Good grief what next? I posted previously that two courts found no connection between autism and childhood vaccines. But integrity requires that I now post about the latest twist in that ongoing controversy: One of the premier scientists involved in finding no link is now immersed in a serious financial scandal. From the story:
A Danish scientist involved in two major studies that debunked any linkage of vaccines to autism is suspected of misappropriating $2 million in U.S. grants at his university in Denmark. Poul Thorsen, a medical doctor and Ph.D., was an adjunct professor at the Drexel University School of Public Health for several months before resigning Tuesday. On Jan. 22, Aarhus University said that it had uncovered a “considerable shortfall” in grant money from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a research program that Thorsen had directed. The university referred the matter to police, who are conducting an investigation.
Those who believe that vaccines can cause autism believe this undermines the science:
Anti-vaccine groups have seized on the allegations to contend that scientific studies disproving the vaccine link to autism are wrong. Those groups have long argued that thimerosal, a preservative in some vaccines, can cause autism, as can the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella. “I think it is quite significant,” said Dan Olmsted of the Age of Autism. “I think someone allegedly capable of ripping off his own university by forging documents from the CDC is capable of pulling off anything.”
The CDC says the science isn’t in dispute:
The CDC and coauthors of the two studies published in major U.S. medical journals maintain the studies remain valid. “CDC is aware of the allegations by Aarhus University against Poul Thorsen,” agency spokesman Tom Skinner said in a statement. Federal authorities are investigating. Skinner noted that Thorsen was one of many coauthors on peer-reviewed studies looking at autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and alcohol use in pregnancy. “We have no reason to suspect that there are any issues related to the integrity of the science,” Skinner said.
If these charges are true, it is calamitous, because it becomes impossible to put the issue to bed, even if the science is iron clad.
It is important for children to be protected against serious childhood diseases. Parents need to know that vaccines are safe. Corruption and venality in science is particularly harmful because it undermines the sector’s overall credibility–with the potential of causing very real human harm. More when I know more.
March 15th, 2010 | 11:11 pm
Does this make any sense?
Are we not very suspicious of this?
The chief sources are Robert Kennedy (an anti-vaccer quack of preposterousness) and Age of Autism – a consortium of dumb housewives controlled by Olmsted the loon who tries to sound “sciencey”.
Thorsen has authored about a dozen papers in the last year – could he have just disappeared?
There is no statement listed in the CDC’s website, no release by a “Tom Skinner” at the CDC, no statement by Emory or Drexel, where is this “Skinner” statement, where is the statement by Aarhus, which federal authorities are investigating…
Something is wrong here, as it stands right now.
Someone should call Tom Skinner at the CDC and find out what’s happening; I’m afraid cell phones used on this 6000 year old flat earth will cause cancer, so I won’t be making the call.
[Phone number deleted]
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Yes. I wouldn’t trust Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and did not include his blog entry. But the Phil. Inquirer reported it and it seems to me it must be confronted.
March 16th, 2010 | 12:17 am
Yes, confront. This seems a little odd.
March 16th, 2010 | 9:53 am
I can see this guy being brought up for financial mismanagement or even embezzling, but I don’t see anything to indicate he skewed his results for money. If there was a significant payment from a company connected with vaccinations, I’d be the first in line to hang him out to dry. But I don’t see that here; the money he allegedly kept was government grant money. Possibly a crime, but unless he, say, fabricated data instead of spending the money to collect it, I don’t see this affecting his study.
At any rate, the burden of proof of a vaccine/autism link is and should be on the people making that claim. Even if this study is invalidated, that would not support the claim of a link.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:31 am
padraig: I agree. My fear is that it will help sow fear so that parents don’t obtain needed vaccines for their children.
March 16th, 2010 | 1:01 pm
Another point on this is he’s being accused not by CDC or a medical journal, but by the university where he had his grant. I don’t know if many people realize that when a researcher gets a grant, the money actually goes to the researcher’s school, which then disburses it. This leads to LOTS of friction between the schools and the researchers, who tend not to be very interested in accounting, they just want the dang money from the dang grant that THEY brought in in the first place. (I’ve listened to a few such rants.)
So, not a science issue, more of a management issue.
March 16th, 2010 | 2:10 pm
“Dumb housewives”????
David, if you want to make a point then you should probably try not to undermine your credibility with such prejudice-laden phrases.
And that’s about all I can say to David on this topic because if I can’t say anything nice I am not going to say anything at all.
March 16th, 2010 | 11:57 pm
If we have learned anything at all from the global warming hoax, it’s that one mistake (for example, the Himalayan glacier typo) invalidates all the other evidence accumulated over decades.
Based on this new model we are forced to conclude that the autism-vaccine link is re-established.
March 17th, 2010 | 7:38 pm
The level of desperation, on the part of the ”vaccine-autism link community” is astonishing. If Thorsen is guilty of this accusation, it in no way necessarily invalidates his research showing no link between autism and vaccines. Logically, his research, and his possible crime are distinct. Also, other researchers can replicate his work, which would further establish that there’s no link. Unless there’s independent evidence that he falsified his claims, his research should be believed. Unfotunately, we humans are vulnerable to the fallacy that just because one does someting bad, that that necessitates that claims he makes in other areas are false. Possibly, but NOT necessarily.
March 18th, 2010 | 1:26 pm
http://www.rescuepost.com/files/thorsen-aarhus.pdf
March 19th, 2010 | 3:39 pm
As Pittsburgh Penguins winger Matt Cooke said during the Stanley Cup championship last year, “Stats were made to be broken.”
April 25th, 2010 | 2:57 pm
The various vaccines each contain many different substances. Some substances, like mercury (in thimerosal) are cumulative. Some vaccines (like several swine flu vaccines used in Europe) contain squalene which has shown to cause auto-immune disorders in research done with rats. Squalene enhances the immune response so that less of the expensive virus antigen is necessary. Squalene is an oil, so polysorbate is used to make it mix with the rest of the vaccine. Polysorbate may make the blood-brain barriere more porous so that mercury may get more easier into the brain. The blood-brain barriere in children is not so well developed as it is in adults. The amount of the various ingredients is interesting, but several factors other should also be considered. These are, for example, the number of vaccines, the intervals between them, cumulative properties of some substances and interactions between them.
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