I'm not going to go into the science behind the studies, because it relies very heavily on statistics, and I'm not a statistician or epidemiologist. As an aside, neither is Dr. Hooker. Instead, I want to focus on some statements made by one Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor who committed scientific fraud, resulting in the full retraction of his 1998 case series study on MMR and the stripping of his medical license. Wakefield boldly added himself to the list of not only torturing science, but now adds to his accomplishments torturing history and ethics (granted, we already knew he was ethically challenged). You see, in his videos (here and here) about the alleged "whistleblower", William Thompson,Wakefield compared the purported "cover-up" to the Tuskegee syphilis debacle. It's a false comparison used simply to inflame people and claim the race card.
Wakefield and Hooker allege that the CDC found data that the MMR increases the risk of autism in African American males when given between 24 and 36 months of age and that they purposefully added arbitrary criteria to suppress this information from their final published results. Wakefield says that this purported cover-up of the CDC suppressing this information from the public is similar to the Tuskegee cover-up. But there is just one problem with this.
There was no cover-up in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
In fact, just about everything in Wakefield's comparison is wrong, except for the fact that both studies have a race component. Let's take a look at what happened in Tuskegee and how it does (or doesn't) relate to the DeStefano study, rather than the impression being given by Wakefield and his fawning acolytes. Overall, Wakefield does actually give an accurate description of what happened at Tuskegee, but the conclusions he draws from that, and the comparisons he makes to DeStefano et al. are completely off-base.
Back in the 1920s, researchers began to look at the clinical course of syphilis to find out what exactly it does and how quickly it does it. Syphilis is a bacterial disease transmitted through sexual contact. It is a slowly progressing, easily curable disease that, if left untreated, can cause some very serious complications, such as problems with muscle control, paralysis, blindness, dementia, and death, as it attacks the internal organs. Back in the early 1900s, not a great deal was known about the disease, and the only treatments available were, at best, mildly effective. It was also thought that the disease progressed differently based upon the patient's race.
In the Tuskegee experiment, which started in 1932, researchers at the Tuskegee Institute in Macon County, Alabama, in collaboration with the Public Health Service (the precursor to today's CDC), started a study to examine the effects of syphilis in poor, rural black men. This population was particularly vulnerable to exploitation, since not only did they have poor resources and a lack of education, but rampant racism caused many to view them as less equal than Caucasians.
When the study began, there weren't really any major ethical issues with the study. There were no known cures for the disease and the subjects were given free health care and checkups, , free meals, as well as funeral insurance. It was mainly an observational study, so risks were minimal. The biggest ethical issues at the start were that subjects were not told the purpose of the research, and the incentives are what would now be considered "undue influence". They were simply told the researchers were examining "bad blood", a term to describe a wide range of ailments. However, more ethical problems started to crop up. The researchers prevented subjects from getting treatment elsewhere, and they never informed subjects they were infected with syphilis, leading them to spread the infection to their wives and, consequently, children, who were born with congenital syphilis.
The biggest ethical lapse arose in the 1940s. In 1945, penicillin was shown to cure syphilis when given in a timely manner. This information was never disclosed to participants in the Tuskegee study. Furthermore, even after "Rapid Treatment Centers" were set up by the Public Health Service in 1947, the men participating in the study were prevented from seeking treatment by keeping them in the dark about not only the existence of a cure, but even that they had syphilis in the first place. The subjects were even given placebos and told they were being treated. This went on into the 1960s, when researchers rotated onto the study stated their concerns, and on up to 1972, when a researcher at the Public Health Service, Peter Buxtun, leaked information to the media about the study, after his attempts to lodge internal complaints over the previous 6 years failed. PHS and the study investigators justified their conduct by saying that the study was not complete and that the information to be gained was of such importance to the advancement of medical knowledge that the subjects had to remain in the dark and untreated. They also believed, as did many scientists of the era, that the subjects could not possibly have grasped the complexities involved in scientific and medical research, and so could never have possibly given anything resembling informed consent.
