The CDC Vaccine/Autism Whistleblower’s Immunity

by Catherine J. Frompovich 

What is immunity?

n. exemption from penalties, payments, or legal requirements, granted by authorities or statutes. Generally there are three types of immunity at law: a) a promise not to prosecute for a crime in exchange for information or testimony in a criminal matter, granted by the prosecutors, a judge, a grand jury, or an investigating legislative committee; b) public officials’ protection from liability for their decisions (like a city manager or member of a public hospital board); c) governmental (or sovereign) immunity, which protects government agencies from lawsuits unless the government agreed to be sued; d) diplomatic immunity which excuses foreign ambassadors from most U. S. criminal laws. (See: governmental immunity)

Exemption from performing duties that the law generally requires other citizens to perform, or from a penalty or burden that the law generally places upon other citizens. [1] [Emphasis added]

So what does the February 3, 2015 news report in The Daily Caller, which reads “Obama Admin Grants [federal] Immunity To CDC Scientist That Fudged Vaccine Report…Whistleblower Plans To Testify Before Congress” portend when it comes to U.S. CDC scientist William Thompson, PhD, who readily admitted to skewing published vaccine study results? What possibly could be the legal ramifications of federal immunity for Dr. Thompson?

Well, if we look at immunity application and interpretation, we see that:

1. Members of Congress and state legislators are absolutely immune from civil lawsuits for their votes and official actions.
2. Prosecutors are absolutely immune for their actions during a trial or before a Grand Jury.
3. Police and prison officials may be granted qualified immunity.
4. State and federal statutes may grant witnesses immunity from prosecution for the use of their testimony in court or before a grand jury.
5. Congressional committees have the power to grant testimonial immunity to witnesses who testify before members of Congress.
6. Despite the Court’s grant of absolute immunity to the president for official actions, a president does not have immunity from civil lawsuits for actions that allegedly occurred before becoming president.

Parsing the above “immunities,” we note that certain individuals are legally protected and absolved from complying with certain duties and/or supplying information that would be required of them to provide and/or be subject to prosecution. There is plenty case law that sets precedent.

But, here’s what comes to mind regarding Dr. William Thompson’s immunity: How will the federal immunity President Obama granted him be interpreted and applied?

A. Could Thompson take the Fifth Amendment and cite/invoke federal immunity, i.e. a self-imposed ‘gag order’, which would mean any Congressional investigation would hear nothing from him as to what he admitted to doing in the past that skewed vaccine science and its implications regarding autism in black children, specifically young black boys?

That just may be the intended reasoning for and behind President Obama’s action.

B. Could Thompson sing like a canary; spill his scientific guts; and not be liable for legal prosecution?

I don’t think that will happen, as that would open a cesspool of putrid worms and snakes within vaccine science and research and, from past history, no one will allow any hearings, Congressional or otherwise, to go there.

If “B” is the route any future investigational hearings regarding CDC’s whistleblower Thompson takes, then all hell needs to break loose from everyone who breathes in the USA, especially members of the African/black race, because their children and their future progeny will have been “sold down the river” of vaccine pseudoscience.

The published study that Thompson worked on, which he admits he fudged/skewed, indicates that black children are at increased risk after early exposure to the MMR vaccine.

The Scientific Controversy

Background: A significant number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder suffer a loss of previously-acquired skills, suggesting neurodegeneration or a type of progressive encephalopathy with an etiological basis occurring after birth. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the age at which children got their first Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine on autism incidence. This is a reanalysis of the data set, obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), used for the Destefano et al. 2004 publication on the timing of the first MMR vaccine and autism diagnoses.

Methods: The author embarked on the present study to evaluate whether a relationship exists between child age when the first MMR vaccine was administered among cases diagnosed with autism and controls born between 1986 through 1993 among school children in metropolitan Atlanta. The Pearson’s chi-squared method was used to assess relative risks of receiving an autism diagnosis within the total cohort as well as among different race and gender categories.

Results: When comparing cases and controls receiving their first MMR vaccine before and after 36 months of age, there was a statistically significant increase in autism cases specifically among African American males who received the first MMR prior to 36 months of age. Relative risks for males in general and African American males were 1.69 (p=0.0138) and 3.36 (p=0.0019), respectively. Additionally, African American males showed an odds ratio of 1.73 (p=0.0200) for autism cases in children receiving their first MMR vaccine prior to 24 months of age versus 24 months of age and thereafter.

