Questions of the day: Are U.S. parents justified in their concerns that the United States Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) overstates the proven safety of current U.S. vaccination schedules; and if they are justified, what can and should Congress do to alleviate the growing concerns?
In the words of CDC Senior Scientist and Autism Epidemiologist, William W. Thompson, PhD.
“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.
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 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….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.”
According to the August 27th press release issued by Dr. Thompson; he and fellow CDC researchers omitted pertinent data from a 2004 vaccine/autism causation study. It appears that they skewed the data to force a finding of vaccination safety for a larger segment of the population than is reality.
The press release was issued via Dr. Thompson’s legal counsel at Morgan Vercamp LLP. It is titled, “STATEMENT OF WILLIAM W. THOMPSON, Ph.D., REGARDING THE 2004 ARTICLE EXAMINING THE POSSIBILITY OF A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MMR VACCINE AND AUTISM”[1]
Dr. Thompson claims that the manipulated conclusion based upon unjustifiably omitted data was submitted for a 2004 publication in the medical journal, Pediatrics. The 2004 paper by the CDC co-authors is titled, “Age at First Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination in Children With Autism and School-matched Control Subjects: A Population-Based Study in Metropolitan Atlanta”[2]
[1] August 27, 2014 Press Release of William W. Thompson http://www.morganverkamp.com/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/
[2] DeStefano F1, Bhasin TK, Thompson WW, Yeargin-Allsopp M, Boyle C ‘Age at first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children with autism and school-matched control subjects: a population-based study in metropolitan Atlanta.’ Pediatrics. 2004 Feb;113(2):259-66. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14754936
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The CDC has a link on their website to the decade old Pediatrics publication with the reported findings being presented and justified as,
“We do not want to lose any opportunity to protect all [emphasis added] of our children when we have the means to do so.”[3]
On the same webpage, the CDC acknowledges that data for children without Georgia birth certificates was omitted from the study. Not stated, the omitted data also appears to have represented nearly exclusively black males, many of whom had been vaccinated before 36 months of age and had autism. Had these children not been deleted, the statistical conclusion of the study would have warned of the potential for greater risk of vaccine induced cognitive impairment among African-American males.
[3] CDC website tooting Dr. Thompson’s 2004 study. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Autism/cdc2004pediatrics.html
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According to a new study published on August 8, 2014, in the scientific journal Translational Neurodegeneration, the data omitted from the 2004 Pediatrics/CDC study indicates that African-American males receiving their first measles, mumps & rubella (MMR) vaccine before the age of 36 months may be 3.4 times more likely to develop autism vs. those vaccinated after 36 months. Percentage wise, this number could be interpreted as a 340% hidden increased risk of causation of vaccine induced autism in black males, by vaccinating them for MMR too early in life.
The 2014 Translational Neurodegeneration study of the 2004 Pediatrics/CDC study is titled, “Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young african american boys: a reanalysis of CDC data.”[4] It was authored by Brian Hooker, PhD, who is a biochemical engineer and reportedly a parent of a child who became autistic after vaccination.
On August 29th, two days after the CDC’s Dr. Thompson publicly voiced concerns via legal counsel of the validity of his own 2004 study on behalf of the CDC; BioMed Central, who are the publishers of Translational Neurodegeneration, issued an “expression of concern” of Dr. Hooker’s study that had echoed Dr. Thompson’s concerns. BioMed Central claims “the editors have expressed concern about this [Dr. Hooker’s] article” because of alleged undisclosed conflicts of interest of the author and peer reviewers.[5]
[4] Brian Hooker “Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young african american boys: a reanalysis of CDC data” Transl Neurodegener. 2014 Aug 29; 3: 18.
[5] BioMed Central “expression of concern” of Dr. Hooker’s study. Aug 29, 2014 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4150057/
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Conversely, this auithor is not aware of the journal of Pediatrics editors and/or publishers issuing any public statement or retracting the 2004 CDC study even after the paper’s own co-author, Dr. Thompson, has publicly stated the findings and resultant public health advisory are flawed by exclusion of pertinent data.
According to Change.Org, over seven thousand people have petitioned Pediatric’s Editor in Chief, Dr. Lewis First, to promptly retract the 2004 CDC study pending further investigation of the alleged manipulated data.[6]
[6] Change.org petition to Pediatric’s Dr. First https://www.change.org/p/lewis-r-first-editor-in-chief-publicly-issue-a-retraction-of-the-fraudulent-2004-mmr-autism-study
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Pediatrics is the journal of the private-sector medical association, the American Academy of Pediatric (AAP).[7] AAP is composed of thousands of physicians who diagnose and treat children primarily throughout the United States. The non-profit organization claims an annual income of approximately $84 million and receives federal funds to disseminate accurate public health and policy advisories to physicians, medical schools, other non-profit medical associations and the general populations.