Buxtun's leak to the press resulted in a public uproar, the closing of the study and the begin of reparations to the men and their families. In all, by the end of the study, 28 subjects had died from syphilis, 100 died of disease-related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis. It was one of the worst ethical failures in human subjects research in the history of the United States, and it led to the Belmont Report (establishing the research principles of respect for persons [informed consent], beneficence [balance of the risks and benefits], and justice [equitable subject selection]), as well as the creation of the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP).
Finally, all of the information from the study was published and publicly available. PHS did not hide anything from the public, even though they did lie to the study participants.
To sum up the Tuskegee study:
- subjects were misinformed about the study purpose, their diagnosis and the availability of treatment
- subjects were denied proper treatment when it became available, putting themselves and their families at increased risk for no benefit
- subjects bore an undue burden compared to the ultimate benefit from the knowledge gained
- none of the study information was covered up or suppressed
What about information suppression and cover-up? In Tuskegee, information was kept from the study participants, but the data collected were freely available to the public, and the results of the study were published. In DeStefano, the data set has always been available to researchers (in fact, CDC even has instructions on how to access the data on their web site), and the methods DeStefano et al. used and why they were used were disclosed in their paper. In fact, even Hooker's findings of an increased risk of autism among African American males appear to be due to a misapplication of statistics, as noted by the two epidemiologists linked at the beginning of this post.
At the end of the day, Hooker's findings are, at best, questionable, and Andrew Wakefield's comparison to Tuskegee are not only off the mark, but incredibly insensitive to the real suffering and tragedy that was Tuskegee. Anti-vaccine activists have latched onto the perceived, though completely inaccurate, racial disparity in a dishonest attempt to inflame public opinion against the CDC and vaccinations. Fortunately, they have found no mainstream voice in the media to repeat their nonsense. If they do, MMR vaccination rates are likely to plummet, and this year's historically large outbreak will seem like a mere blip.
I'll end with this musing: William Thompson is supposed to have "blown the whistle" and provided information to Brian Hooker that was supposedly covered up. Yet Hooker used the same data set that DeStefano et al. used, so it's unclear exactly what information Thompson provided that was not already available from the CDC. We do not know exactly what Thompson said; all we have are a few carefully edited sound bites from Wakefield.
Addendum: As Dorit notes in the comments below, there is also Wakefield's equating the CDC to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. Actually, he says the CDC is worse than those dictators. His video, including all those awful comparisons, has been lapped up and regurgitated by anti-vaccine activists. Even assuming that Hooker's analysis is correct, what these people are saying is that autism is worse than death, that a slightly increased risk (keep in mind Hooker's confidence interval for African American males vaccinated between 25 and 36 (or 31) months is very broad, with the low end coming awfully close to 1 (i.e., no effect)) of autism is worse than the irrevocable death of their children.
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[Edited to Add (Aug. 28, 2014): Here is a timeline through about 1pm today, courtesy of Liz Ditz (thanks for the amazing work on this, Liz!).]
Posts discussing Hooker's allegations, excluding anti-vaccine sources
Timeline
- August 8, 2014: Hooker paper published online
- August 18, 2014: Focus Autism Press Release published online
- August 18, 2014: Andrew Wakefield's Autism Media Channel Video Alleging a CDC Whistleblower published online
- August 22, 2014: Andrew Wakefield's Autism Media Channel Video Naming William W. Thompson as "The CDC Whistleblower" published online
- August 22, 2014: Orac Knows at Respectful Insolence - Brian Hooker proves Andrew Wakefield wrong about vaccines and autism
- August 22, 2014: Reuben Gaines at The Poxes Blog - Andrew Jeremy Wakefield plays video director while African-American Babies die, or something
- August 23, 2014: Ren at Epidemiological - Directed Acyclic Graphs and the MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism
- August 24, 2014: Liz Ditz at I Speak of Dreams - L'affaire CDC-MMR: Hooker, Wakefield, and Focus Autism Accuse African-American Senior CDC Researcher of Being A Race Traitor
- August 25, 2014: Orac Knows at Respectful Insolence - The central conspiracy theory of the antivaccine movement
- August 25,2014: David Gorski MD at Science Based Medicine - Did a high ranking whistleblower really reveal that the CDC covered up proof that vaccines cause autism in African-American boys?
