Pamela C. Ronald, PhD
Distinguished Professor in the Department of
Plant Pathology and the Genome Center
University of California, Davis
Michael Rosbash, PhD
Peter Gruber Professor of Neuroscience
Brandeis University
Sara Rosenbaum, JD
Professor Emerita Health Law and Policy
George Washington University
Irwin Rosenberg, MD
University Professor Emeritus in Medicine and
Nutrition
Tufts University
Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD
Chief, Surgery Branch
National Cancer Institute
Mendel Rosenblum, PhD
Cheriton Family Professor of Engineering
Stanford University
Linda Rosenstock, MD, MPH
Dean Emeritus and Professor
University of California, Los Angeles
Linda Rosenstock, MD, MPH
Dean Emeritus and Professor
UCLA
Meredith Rosenthal, PhD
Professor of Health Economics and Policy
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
David K. Rosner, PhD
Ronald Lauterstein Professor
Columbia University
Lainie Friedman Ross, MD, PhD
Dean’s Professor and Chair, Department of
Health Humanities and Bioethics, Director,
Paul M Schyve MD Center for Bioethics
University of Rochester
Cornelius Rosse, MD, DSC
Professor Emeritus
University of Washington, School of Medicine
Peter J. Rossky, PhD
Professor
Rice University
Alvin E. Roth, PhD
Professor
Stanford University
James A. Roth, DVM, PhD
Distinguished Professor
Iowa State University
Lucia B. Rothman-Denes, PhD
Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service
Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics
and Cell Biology
University of Chicago
Martine F Roussel, PhD
Professor
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, MD, MPH, PhD
Professor
University of Washington
Diane Rowland, ScD
Executive Vice President Emerita
Kaiser Family Foundation
John L. Rubenstein, MD, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry
University of California, San Francisco
Ronitt A. Rubinfeld, PhD
Edwin Sibley Webster Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science
MIT
David R. Rubinow, MD
Chair Emeritus and Professor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Alexander Rudensky, PhD
Chairman, Immunology Program, Lloyd Old
Chair in Clinical Investigation, Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Joan V. Ruderman, PhD
Nelson Professor of Cell Biology (Emeritus)
Harvard Medical School
Roberta L. Rudnick, PhD
Distinguished Professor
University of California, Santa Barbara
David W. Russell, PhD
Emeritus Professor of Molecular Genetics
University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center
58

17 minutes ago

David Geier has been hired as a senior data analyst at H.H.S. According to several people, he will examine any potential links between vaccines and autism that were debunked long ago.A steadfast figure in the anti-vaccine movement who has helped shape Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s thinking on a possible link to autism has joined his department to work on a study examining the long-debunked theory, according to people familiar with the matter.The new analyst, David Geier, has published numerous articles in the medical literature attempting to tie mercury in vaccines to autism. In 2012, state authorities in Maryland found that he had been practicing medicine without a license alongside his father, Mark Geier, who was a doctor at the time.Maryland authorities also suspended Mark Geier’s medical license following claims that he endangered children with autism and exploited their parents, according to state records.Federal judges have rejected their research on autism and vaccines as too unreliable to stand up in court.David Geier’s new government role has stunned public health experts, who had already expressed concerns about Mr. Kennedy’s decisions to cancel a long-held vaccine meeting and to cut grants focused on understanding vaccine hesitancy.In addition, David Geier’s involvement in government research heightens their fears that vaccine confidence could be further eroded, especially after Mr. Kennedy’s recent embrace of questionable alternative treatments for measles during the sprawling outbreak in Texas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

12 minutes ago

4 hours ago

17 minutes ago

particles were causing the problem in these children, and I was surprised that O’Leary withdrew
his assertions.
I then called O’Leary on the phone and asked him why he was doing this. There was a very long
pregnant pause. He then said that it had taken him many years to get to the place where he was
in the scientific community, and after another pause, he said he had four small children at
home. I had small children at home myself at the time and I understood what he was saying. If
he didn’t do it, he was going to be fired. He was going to be ruined.
British officials were not satisfied with just getting the journal to withdraw the article and
getting Dr. O’Leary to withdraw his claims. They then decided to begin proceedings to take away
Dr. Wakefield’s medical license and one of his lead co-authors. Wakefield by this time had
moved to the United States and to defend himself in court would have cost him hundreds of
thousands of dollars so he let them take his license away. But his lead co-author Dr. Simon
Murch was still practicing medicine in England and decided to defend himself in court, and the
government lost and they were not able to take his license away. If Wakefield had the money to
defend himself, he would never have lost his license. The court documents clearly show that
Wakefield and his co-authors had not done anything unethical or inappropriate and their work
was possibly valid.
But that was all big Pharma needed. They could go around, saying it and feeding it to the media
that the research had been withdrawn and Wakefield lost his license. But I looked at the
micrographs and it sure looked to me like there was vaccine strain measles particles infecting
the bowels of these kids.
The CDC was charged with the responsibility of repeating to Wakefield research and showing
that the measles vaccine was safe, but they never did it the right way. They decided to de
epidemiologic studies instead of a clinical study. Again, as in the mercury study there were
claims made that indicators that there was a problem with MMR were there. CDC was accused
again of changing the protocol and data analysis until the association went away.
Ironically, I talked with Wakefield after all of this was over. He agreed with me that we have to
vaccinate our kids for measles. He thought the solution was to give the vaccine at a slightly
older age, like they do in many European countries. Or we might be able to do research and
figure out why some kids have a bad reaction to the MMR. Clearly, big Pharma didn’t want me
in the CDC investigating any of this.
There are a lot of additional ironies in all of this. I believe the CDC is mostly made up of really
good people who really care about public health for our nation, though its credibility has been
seriously tarnished because of the failures in the way the COVID-19 crisis was managed. 40% of
Democrats and 80% of Republicans, don’t trust the CDC. Many don’t trust Pharma as well. I
really wanted to try to make the CDC a better more respected agency and killing my nomination
may have the opposite effect. Distrust may worsen.

1 hour ago

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