CDC Scientist and Whistleblower Promoted to Lead Childhood Vaccine Adverse Events Research
- by Amber Baker
- Published
- Risk & Failure Reports
A senior researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) William Thompson, PhD, who previously came forward in 2014 as a whistleblower claiming that the agency omitted statistically significant data related to MMR (measles-mumps-rubella)vaccine risks, has been promoted to oversee federal research into adverse experiences in childhood affecting long-term health outcomes for children. STAT News reported Thompson’s appointment in late December 2025.1
Dr. Thompson, a longtime CDC scientist who advised Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on vaccine policy has been promoted to a GS-15 position, the highest civilian rank in federal service, with supervisory authority. In his new role, Thompson will help oversee research related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), a category that includes traumatic and destabilizing experiences such as abuse, neglect, substance use in the home, food insecurity, housing instability, and other stressors known to affect long-term health outcomes.1
Thompson will also help direct components of the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), a major nationwide public health program that surveys U.S. high school students every two years to track behavioral trends linked to injury, chronic disease, and mental health, including substance use, sexual health, diet, physical activity, violence, and emotional well-being. The data collected through YRBSS are frequently used to inform prevention strategies and federal health priorities.2
Thompson’s Allegations of Deliberate Data Omission in MMR Vaccine Safety Study
Thompson gained public attention back in 2014, when he alleged that senior CDC officials knowingly omitted statistically significant findings from a federally funded vaccine safety study examining the MMR vaccine. According to Thompson, the excluded data suggested a higher autism risk among African American males who received the MMR vaccine before 36 months of age—a finding he said was not observed in other racial groups.3
In a statement released through his attorney in August 2014, Thompson acknowledged his role in the study’s publication while expressing regret over how the data was handled. “I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics,” he said. “The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe the final study protocol was not followed.”3
Thompson spent decades in senior scientific and epidemiological roles at the CDC, where he began working in 1998. Over the course of his career, he has served in multiple divisions across the agency. In the early 2000s, Thompson worked in epidemiology and surveillance for the CDC’s National Immunization Program, including during the period surrounding a 2004 vaccine safety study.
By 2009, he was serving in the Influenza Division within the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and later transitioned to work focused on adult and community health initiatives within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP). Since 2016, Thompson has worked in the CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis.3
No Congressional or Judicial Examination of Thompson’s Claims to Date
Despite his explosive allegations, there are no public records indicating that Thompson was ever subpoenaed, sworn in, or formally called to testify before Congress, a court, or an independent investigative body regarding his claims that senior CDC officials directed the omission and destruction of statistically significant data from a federally funded vaccine safety study involving adverse responses to the MMR vaccine and potential increased risk for autism in African American males. This absence of formal testimony is notable given that Thompson, a senior CDC scientist, publicly stated that key findings were excluded from the final analysis—an allegation that, if substantiated, would raise profound scientific and ethical concerns. It would also call into question the categorical denial by the scientific community and public health officials that vaccines do not cause autism.
Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson wrote in a 2014 article about Thompson’s allegations that, “It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a sitting CDC senior scientist to blow the whistle on alleged scientific misconduct involving a study article that he co-authored.” She added that the impact of Thompson’s claims was “magnified by more than a decade of allegations from parent advocates with vaccine injured children who say the federal government and pharmaceutical interests have worked to downplay or hide associations between vaccines and autism.”4
Racial Disparities Continue to Impact Autism Identification
Recent national surveillance data indicate that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence estimates are climbing among both White, Black and Hispanic children in the United States. In Black children autism rates are now comparable to—and in some cases – higher than among White children.
Data released in March 2023 from the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network showed higher estimated autism prevalence among Black and Hispanic children than among non-Hispanic White children. Among children aged 8 years in 2022, overall ASD prevalence was estimated at 32.2 per 1,000 children—approximately one in 31—across 16 U.S. surveillance sites. In that report, prevalence was lower among non-Hispanic White children (27.7 per 1,000) than among non-Hispanic Black children (36.6), Hispanic children (33.0), Asian or Pacific Islander children (38.2), American Indian or Alaska Native children (37.5), and multiracial children (31.9).5 6
CDC officials suggest that this shift likely reflects improvements in access to screening, evaluation, and diagnostic services in historically underserved communities, rather than evidence of inherent biological differences in autism risk. A study published in 2023 found that Black and Hispanic children had less access to autism-related services than White children during the 2017–2018 academic year, raising questions about whether current prevalence estimates reflect the full extent of autism in these populations.7
Vaccination Rates Decline Most Significantly in White and Asian Children
In a new analysis published by KFF in December 2025 entitled “Recent Changes in Children’s Vaccination Rates by Race and Ethnicity,” authors found that rates of receipt of recommended childhood vaccinations for children ages 24 months or younger have declined “largely driven by decreases among Asian and White children.” The KFF authors stated:
The data show that children’s vaccination rates, including receipt of recommended childhood vaccinations as well as for MMR and seasonal flu vaccine specifically, have declined in recent years largely due to decreases in vaccinations among White and Asian children. At the same time, and despite the declines among White and Asian children, Black and AIAN (American Indian and Alaskan Native) children remain least likely to have received recommended childhood vaccinations and the MMR vaccine specifically.8
Vaccination coverage rates fell from 77 percent among Asian children in the 2017-2018 birth cohort to 70 percent in the 2020-2021 birth cohort and from 74 percent to 69 percent among White children, while “rates for Black children remained relatively stable over this period.” The authors noted that about two-thirds of Black and Hispanic children have received recommended vaccines.
Differences in vaccination rates among diverse ethnic populations in the U.S. make drawing conclusions about differences in vaccine-related autism prevalence rates based on race and ethnicity more difficult to measure.
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