You're thinking of ADHD.

shedweller

cloud493 wrote: »

I don't understand what this is.

I thought it was fairly self explanatory tbh.

wiseoldelf34

Jenny mccarthey must be creaming her pants now

AnonoBoy

It's not the vaccines it's the fluoride is it not?

I can't keep track of which thing we're supposed to be scaremongering about.

_Whimsical_

El Weirdo wrote: »

tl;dr

Utter bollocks.

This attitude is a bit hard to countenance. I'm definitely not anti vaccine,I've seen the damage measles can do first hand, but I'm still willing to at least read something and evaluate its merit for myself rather than just presume everything that doesn't align with my point of view is crap.

The whole science has proven,science says argument is grand but science is impartial and willing to evolve its perspective as new evidence is presented.

At least keep somewhat of an open mind and read new material. Kids deserve that much from us as adults.

Balmed Out

Despite the fact that the whistleblower is not alleging fraud or anything just a scientific dispute and believes all children should be vaccinated one worries this will result in more children not getting vaccines and more at risk children who cant have vaccines being put at unnecessary risk.

catallus

I'm confused.

Does Jesus want us to take the vaccines or not?!

The Purveyor of Truth

kneemos wrote: »

3.4 times sounds significant but it depends on the actual rate of Autism,three times 0.1 is 0.3 for example so it may still be far preferable to not being vaccinated.

Which is why he says:

I want to be absolutely clear that I believe vaccines have saved and continue to save countless lives. I would never suggest that any parent avoid vaccinating children of any race. Vaccines prevent serious diseases, and the risks associated with their administration are vastly outweighed by their individual and societal benefits.

In saying that, Autism rates in the states are scarily more and more common, 1-in-64 or something like that and so any information, no matter how small, regrading just what might be one of the causes of why these children seem to regress to an autistic state, should always be made clear by researchers.

One comment which I found quite bizarre, was in the following email (point #2):

pbs.twimg.com/media/BwDiksmIcAExTDT.jpg:large

Which pretty much speaks about how diagnosis of autism is not usually picked up until at least 2 and 3 years old (which is true) and asks Thompson's co-author, has the eligibility of children between 18 months and two being considered? I mean, it's pretty obvious that if you include children at that age, that the any correlation between vaccines and autism is bound to drop significantly, as they haven't been diagnosed at that stage yet. By releases that email though, that is suggesting that that is exactly what they did. Whether they did or not though, I have no idea.

_Whimsical_

Balmed Out wrote: »

Despite the fact that the whistleblower is not alleging fraud or anything just a scientific dispute and believes all children should be vaccinated one worries this will result in more children not getting vaccines and more at risk children who cant have vaccines being put at unnecessary risk.

I'd imagine that's the reason the media aren't covering it. Also this pitiful attitude people have developed of adopting the latest headline as their new point of view without any investigation.

By the same token though there has been cover ups in the past in the CDC and regarding the efficacy and risk profile of drugs. We all should be at least willing to inform ourselves and the media shouldn't have to quash stories because the adult population is too lazy and too reactionary to handle information maturely.

Hotfail.com

Calibos wrote: »

You're thinking of ADHD.

Well, that actually does exist. It's supposed to be ridiculously overdiagnosed though, that's what the problem is.

Smidge

Calibos wrote: »

You're thinking of ADHD.

Was going to include that as well.

The Purveyor of Truth

wiseoldelf34 wrote: »

Jenny mccarthey must be creaming her pants now

On the contrary. She hasn't commented on it:

twitter.com/JennyMcCarthy

My name is URL

Balmed Out wrote: »

Despite the fact that the whistleblower is not alleging fraud

That seems to be exactly what he's alleging

dxhound2005

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

This attitude is a bit hard to countenance. I'm definitely not anti vaccine,I've seen the damage measles can do first hand, but I'm still willing to at least read something and evaluate its merit for myself rather than just presume everything that doesn't align with my point of view is crap.

The whole science has proven,science says argument is grand but science is impartial and willing to evolve its perspective as new evidence is presented.

At least keep somewhat of an open mind and read new material. Kids deserve that much from us as adults.

Snopes says it is probably false. If you have an open mind read the three science blogs which they link to at the bottom of their article with the suggestion that they will debunk this supposed new evidence.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cdcwhistleblower.asp

As far as I'm concerned when The Lancet disowned it's original article that settled the issue. But lots of people prefer to believe in anti science.

YFlyer

Something about a fine hooker?

The Purveyor of Truth

dxhound2005 wrote: »

As far as I'm concerned when The Lancet disowned it's original article that settled the issue. But lots of people prefer to believe in anti science.

This has little or nothing to do with Wakefield, despite him trying to use it in an vain effort at vindication. His paper concerned bowel disease.

Jimoslimos

The Purveyor of Truth wrote: »

In saying that, Autism rates in the states are scarily more and more common, 1-in-64 or something like that and so any information, no matter how small, regrading just what might be one of the causes of why these children seem to regress to an autistic state, should always be made clear by researchers.

Primarily because the criteria for diagnosis keeps getting wider and wider. Autism isn't a specific disorder as such, rather a term given to a group of symptoms affecting behavioural development. So while the symptoms definitely exist, defining what is Autism is rather subjective. It's this vagueness that makes it a prime candidate for quacks pushing crazy theories on fluoride, vaccines, environmental toxins, etc., whilst selling their "revolutionary natural diet that promise to cure autism"

There is also the pressure from parents, who see autism as carrying less of a stigma (and more funding/ 1-1 support) than say a label of mentally retarded.

The Purveyor of Truth

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Autism isn't a specific disorder as such, rather a term given to a group of symptoms affecting behavioural development.

Oh I'm au fait with the condition, but cheers.

kneemos

Is it possible Autism is under diagnosed for socio economic reasons amongst black American's and this study just came up with a normal result?

The Purveyor of Truth

kneemos wrote: »

Is it possible Autism is under diagnosed for socio economic reasons amongst black American's and this study just came up with a normal result?

They were apparently excluded because they did not have a birth cert:

Here's the CDC's reasoning in response to the allegation:

cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Autism/cdc2004pediatrics.html

Here is the response to that from the 'other side' (includes interview with Dr. Hooker):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THGbJnpywyw