AAP is reported to have received over $3 million in federal funding since 2000, largely from contracts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the federal department which oversees the CDC.[8]
AAP play a key role in assisting the DHHS and CDC to establish types of recommended vaccinations and schedules for their administration to United States children, as a matter of public health policy.[9] According to a 2008 CBS news report titled, “How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders”, AAP also receives substantial funding from pharmaceutical manufacturers of the vaccines that AAP, DHHS and the CDC endorse via recommended policies and mandates.[10]
[7] Pediatrics & AAP http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/collection/#aap_policy_collections
[8] Fedspending.Org http://www.fedspending.org/fpds/fpds.php?fiscal_year=ALL&company_name=american+academy+of+pediatrics&sortp=r&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&detail=-1&submit=GO&sum_expand=S
[9] CDC and AAP vaccine schedule recommendations http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/index.html & http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/downloads/child/0-18yrs-schedule.pdf
[10] 2008 CBS News “How independent are vaccine defenders?” http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-independent-are-vaccine-defenders/
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In California as of 2012, parents are mandated to have the AAP/CDC recommended vaccines administered to their children before entering public schools. Under California Assembly Bill 2108, in order to be able to opt out of vaccinating, parents must obtain written permission from a physician – who in many instances would be a pediatrician affiliated with AAP.[11] No longer able to opt out based solely on their own concern of conflicted interests driving flawed vaccination public health policy harmful to many children, or their concern that a particular vaccine(s) may harm their own child(ren); parents must provide the state with a physician’s stated reason for exclusion from the mandated vaccinations.[12]
[11] California AB2106 mandates physicians must give permission for parent to opt out of vaccinations for their children. http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2109
[12] Aug 22, 2014 email to CA Governor Jerry Brown’s legislative assistant from Actor Rob Schneider “CDC Autism Whistleblower Admits Vaccine Study Fraud – CNN iReport” http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/rob-schneider-says-he-has-smoking-gun-on-cdc-vaccine-autism-fraud/
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The matter of a “CDC Whistleblower of vaccine-autim fraud” first reached mainstream media attention on August 22nd of this year. It was reported by a citizen-journalist on the website CNN IReport.[13] From there, it spread like wildfire on blogs and websites of both vaccine defenders and those who question vaccines’ and vaccine schedules’ safety. The IReport article and its linked video “CDC Whistleblower revealed” as produced by Autism Media Channel, were quickly removed by CNN who pledged further investigation.
Contradictory to the August 27th press release of CDC’s Dr. Thompson stating,
“I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics”;
CNN has concluded as of August 27th that,
“CDC researchers are standing by their original findings: that there is no link between autism and vaccination schedules.”[14]
Of worthy note, it should also be mentioned that a decade ago when the Pediatrics article in question was first published, Dr. Thompson voiced his concerns to then head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding. He stated his concerns in writing of the ethical problems of presenting the skewed findings in the MMR vaccine/autism study to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM). In February of 2004, Dr. Thompson wrote to Dr. Gerberding:[15]
I’m sure you are aware of the Institute of Medicine Meeting regarding vaccines and autism that will take place on February 9th. I will be presenting the summary of our results from the Metropolitan Atlanta Case-Control Study and I will have to present several problematic results relating to statistical associations between the receipt of MMR vaccines and autism…..In addition, I have repeatedly told individuals of the NIP OD [National Immunization Program, Office of Directors] over the last several years that they’re doing a very poor job representing immunization safety issues and that we’re losing the public relations war….you are putting one of your own scientists in harm’s way. This is not the time for our leadership to act politically. It is time for the leadership to stand by their scientists and do the right thing…
[13] CNN IReport Aug 22nd http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1164046
[14] CNN website Aug 27th, http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/27/health/irpt-cdc-autism-vaccine-study/index.html
[15] February 2, 2004, Thompson email to Gerberding http://www.naturalnews.com/images/CDC-Gerberding-warning-vaccines-autism.JPG
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It is self-evident that problems and suspicions caused by the CDC study authors’ omission of data have been known by CDC leaders for many years. Within those same years; parents, scientists and researchers have been sounding alarms that CDC public health advisories and mandates regarding the safety of vaccines and schedules may be based more on politics than on proven science based medicine and proper research procedures. A quick AOL search of the words “vaccine autism” renders approximately 8,910,000 results on the subject and illuminates the public’s current skepticism of CDC backed public health policies.
As a result of lack of U.S. government oversight either confirming or alleviating the parents’ concerns; parents of U.S. children are caught in the quandary of fearing increased risk for the safety of their own children should they adhere to the questionable CDC vaccination recommendations; or of facing the hardship of no public education for their children and societal accusations of being at fault for the spread of disease via their non-vaccinated offspring.
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Vaccine defenders sometimes refer to the distraught parents and their scientific/medical proponents as “hilarious” science denialists.[16] [17] [18] [19] [20] Any parent struggling with the decision to vaccinate their child or not; knows there is nothing even remotely “hilarious” about the vaccine-autism debate and the mixed information fueling it.