Conclusions: The present study provides new epidemiologic evidence showing that African American males receiving the MMR vaccine prior to 24 months of age or 36 months of age are more likely to receive an autism diagnosis. [2] [Emphasis added]

Regardless of who says what, the mere fact that Dr. Thompson had contacted autism researcher Brain Hooker, PhD, and eventually “sang like a canary” during telephone calls that were taped, as per this video wherein he says, “I have a boss who’s asking me to lie. [….] I basically have stopped lying.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8697rSvIqhg&feature=player_embedded#t=4

How will that have to be sifted through CDC/FDA and Big Pharma filters?

In a February 2, 2004 memo/letter to Dr. Julie Gerberding, MD, then head of the CDC, and now Merck’s President of Vaccines, Dr. Thompson said,

I believe it is your responsibility and duty to respond in writing to Representative Weldon’s letters before the Institute of Medicine meeting and make those letters public.

[….] Please assist me in this matter and respond to Representative Weldon’s concerns in writing prior to my presentation February 9th. [3]

Apparently, Dr. Thompson was genuinely concerned that the CDC, under Gerberding’s leadership, was not cooperating with a member of Congress regarding the Congressman’s investigation into vaccine issues. Federal agency non-compliance with Congressional information requests apparently has been key make-or-break issues on vaccine investigations over the years.

So, President Obama’s federal immunity grant to Dr. William Thompson, Ph.D., just may be either an ‘end run play’ or a ‘Hail Mary pass’ to ‘save’, ‘legitimize’ or ‘promulgate’ vaccine research and its erroneous surveys, data, and marketing, since vaccine issues are getting too hot anymore, and they no longer can be swept under any special interest rug.

However the recently-granted presidential immunity for the CDC’s Thompson is handled, it’s probably going to be lethal. Big Pharma and the FDA perceive that; so does the CDC, who actually are co-conspirators regarding vaccine pseudoscience, which can be traced back to what’s known as the infamous Simpsonwood Meeting.

Here’s a report on that secret CDC-Pharma meeting taken from the monograph “Vaccines & Vaccinations: The Need for Congressional Investigation,” Jan. 2011, which I co-edited with Laraine Abbey Katzev, RN.

The Simpsonwood Meeting Report
The Simpsonwood Conference: Mercury-Autism Coverup!

by Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 9:57am

In June 2000, a top-secret meeting of health officials and government scientists occurred at the secluded Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened the meeting, no public announcement was made of the gathering. Just 52 private invitations were issued. Participants included high-level officials from the CDC, FDA, top vaccine specialists from the World Health Organization, and representatives from every major vaccine manufacturer, including Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the participants were repeatedly warned that the scientific data under discussion was “embargoed.” Note-taking and photocopies of documents were strictly prohibited. No papers could leave the room.

The federal health officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss an alarming new study that confirmed a link between thimerosal (mercury) in childhood vaccines and neurological damage, including recent dramatic increases in autistic spectrum disorders. Tom Verstraeten, a CDC epidemiologist, had analyzed the agency’s massive Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) database (distinct from VAERS) containing thousands of medical records of vaccinated children and was “stunned” by what he saw: “We have found statistically significant relationships between exposure [to mercury in vaccines] and outcomes. At two months of age, developmental delay; exposure at three months, tics; at six months, attention deficit disorder. Exposure at one, three and six months, language and speech delays—the entire category of neurodevelopmental delays.” Verstraeten also discussed previous studies showing a link between mercury and neurodevelopmental disorders. Since 1991, when the CDC and FDA started requiring newborn infants to receive multiple doses of thimerosal-laced hepatitis B vaccines, thimerosal-laced haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) vaccines, and the already mandated thimerosal-laced diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis shots (via DPT and DTaP), cases of autism skyrocketed.

Dr. Bill Weil, with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), told the group, “You can play with this all you want,” but the results “are statistically significant.” Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician, exclaimed, “I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on.” Yet, instead of taking quick action to warn parents and recall the unsafe shots, this shameless group of 52 vaccine proponents spent the next two days calculating how to cover up the truth.

