By John Gilmore A US government-financed research group in Denmark lied about the role of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine in causing autism in a highly-publicized and influential study, Autism Rate Among Danish Children Reported in A Population Based Study of Measles, Mumps and Rubella Vaccination and Autism. The authors claimed that, “This study provides strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR Vaccination causes autism,” even though the data in the study clearly shows that children who got an MMR vaccine had a 45% higher rate of full-syndrome autism than children who were not vaccinated, and a 31% higher rate of less severe forms of autism. This data can be seen at this link below, Table 2 . Last week we presented evidence that the same US-government financed operation in Denmark fabricated evidence in an influential study to cover-up the role of mercury in vaccines causing autism. Both studies were prepared by a research group led by Dr. Poul Thorsen, a Danish epidemiologist hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to produce a series of studies looking at health outcomes in Danish children. Several of the studies looked at the role of vaccines in causing autism, and all the studies prepared under Thorsen’s direction concluded there was no connection. In 20011 Thorsen was indicted by the US Attorney for allegedly embezzling $2 million from the CDC. He is currently a fugitive.

Vaccine safety studies are pretty straightforward. You look at one group of people who get a vaccine, and then you look at a group who did not get the vaccine. If there is more of a health problem in the group who got the vaccine than those who didn’t, then there very well could be a problem with the vaccine. Simple.But the Thorsen group didn’t do the study using the straightforward, conventional way. The data showed a much higher number of autism cases in the MMR vaccinated group than in the unvaccinated group, and If they did it the usual way they would have had to conclude that the MMR may cause autism. So instead of comparing cases of autism, they compared “life-years” with autism, and “life years” without autism. In short that means if a child was 8 years old at the end of the study period and that child was diagnosed with autism, when he was 6, he would be counted as 2 “life-years” with autism, but 6 “life years” without autism. If it sounds silly and confusing it is, by design. They had to come up with a way to avoid showing that they had found a greater rate of autism among the children who got the MMR. And this is the method they chose to do it.Last week we discussed how the Thorsen group provided a third-rate study with abundant indicators of possible data fabrication to absolve mercury in vaccines from having a causal role in autism. They appear to have done a similar job for the MMR. These two studies have had a powerful influence on US Autism research priorities, vaccine policy and provided much of the pretext for the dismissal of more than 5000 cases in the National Vaccine injury Compensation Program. The wiley Dr. Poul Thorsen continues to elude the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and all the other apparatus of the federal government. The rest of the authors are Danish. One of the authors, however, Diana Schendel, Ph. D., is still employed by the CDC. It would be fascinating to hear her explanation of why the team chose to present the information in an unconventional way that arrived at the exact opposite conclusion that conventional epidemiological methods would have produced. Of course, the finding of no correlation was politically expedient, and it provide a pretext for assaulting the work of Andrew Wakefield,the English researcher who the hypothesized a possible connection between the MMR, autism and bowel disease. Perhaps, Dr. Schendel could clarify how this happened if she was invited to testify under oath at the hearings of the House Committee on Government Operations and Reform on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program scheduled for November. The studies she worked on with Thorsen have profoundly influenced NVICP policy and are therefore highly relevant to the hearings, and unlike Thorsen the feds could probably locate Schendel.Moreover, there is a clear pattern of data fabrication and concealment in the studies the CDC had Thorsen prepare, and all the subterfuge has the same result: hiding the clear role vaccines have in causing autism.Autism Rate Among Danish Children Reported in A Population Based Study of Measles, Mumps and Rubella Vaccination and Autism, Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, Olsen J, Melbye M., New England Journal of Medicine. 2002 Nov 7;347(19):1477-82

John Gilmore is a founder and executive director of the Autism Action Network, a national 501(c)(4), non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organization engaged in a range of issues including health access, special education, rights of the disabled, vaccine rights and safety, and research funding. Mr. Gilmore has more than ten years of experience organizing state and national legislative efforts.



He lives in Long Beach, New York with his wife Jennifer and his two sons, Jack, and Luke who has developmental delays as a result of a vaccine-induced encephalopathy.



Mr. Gilmore has a Master’s In Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at U. C. Berkeley. He also teaches politics and media studies to undergraduates in New York City.