Study data kept secret
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Attempts by independent researchers to obtain the underlying
data sets from the original authors in the epidemiological
studies touted by the CDC and other vaccine apologists (except the
2004 Ip et al. study) as supporting the claims of “no
link” have been repeatedly rebuffed. Interestingly, a November
2007 paper by Desoto and Hitlan, entitled Blood Levels of Mercury
Are Related to a Diagnosis of Autism: A Reanalysis of an
Important Data Set, independently reviewed the basis data from
the previously published Ip et al. epidemiology study reporting
no evidence of a link between the blood levels of mercury and
autism. The reanalysis, with which the authors of the original
epidemiological article agreed, found that the original article’s
inaccurate conclusions were based on a significant calculation
error and a less-than-appropriate choice of t-tail statistical test.
Thus, no independent analysis has been able to confirm the
validity, or lack thereof, of the findings reported in the studies
upon which the 2004 IOM committee relied. In
the case of the key U.S. study by Verstraeten et al., CDC
officials have claimed that the original data sets have been
“lost.” Key realities about autism, vaccines,
vaccine-injury compensation, Thimerosal, and autism-related research----Gary
S. Goldman, Ph.D & P.G. King PhD
" The Taylor study is seriously flawed in many ways, as had been noted in a number of letters to the editor of The Lancet and in a number of additional letters on the subject which have been posted on the internet. It was subject to strong attack at a recent meeting of the British Statistical Society. I have been a full-time researcher my entire professional life, for almost 50 years, and I respectfully asked Dr. Taylor for a copy of the data so that I could reanalyze them. He refused this ordinary professional courtesy, and I have subsequently written to the editor of The Lancet requesting that an impartial committee be asked to reexamine Dr. Taylor’s statistical methods. If he refuses again, I urged The Lancet to retract his paper."--Dr Rimland
"Without hesitation, everyone except Dr Taylor said yes. Dr Taylor refused. You would think that if he was as certain as the others that his science was absolutely rock solid, there would have been no hesitation. But with this issue, we are not talking about medicine or children’s lives – we are talking about politics. And I would go further and say that in my opinion those vehemently denying any association between MMR and autism have scant regard for the children involved – they seem to fixate solely on the percentages vaccinated, and their own self-defence – the impact of negative articles on their reputation, prestige, and validity of previously published comments, and Wall Street shares."--Hilary Butler