“We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits,” said Dr. Robert Brent, a pediatrician. However, Dr. Robert Chen, head of vaccine safety for the CDC, congratulated his group for their apparent success thus far at concealing the facts, and expressed relief that “given the sensitivity of the information, we have been able to keep it out of the hands of, let’s say, less responsible hands.” Dr. John Clements, WHO vaccine advisor, was more blunt, declaring that perhaps the CDC study “should not have been done at all because the outcome could have, to some extent, been predicted.” He stated that “the research results have to be handled,” and warned that the study “will be taken by others and used in ways beyond the control of this group.”

How to “handle” undesirable scientific data:

At the Simpsonwood gathering, a plot was hatched. To begin, the CDC relinquished control of its vast database on childhood vaccines—the very same database Tom Verstraeten used to confirm a link between thimerosal-laced vaccines and autism. Although the VSD database was public property—developed at taxpayer expense—it was turned over to a private health insurance agency, ensuring that it could not be accessed by non-collaborators for additional research. Three years later, Verstraeten had reworked the data and published a new version of his original study in the November 2003 issue of Pediatrics. However, this time “no consistent significant associations were found between thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes.” [Dr. Mark Geier, an independent scientist, eventually gained access to the VSD data. His findings were published in a recent issue of the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.]

After the Simpsonwood gathering, the CDC also instructed the Institute of Medicine (IOM), i.e., the National Academy of Sciences, to produce a new study with contrived results: no correlation between thimerosal and brain disorders. According to Dr. Marie McCormick, who chaired the IOM’s Immunization Safety Review Committee in January 2001, the CDC “wants us to declare, well, that these things are pretty safe.” In fact, “we are not ever going to come down that [autism] is a true side effect” of thimerosal. In transcripts of the meeting, the committee’s chief staffer, Kathleen Stratton, predicted that the IOM would conclude that the evidence was “inadequate to accept or reject a causal relation” between thimerosal and autism. Apparently, that was what “Walt wants”—a reference to Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the CDC’s National Immunization Program.

To complete the deception, the CDC would need additional “proof” that thimerosal-laced vaccines are safe. They never intended to conduct honest science; rather, their goal was to establish a plausible defense, insulate manufacturers against liability, while producing justification for continuing mandatory vaccine campaigns. For example, in May 2001, Dr. Gordon Douglas, then-director of strategic planning for vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, assured a Princeton University gathering that “four current studies are taking place to rule out the proposed link between autism and thimerosal.” Furthermore, “in order to undo the harmful effects of research claiming to link the [measles] vaccine to an elevated risk of autism, we need to conduct and publicize additional studies to assure parents of safety.” Douglas formerly served as president of vaccinations for Merck.

The Simpsonwood gathering places all CDC-sponsored research into question. Although this civic institution was originally entrusted with a lofty mandate to protect our children, it has degenerated into a private arm of the pharmaceutical industry. The CDC has lost its ethical bearings and cannot be trusted to objectively oversee scientific studies whose outcomes affect the health and welfare of our youngest, most innocent members of society. Who is looking after our children—the brain-trust of our future—if policy trumps science, and profits trump safety? “The CDC is guilty of incompetence and gross negligence” says Mark Blaxill, vice president of Safe Minds, a nonprofit organization concerned about mercury in medicines. “The damage caused by vaccine exposure is massive. It’s bigger than asbestos, bigger than tobacco, bigger than anything you’ve ever seen.”

[Emphasis Added]

This information was excerpted from Vaccine Safety Manual by Neil Z. Miller.

Personally, in this writer’s opinion, Congressional hearings MUST take place and Dr. Thompson MUST tell what he knows, because if he invokes federal immunity to be silent, then that legal tactic will prove to everyone that there definitely is/was something to hide in vaccine research. That, then, will become the most prostituted day in medical research and pharmaceutical history.

References:

[1] http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/immunity
[2] http://retractionwatch.com/2014/08/27/journal-takes-down-autism-vaccine-paper-pending-investigation/
[3] http://www.naturalnews.com/images/CDC-Gerberding-Warning-Vaccines-Autism.jpg

Resources:

Obama Admin Grants Immunity To CDC Scientist That Fudged Vaccine Report…Whistleblower Plans To Testify Before Congress
http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/03/obama-admin-grants-immunity-to-cdc-scientist-that-fudged-vaccine-report-whistleblower-plans-to-testify-before-congress/

Catherine retired from researching and writing, but felt compelled to write this article. 

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)