[16] I Fucking Love Science Blog (IFLScience) referring to United States concerned parents, physicians and scientists as “hilarious” science denialists, http://www.iflscience.com/tags/vaccines
[17] September 1, 2014 ScienceBlogs stating Dr. Thompson’s attorney contacted the blog and offered the (quickly dismissed) explanation that Dr. Thompson spoke because his conscience was bothering him. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/09/01/the-cdc-whistleblower-william-w-thompson-one-last-word/
[18] Slate Magazine website referring to the parents as “anti-vaxers” in the article, “No, there is still no connection between vaccines and autism” http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/08/27/anti_vax_cdc_conspiracy_theory_sweeping_the_social_media.html
[20] Snopes.com as of September 1st, “False” to the claim of “The CDC has intentionally suppressed proof of vaccine-related cases of autism in African-American boys from reaching the public.” http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cdcwhistleblower.asp
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Adding greatly to parental concerns, it is reported that between the years of 1992 and 2002, the rate of children diagnosed with autism in the United States skyrocketed an alarming 634%.[21] In keeping with the upward statistical trend, today one in fifty U.S. male children and adolescents is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).[22] During those same years, the number of vaccination shots given to U.S. children before the age of six has increased from merely a handful to well over thirty shots.
[21] http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/in-brief/2012/clinical-research-rates-of-autism-rise-based-on-birth-year
[22] March 2014 CNN “Autism rates now 1 in 68 U.S. children: CDC” http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/health/cdc-autism/
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To this author’s knowledge, there is little to no scientific research which substantiates that an acceptable number of developing brains can tolerate the combined toxic dosage of the growing number of vaccines being administered within a short window of time and at early ages. Scientifically speaking, it is unscientific (and unethical) to perform monotoxicity risk assessments of one or two dosages, and promote to the public as a matter of policy, that this myopic research establishes general population safety from the potentially devastating synergistic effects of mixtoxicological dosages.
In light of lack of proof establishing otherwise, a growing number of parents, researchers and physicians are concerned that there is a direct correlation between too many/too much vaccinations and subsequent onset ASD contributing to the significant rise in the number of America’s autistic children. For good cause as reported by Dr. Thompson and others, they are concerned that the CDC has lost sight of proper methodology to establish sound public health policy; and are concerned that the CDC is intentionally concealing relevant data under the misguided guise of “for the greater public good”.
As a result of the growing public suspicion of too much politics and monied interests influencing medical associations’, CDC’s, and other governmental entities’ downplaying of reasonably suspected causes of ASD; thousands of parents are choosing not to have their children vaccinated.
For the greater public good, health risk assessments should always consider statistics reflective of the true percentage of the public potentially being harmed by acts meant to protect the public. Needless to say, if statistical errors are to be made, they should be made on the side of caution to prevent future potentially harmful acts.
One in fifty U.S. male youths, or 2%, are now being diagnosed with ASD. This is not an acceptable loss for “the greater public good”; or a point in time for the CDC to be playing fast and loose with statistical data in the promotion of vaccinating all children. Two percent of all male children having ASD qualifies as an epidemic of cognitive impairment in the United States youngest generation.[24]
When scientifically flawed medical journal publications, like the 2004 Pediatrics/CDC MMR/Autism study, are authored by government employees; and private sector “non-profit” physician organizations are involved with federal leaders in propagating the skewed data — public trust may be irreparably shattered until those responsible for flawed public health policy are held accountable.[23]
[23] 2009, Institute of Medicine, “Conflicts of Interest in Medical Research, Education and Practice http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12598
[24] Definition of epidemic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic
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Regardless of who is right or who is wrong as to the need and safety of vaccinating America’s children for the greater good; all agree that impeccable ethics when establishing public health policies is of the utmost importance to protect us all.
In his August 27th press release, Dr. Thompson states, “
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….”
Given all of the above, Congressional investigations of the CDC’s and their private-sector medical partners’ methodologies, ethics, and risk analyses when establishing public health policies, logically seems more than warranted. To this author, prompt Congressional investigations of Dr. Thompson’s claims seem imperative for the future health and safety of the United States and it’s people’s future confidence in the integrity of the CDC.
To view the data to which Dr. Thompson refers that was deleted from the 2004 CDC study and to hear the explanation in Dr. Thompson’s own words of his concern of how fraudulent health marketing [25] [26] was then used to the detriment of the public, please watch the Autism Media Channel’s “CDC Whistleblower revealed”.
[25] CDC Department of Health Marketing http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/toolstemplates/whatishm.html
[26] The Guardian, “Scientific fraud is rife. Its time to stand up for good science” http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/nov/02/scientific-fraud-good-science
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If you agree that this matter deserves prompt Congressional oversight, please contact the Honorable Congressman Bill Posey (R-Fl) and your legislative representatives to tell them so.
- Mail: 120 Cannon HOB
- Washington, DC 20515
- Phone: (202) 225-3671
- Fax: (202) 225-3516
- Email: https://posey.house.gov/forms/writeyourrep/
For a greater understanding of how industries, medical associations, and universities systematically influence the CDC’s environmental public health policies with the use of public tax dollars, please read “Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC): Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units by Sharon N. Kramer and (former CDC contractor) JoEllen Perez.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter,
Mrs. Sharon Noonan Kramer
Katy's Exposure 
