The fractious debate over childhood vaccines and autism has taken new turn. Newly published research claims government scientists covered up data linking vaccines to autism in some African-American boys.
The paper authored by biochemical engineer Brian Hooker of Simpson University was published in the scientific journal Translational Neurogeneration but suddenly withdrawn.
Hooker’s paper re-analyzed data from a landmark 2004 paper by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shot down links between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.
Hooker’s research claimed to find a higher rate of vaccination among a subset of African-American boys who developed autism than those who did not — a finding Hooker claims was suppressed by the CDC.
The paper suggests the re-analysis provides “new evidence of a statistically significant relationship between the timing of the first MMR vaccine and autism incidence in African-American males.” It says some children may be genetically predisposed to suffer negative effects from the vaccines.