- August 25, 2014: Todd W. at Harpocrates Speaks - Andrew Wakefield Tortures History
- August 25, 2014: Michael Simpson at Skeptical Raptor - Great CDC Coverup–suppressing evidence that MMR vaccines cause autism? (cross-posted at Daily Kos
- August 26, 2014: Orac Knows at Respectful Insolence - Hey, where is everybody? The “CDC whistleblower” manufactroversy continues apace
- August 26 2014: Sullivan (Matt Carey) at LeftBrainRightBrain - Autism, Atlanta, MMR: serious questions and also how Brian Hooker and Andrew Wakefield are causing damage to the autism communties
- August 26 2014: Lisa Lightner at Grounded Parents - The CDC vaccines/autism/coverup theory {spoiler alert-it’s not true!}
- August 26, 2014: Reuben Gaines at The Poxes Blog - How to end a scientist’s career with some fancy editing
- August 26, 2014: Anti-Vaccine Group The Thinking Mom's Revolution Hosts a #CDCWhistleblower Twitter Party
- August 27, 2014: Karoli Kuns at Crooks and Liars - Rob Schneider's Anti-Vax Crusade Now Enters Alex Jones Territory
- August 27 2014: Sullivan (Matt Carey) at LeftBrainRightBrain Autism - Discussions of the recent MMR/autism paper (and why the study isn’t what the author wants you to believe it is)
- August 27, 2014: Orac Knows at Respectful Insolence - The CDC “whistleblower” manufactroversy: Twitter parties and another “bombshell” e-mail
- August 27, 2014: Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy, Slate - No, There Still Is No Connection Between Vaccines and Autism
- August 27, 2014: Todd W. at Harpocrates Speaks - Anti-vaccine Activists Throw Twitter Tantrum
- August 27, 2014, in the morning: The Journal Translational Neurodegeneration removes Hooker's paper from the public domain
- August 27 2014: Sullivan (Matt Carey) at LeftBrainRightBrain Autism - The Brian Hooker article “…has been removed from the public domain because of serious concerns about the validity of its conclusions”
- August 27, 2014: Adam Marcus at Retraction Watch - Journal takes down autism-vaccine paper pending investigation
- August 27, 2014: Reuben Gaines at The Poxes Blog - Even the bottom-feeding journals seem to have some sense
- August 27, 2014, at approximately 2:30 pm, PDT, attorneys for William W. Thompson, the CDC employee, publish Thompson's statement
- August 27, 2014: Ren at Epidemiological - Dr. Brian S. Hooker gets the Andrew Wakefield treatment
- August 27, 2014: Debra Goldschmidt, CNN - Journal questions validity of autism and vaccine study
- August 28, 2014: Sullivan at LeftbrainRightBrain - Andrew Wakefield betrays another “whistleblower” with Brian Hooker helping
- August 28, 2014: Reuben Gaines at The Poxes Blog - Autism is not death, unless you want it to be
- August 28, 2014: Todd W. at Harpocrates Speaks - CDC Whistleblower William Thompson Breaks Silence
- August 28, 2014: Orac at Respectful Insolence - A bad day for antivaccinationists: A possible retraction, and the “CDC whistleblower” issues a statement
Timeline
- August 8, 2014: Hooker paper published online
- August 18, 2014: Focus Autism Press Release published online
- August 18, 2014: Andrew Wakefield's Autism Media Channel Video Alleging a CDC Whistleblower published online
- August 18, 2014: Jake Crosby at Autism Investigated - CDC Whistleblower Reveals Yet More Research Fraud
- August 19, 2014: Age of Autism at Age of Autism - Whistleblower Says CDC Knew in 2003 of Higher Autism Rate Among African-American Boys Receiving MMR Shot Earlier Than 36 Months
- August 20, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - Vaccine bombshell: CDC whistleblower reveals cover-up linking MMR vaccines to autism in African-Americans
