What is the most divisive topic you can bring up? Religion? Politics? Sports? I would venture to guess that vaccines are right up there with religion, politics and sports as the most passionately argued about topics that end up dividing otherwise friendly people into camps. Those who are listened to are either passionately and vehemently pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine. The people in the grey area tend to be trampled on, disregarded and dismissed.
Allegations From Credible Sources
Perhaps the divisiveness of the topic is why the mainstream media has largely disregarded the revelations of the so-called CDC whistle-blower, Dr. William Thompson, Senior Scientist at the CDC. Dr. Thompson has asserted that, while employed at the CDC, he and other CDC scientists and top officials hid data that showed that black males are 340% more likely to be given an autism diagnosis when given the MMR before the age of three.
It’s quite the allegation. And it’s from quite a credible source. Dr. Thompson is a Ph.D. scientist who was employed at the CDC for more than a decade. He is the author of multiple studies on the relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. All of his studies concluded that there was not a relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. Now he is saying that data was hidden and manipulated and that there is a significant connection between the MMR vaccine and regressive autism in African American children.
Speaking Out Regardless of Career
He knows that speaking out against the MMR vaccine is paramount to career suicide, but he’s doing it anyway. Whether his motives are to reveal the truth or are founded in something less idealistic is to be determined.
I would think that this would be a big story. But it only seems to be getting attention on anti-vaccine web sites. I can’t claim to know why that is.
No one wants vaccines to be causally connected to autism (except for the most callous individuals who want to be right more than they want children to be healthy). It would be nice to have our cake and eat it too – vaccines that prevent many communicable diseases AND low autism rates. No one wants vaccine preventable diseases to kill children. No one wants to play Russian Roulette with the health of the world’s children in any way. We know that autism rates of 1 in 68 children are unacceptable and absurd. But no one wants to go back to the days of measles or mumps killing a large number of kids. How do we resolve the desires to have kids that are safe from preventable, communicable diseases AND regressive autism?
Mainstream Studies Contain Faulty, Manipulated & Corrupted Data
The first thing to do is determine if there is a causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Multiple studies have concluded that there is no link. But now, one of the main authors of several CDC studies is saying that his conclusions were based on faulty, manipulated and corrupted data. Thompson’s allegations call into question not only his studies, but also all of the studies that cited his faulty studies. Additionally, the general data on disease rates is often gathered from the CDC by scientists. Were other researchers getting accurate and unadulterated data? Thompson’s allegations call into question whether or not we actually have any answers about vaccine safety.
Data is important. Complete data – not data that has been massaged, manipulated and intentionally skewed. Dr. Thompson has asserted that the data from the CDC was massaged, manipulated and intentionally skewed. We need the real data.
No matter how you feel about vaccines, you should be concerned by Dr. Thompson’s revelations. Data upon which we depend on in order to make informed decisions regarding our health and our children’s health, has allegedly been manipulated. If true, this manipulation has led to a dishonest conversation about the safety of vaccines – and people making uninformed decisions with incomplete information when they thought that they were making informed decisions based on complete information. Especially infuriating is the allegation that information regarding the safety of vaccines for the African American population was specifically targeted and manipulated.
Some Alarming Results
Data is important. When all the data is released and re-analyzed we will have a more complete picture of the safety profile of the MMR vaccine and the currently recommended schedule of administration. It is still to-be-determined what that data will reveal. But Dr. Thompson’s assertion that the hidden data reveal that black males are 340% more likely to be given an autism diagnosis when given a MMR vaccine before the age of three is alarming, to say the least.
Perhaps I’m wrong about the reason behind the silence of the mainstream media regarding Dr. Thompson’s assertions. Maybe it’s not that they don’t want to stir the pot and potentially upset their viewers. Maybe there is a simpler and more innocent explanation –that there isn’t a story because Dr. Thompson’s assertions aren’t true. Or, maybe there is a more malevolent explanation –that data massaging and cover-ups are common and that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and that if this path is gone down there will be some very upset people within the mainstream media because they have bet wrong, and because their advertisers in the pharmaceutical industry will be quite upset if they start covering this story. I’m not sure that we’ll ever really know where the silence comes from, but I don’t for a second think that the American media is above conflicts of interest and bias.
Hopefully Solid, Truthful Data Is Released Soon
Hopefully, someday soon, we’ll have the unadulterated data. We all deserve to see the data.
Once the data is revealed, Dr. Thompson will either be shown to be a whistleblower (and I think that all whistleblowers are heroes –they are braver than most) or a fraud.
I’m guessing that Dr. Thompson has something worthwhile to say. After all, the CDC isn’t above entrenched conflicts of interest or flat-out corruption. No one is. The mainstream media certainly isn’t. Perhaps their conflicts of interest are why they’re not telling you about Dr. Thompson’s bombshell.
Time, and the data, will tell.
Resources:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1164794
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGOtDVilkUc&list=UUfIZ2PofuUgEM79W3fOc6Mg
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