By Dr. Mercola

A 16-year-old boy with autism and his family are suing a medical clinic for administering vaccines they believe caused the boy’s autism. The Tennessee-based case is unique for a number of reasons, the first being that it’s the first time in 30 years that a vaccine case such as this has been heard in a U.S. court.

This is because in the U.S. there is a federally operated vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) that Congress created under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims in the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) handles contested vaccine injury and death cases in what has become known as “vaccine court.”

The VICP is a “no-fault” alternative to the traditional civil court lawsuit and was established in 1986 after a string of high-profile lawsuits slammed vaccine manufacturers.

The federal VICP compensates vaccine victims not from a fund paid into by vaccine manufacturers, but through a federal trust fund that collects a 75-cent surcharge on every vaccine given.

The 16-year-old Tennessee boy, Yates Hazlehurst, was denied compensation from the VICP, so the current lawsuit is giving him a second chance at justice.

CDC Blocks Key Whistleblower Testimony From Autism-Vaccine Case

A key part of the case hinges on testimony from Dr. William Thompson, a research scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases (NCIR).

He was a co-author of four key studies the CDC has used to refute a link between the MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) vaccine and autism, as well as thimerosal-containing vaccines (thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative) and autism.

Thompson claimed the CDC covered up a vaccine-autism connection in relation to the MMR vaccine. According to a news release provided by the World Mercury Project;1

“Dr. Thompson has publically stated to Congressman William Posey and others that he and his colleagues in the CDC Vaccine Safety Branch were ordered to commit scientific fraud, destroy evidence and manipulate data to conceal the link between autism and vaccines.”

According to Thompson, one of the studies in question found that African-American boys who received the MMR vaccine before the age of 36 months had an increased risk for autism.2 He also maintains that CDC studies have found a relationship between thimerosal and tics, which are associated with autism.3

CDC: Thompson’s Testimony Would Not Promote CDC Objectives

Thompson’s testimony could be critical to the lawsuit in order to set the record straight about the flawed data used to deny other autism vaccine-injury claims.

According to Ecowatch, Morgan & Morgan law firm attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. argued to Tennessee Senior Circuit Court Judge William Acree that Thompson’s testimony was necessary:4

“Yates, and almost 5,000 other vaccine injured autistic children, lost their cases in vaccine court because CDC and the Justice Department submitted fraudulent science wrongly denying the vaccine-autism link.”

CDC director Thomas Frieden blocked the request to have Thompson testify, stating, “Dr. William Thompson’s deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHS [Health and Human Services].”5

Thompson received federal whistleblower protection in August 2014 and is still employed by the CDC. The attorneys for the case, Kennedy and Bryan Smith, also with Morgan & Morgan, plan to appeal the CDC’s denial. According to Smith:6

“Frieden’s denial was a disappointment but not a surprise, since the inescapable implication of Dr. Thompson’s allegation is that the agency altered the science to undermine autism cases worth potentially $1 trillion in compensation ordered by Congress.” 

CDC Called a ‘Cesspool of Corruption’

If you want to know more about the underhanded dealings allegedly going on at the CDC, read the book “Vaccine Whistleblower.” It contains the unedited transcripts of four legally recorded phone conversations between Thompson and Dr. Brian Hooker, a scientist investigating autism and vaccine research.

The transcripts reveal the confession of the alteration of data that showed a significant link between vaccines and autism. Thompson has previously stated that a meeting was scheduled “to destroy documents related to the study.”

He said the remaining four co-authors all met and brought a big garbage can into the meeting room, “and reviewed and went through all the hardcopy documents that we had thought we should discard, and put them into a huge garbage can.”7 Thompson has said he retained hard copies of all of the data, however.

The transcripts are also featured in the film Vaxxed, which was originally scheduled to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year but was allegedly pulled due to threats from other filmmakers to cancel their participation.

Unethical Practices Are the Norm at the CDC

A group of senior CDC scientists sent a letter to the CDC raising concerns about the conflicts of interest and industry ties that appear to be so common among CDC leaders.

The group goes by the name CDC Scientists Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research (CDC SPIDER), leaving their names out for fear of retaliation. The letter begins:8 

“It appears that our mission is being influenced and shaped by outside parties and rogue interests. It seems that our mission and Congressional intent for our agency is being circumvented by some of our leaders. 

What concerns us most, is that it is becoming the norm and not the rare exception. Some senior management officials at CDC are clearly aware and even condone these behaviors.

… Some staff are intimidated and pressed to do things they know are not right. We have representatives from across the agency that witness this unacceptable behavior. It occurs at all levels and in all of our respective units. 

These questionable and unethical practices threaten to undermine our credibility and reputation as a trusted leader in public health.” 

Conflict of Interest, ‘Climate of Disregard’ at the CDC Highlighted

The letter specifically addresses several areas of “particular concern,” including:

“Neither of these relationships were necessary (or appropriate) to uphold our mission … In fact, these ties have now called into question and undermined CDC’s work,” CDC Spider wrote of Bowman and Pratt.10

Their letter continued, ” … this ‘climate of disregard’ puts many of us in difficult positions. We are often directed to do things we know are not right.”

Can You Trust Health Information From a Corrupt Agency?

Knowing that the CDC has allegedly intentionally withheld data showing a link between vaccines and autism, it calls into question where their loyalties lie. Are their continued and urgent calls for vaccination truly in the name of public health, or are they the result of corporate influence?