- August 20, 2014: Age of Autism at Age of Autism - Senior Government Scientist Breaks 13 Years' Silence on CDC's Vaccine-autism Fraud
- August 20, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog Breaking - Breaking: MMR vaccine, autism, CDC coverup
- August 21, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog - Vaccine-autism connection: US Congressman stonewalled by the CDC
- August 21, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog - Advice for the secret CDC vaccine whistleblower
- August 21, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - CDC refuses to turn over documents to Congress: Evidence linking MMR vaccines to autism intentionally withheld from investigators
- August 22, 2014: Ethan Huff at Natural News - CDC whistleblower confesses to publishing fraudulent data to obfuscate link between vaccines and autism
- August 22, 2014: metamars at My Firedog Lake - CDC refuses to turn over documents to Congress showing MMR vaccines caused autism in black children (note: metamars' blog post, not an official Firedoglake post)
- August 22, 2014: Andrew Wakefield's Autism Media Channel Video Naming William W. Thompson as "The CDC Whistleblower" published online
- August 22, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog - CDC whistleblower revealed: William Thompson
- August 22, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog -
August 22, 2014: Jon Rappaport at Jon Rappaport's Blog - Breaking: CDC whistleblower Thompson in grave danger now - August 22, 2014: at TMR at Thinking Moms' Revolution - CDC Whistleblower William Thompson Blows the Lid on Malfeasance and Fraud at the CDC
- August 22, 2014: Jake Crosby at Autism Investigated - Andrew Wakefield Betrays CDC Whistleblower
- August 23, 2014: Inquisitr - CDC Whistleblower’s Claims Cause Uproar In Autism Community
- August 24, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog - CNN iReport on CDC whistleblower spreads like wildfire, then censored
- August 24, 2014: Jon Rappaport at Jon Rappaport's Blog - Rob Schneider says he has smoking gun on CDC vaccine-autism
- August 24, 2014: Sally Colletti, Examiner - Autism and The CDC: Now What?
- August 25, 2014: Kent Heckenlively, Age of Autism - A Break in the Wall - William W. Thompson
- August 25, 2014: Ethan Huff at Natural News - CDC whistleblower exposes massive autism cover-up perpetrated by government agency
- August 25, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - CDC whistleblower's secret letter to Gerberding released by Natural News as mainstream media desperately censors explosive story
- August 25, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - CNN caught red handed covering up CDC medical genocide of African-American babies
- August 25, 2014: Zorro at Thinking Moms' Revolution - Stop Calling Us Crazy: Autism, MMR, and Institutional Gaslighting
- August 25, 2014: Megan Heimer at Living Whole - CDC Whistleblower Comes Out and They All Play Dead
- August 25, 2014: Age of Autism at Age of Autism - Rob Schneider Demands Answers on CDC MMR Fraud
- August 25, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog - CDC vaccine-autism fraud: what victory looks like
- August 25, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Activist Post - CDC whistleblower, watch out; here come the mothers">
August 25, 2014: Kelly Brogan at Kelly Brogan MD - CDC: You’re Fired. Autism Coverup Exposed - August 25, 2014: Patrick "Tim" Bolen at the Bolen Report - The CDC Whistleblower... The Story Mainstream Media Doesn't Want To Run...
