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Ten years later, consumed with guilt that his findings could have prevented harm to children, Thompson turned whistleblower. Over a period of 10 months starting in 2013, he sent thousands of pages of CDC documents and spoke over the phone more than 40 times to Brian Hooker, a scientist investigating vaccines as a possible cause of his own son’s autism. That evidence provides the scaffolding and is the essence of Vaxxed, which opens with numerous media reports (and President Obama) providing assurances that the CDC can be trusted.

Then this:

“I have waited a long time to tell my story and I want to tell it truthfully. I was involved in deceiving millions of taxpayers regarding the potential negative side effects of vaccines. We lied about the scientific findings. The CDC can no longer be trusted to do vaccine safety work. Can’t be trusted to be transparent. The CDC can’t be trusted to police itself.”

That explanation, written by Thompson in an email and presented in the movie by a narrarator’s voiceover, was then followed up with audio of the actual conversations between Thompson and Hooker.

“My phone rings and it’s Dr. William Thompson,” says Hooker, describing the first of the calls he received from Thompson. Then we hear Thompson’s voice: “You and I don’t know each other very well. You have a son with autism, and I have great shame now.”

Vaxxed relies heavily on those conversations between Thompson and Hooker, which Hooker surreptitiously taped, in making its case that the CDC is a rogue agency, conflicted by its mandate to both promote and to regulate vaccines. But Vaxxed also interviews other medical experts and patients, showing us anecdotal evidence of perfectly normal children who — following vaccination — suddenly degenerate.