by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D., Childrens Health Defense:
Citing anonymous “officials,” The Washington Post on Tuesday published a preemptive hit piece on David Geier, a data analyst reportedly tapped by HHS to lead a study on possible links between vaccines and autism. HHS and Geier, the author of hundreds of peer-reviewed papers, did not respond by deadline to requests for confirmation.
The Washington Post on Tuesday published a preemptive hit piece on David Geier, a researcher the Post claims has been tapped by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to lead a study of possible links between vaccines and autism.
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The Post reported that Geier was “hired to head” the study, quoting anonymous federal health officials who said that Geier — an experienced data analyst — ”would be the one analyzing the data.”
At presstime, the HHS and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had not confirmed that Geier was tapped to lead the study or work on it. Geier did not respond by deadline to a request by The Defender for confirmation.
Geier is an expert on thimerosal — a mercury-based preservative used as an adjuvant in vaccines — and on the connections between toxic exposures and autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
He has conducted extensive analysis on the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink, a nonpublic database with data on more than 10 million patients. The CDC uses the database to monitor vaccine adverse events.
Geier is also the lead or second author of hundreds of peer-reviewed articles on these and related topics.
However, the Post and other mainstream news outlets described him solely as a “vaccine skeptic” who has “long promoted false claims about the connection between immunization and autism.”
Commenting on the Post’s report, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) CEO Mary Holland said:
“I don’t know whether The Washington Post account that David Geier will be appointed to analyze vaccine safety data is accurate, but I hope it is. Geier is a brilliant, extremely knowledgeable researcher with deep expertise on mercury.”
Holland said Geier had worked with CHD’s predecessor organization, the World Mercury Project, and with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2015 on Kennedy’s groundbreaking book, “Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak.”
Holland added:
“Despite the hackneyed mantra that ‘vaccines don’t cause autism’ and that this causation theory has been ‘debunked,’ the truth is that only very limited, marginal science backs up that dubious claim.
“Officials in the Senate, CDC and pharma-friendly media like The Washington Post should be gratified that further research on this important causation theory will now take place, so we can put this issue to bed once and for all.”
Kennedy’s nomination process reignited the debate over a possible link between vaccines and autism. During the confirmation hearings, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) pressed Kennedy to say that vaccines don’t cause autism. Kennedy said he would only do so if presented with data disproving the link. Several senators expressed support for examining the link.
President Donald Trump pulled the nomination for his first choice to lead the CDC, Dr. David Weldon, at the last minute after Weldon failed to secure enough votes — reportedly because of comments he made about the link between vaccines and autism.
The CDC also confirmed earlier this month, before Trump withdrew Weldon’s nomination for its director, that the CDC was planning a large study into potential connections between the vaccines and autism.
The Post today reported that in recent weeks, HHS officials directed the CDC to turn over the vaccine safety data to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct the analysis. The HHS did not confirm or deny the report by the deadline.
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