- August 26, 2014: JB Handley at Age of Autism - Knock-out Blow Needed: Dr. Thompson Must Speak Out on MMR African American Autism Connection
- August 26, 2014: John Stone at Age of Autism - CDC Frauds: Connections Between the DeStefano Paper and the Thorsen Affair
- August 26, 2014: Celia Farber, Epoch Times - Whistleblower Reveals CDC Knowingly Put Children at Risk of Autism, Media Remains Silent (Video)
- August 26, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog - CDC whistleblower is just the tip of the iceberg
- August 26, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - EXCLUSIVE: Bombshell email from CDC whistleblower reveals criminality of vaccine cover-up as far back as 2002
- August 26, 2014: Age of Autism at Age of Autism - CDC Whistleblower on Thimerosal in Pregnant Women (note: video interview with Brian Hooker, not William W. Thompson)
- August 26, 2014, in the evening: Anti-vaccine Activists at The Thinking Moms' Revolution Host a #CDCWhistleblower Twitter Party
- August 27, 2014: "Bobby Dee" at Gianelloni Family - Erased by a Birth Certificate
- August 27, 2014: John Stone, Age of Autism - The CDC: the Detective Agency Which Could Never Find Anything
- August 27, 2014: Anne Dachel, Age of Autism - CDC Whistleblower Story: Danke to Franchi
- August 27, 2014: Marcella Piper-Terry, at Age of Autism - CDC Whistleblower and Probability of Post-MMR Autism Diagnosis
- August 27, 2014: Ethan Huff at Natural News - Congressman Posey discusses autism, vaccines and lack of CDC transparency in interview with Dr. Brian Hooker
- August 27, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - Media conspiracy to bury CDC whistleblower story protects vaccine makers at the expense of human life
- August 27, 2014: Jon Rappoport at Jon Rappoport's Blog - Update: CDC whistleblower in touch with members of Congress
- August 27, 2014, in the morning: The Journal Translational Neurodegeneration removes Hooker's paper from the public domain
- August 27, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - Scientific journal censors Brian Hooker's analysis of CDC vaccine data; the Church of Science orders 'burning of books'
- August 27, 2014: Sayer Ji at GreenMedInfo - CDC Autism/Vaccine Coverup Extends to Media and Journals
- August 27, 2014: Age of Autism at Age of Autism - Translational Neurodegeneration Removes Vaccination Timing Article
- August 27, 2014, at approximately 2:30 pm, PDT, attorneys for William W. Thompson, the CDC employee, publish Thompson's statement
- August 27, 2014: Age of Autism at Age of Autism - Statement from William Thompson, RE Pediatrics MMR African American Males Data
- August 27, 2014: Mike Adams at Natural News - BREAKING: CDC whistleblower confesses to MMR vaccine research fraud in historic public statement
- August 27, 2014: Jake Crosby at Autism Investigated - Whistleblower Confirms Wakefield Outed Him Without Permission
- August 27, 2014: Sayer Ji at GreenMedInfo - CNN Publishes Story Denying Vaccine-Autism Link
- August 27, 2014: The Event Chronicle at The Event Chronicle - CDC Whistleblower confesses to MMR vaccine research fraud in historic public statement
- August 28, 2014: Celia Farber, Epoch Times - Vaccinegate: CDC Whistleblower Admits Claims of Data Fixing Were True, Complains at Being Recorded and Outed
- August 28, 2014: Dan Olmstead at Age of Autism - Our Story So Far: Both MMR & Mercury-Laced Vaccines Cause Autism
- August 28, 2014: "Bobby Dee" guest posting at Living Whole - The CDC Whistleblower Press Release: Interpreted
- Full text of Hooper's paper: Transl Neurodegener. 2014 Aug 8;3:16. doi: 10.1186/2047-9158-3-16. eCollection 2014. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young african american boys: a reanalysis of CDC data.
- Statement of Concern from publishers of Hooker's paper.
- Full text of the Focus Autism press release
- CDC Position statement on 2004 Destefano paper
- Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cdcwhistleblower.asp
Wakefield's misuse of history also covers his comparison of the researchers to Hitler, Stalin and Pot Pol.
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