In the New York Times' hit
piece on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that I've made a case study of to
illuminate how the mainstream media spread vaccine misinformation, there
was the usual mention of how Salon in 2011 retracted his 2005 article "Deadly Immunity".
"Deadly
Immunity" reported how CDC analyst Thomas Verstraeten did a study using
the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) and found a statistically significant
association between mercury-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental
disorders, including autism.
But
by conducting various additional analyses that strayed from the
original study protocol, including the addition of various exclusion
criterion, the CDC was able to make the statistical significance go
away. The finally published study is today cited by the CDC to support
its claim that "vaccines do not cause autism".
After
an FDA analysis revealed that the CDC's routine childhood vaccine
schedule was exposing infants to cumulative levels of mercury in excess
of the government's own safety guidelines, and after Verstraeten started
analyzing the data, the CDC held a secret conference at the Simpsonwood
conference center in Norcross, Georgia, to figure out what to do with
his findings.
Attendees at
the conference expressed concern about the finding of an association
between mercury-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Among their concerns was that if this information were to become public,
it would pave the way for injury lawsuits.
The justification cited by the Salon editors
for their 2011 retraction was eight corrections made to the article in
the days after it was published in 2005. This raises the question: if
the errors were so substantial, why wait nearly six years to retract the
article?
The answer to that question is that the errors were not substantial, with one exception, which was an error introduced into the article not by RFK, Jr. but but the Salon editors.
I
thoroughly reviewed the corrections, comparing the original version
with the updates, and the detailed results will be included in my
e-book The New York Times vs. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: How the Mainstream Media Spread Vaccine Misinformation, which I'll be sending you for free (since you're a newsletter subscriber).
I'm wrapping up editing of the e-book right now, but in the meantime, here's
what you need to know to understand how the media are trying to deceive
you when they recite the official propaganda narrative of the
retraction:The Salon editors did not dispute that
CDC researchers did an analysis of VSD data and found a statistically
significant association between receipt of mercury-containing vaccines
and neurodevelopmental disorders including autism. The Salon editors did not dispute that
the CDC subsequently held a secret conference at which attendees
expressed concern about an association between vaccines and
neurodevelopmental disorders. The Salon editors did not dispute that
among the concerns expressed by meeting attendees was the concern that
were this data to become public it could be used as the basis for injury
lawsuits. The Salon editors did not dispute that
the CDC departed from the original study protocol to ultimately produce
a study cited by the CDC as evidence for an absence of an association
between vaccines and autism.
In
fact, none of the corrections cited as reason for retracting Kennedy’s
article even come close to undermining those key points, all of which are true,
and which taken together can indeed be reasonably interpreted as
evidence of an effort by the CDC to conceal the original findings from
the public. |
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