How Did CDC Miss The Gross Financial Irregularities of Danish Autism Researcher?
By Katie Wright
Dr. Poul Thorsen is one of the world’s most influential and prolific autism researchers. It is currently alleged by his former employer, the University of Aarhus, that Thorsen stole nearly $2 million in grant money and lied about his secret dual employment at Emory University. If true, Thorsen is a clearly a person devoid of professional ethics. Given the depths of his alleged massive professional misconduct, the veracity of Thorsen’s autism research studies are now in doubt. Would you trust the research or scientist who would lie, steal and exploit others in order to advance himself? Me, neither. Would you trust that person with the health of all American children? No way, but the CDC and the AAP do.
Thorsen is Denmark’s most celebrated and successful autism scientist and certainly one of Europe’s top researchers. The idea that Thorsen was merely one of many little known authors listed in the “Pediatrics” 2002 and 2003 Hg and autism prevalence studies is preposterous.
To understand Thorsen one must examine the organization he controlled, the North Atlantic Neurological Epidemiology Alliance, or NANEA. NANEA was a bizarre cult like research organization, financed largely by our tax dollars, courtesy of the CDC. NANAE co-workers describe Thorsen as ruthlessly ambitious and consumed with self-importance. Gaining more recognition, garnering more CDC money and expanding his mini kingdom were top priorities.
The Danish newspaper “Information” recently interviewed many of Thorsen’s co-workers and what they had to say sheds a great deal of insight on autism’s greatest confidence man. A NANEA employee, Liesel, described Thorsen as the “leader and complete ruler” of the org. He cultivated a sense of profound entitlement and importance around NANEA. “ He asked NANEA scientists to wear special badges, shirts and epaulets. Clearly, wearing research costumes to work is strange. However this practice is eerily similar to the CDC with their epaulets, special caps and uniforms. Interesting!
Thorsen is described by all as incredibly ambitious willing to sacrifice others for a job. Lisel recounted instances in which friends of Thorsen received jobs while better-qualified candidates were rejected. Scientific and professional ethics were in short supply at NANAE. Thorsen created a loyalty incentive amongst his employees by secretly using grant money to pay NANAE employees much more than other Univ of Aarhus academics. In doing so, Thorsen stole money and had employees cheating on their taxes at the same time. Thorsen liked to describe NANAE as a high status “golden-like family.” In such an environment denial and unethical behavior ran unchecked as Thorsen “created an alternative research milieu.” Throughout lengthy interviews with NANAE employees it isn’t even surprising that autism is barely discussed.
Like American research centers, Danish universities wanted more money than their government allotted and turned to pharmaceutical companies and the CDC to finance much of their research. Thorsen had a reputation for being an incredible fundraiser; he was a huge rainmaker who knew how to work the grant system. Like in the U.S. the Danish grant-making system rewards the most successful bureaucrats, rather than innovative scientists. Conservative, unadventurous grants proposed by a well-known bureaucracy of academics was a successful recipe for raking in the money.
In 2000 Thorsen received $7.8 MILLION from the CDC to do, what turned out to be, rather slippery, problematic research of dubious value. Thorsen and his colleagues worked overtime, manipulating data, and changing the pre test and post test populations all in order to supply the CDC with the “alibi” research they sought. Please see the following posts for an in depth discussion of these fraudulent research studies. (Mark Blaxill on Industry Corruption of Scientific Journals: Is Something Rotten in Denmark? , Blaxill and Olmsted: Poul Thorsen's Mutating Resume and Robert Kennedy, Jr.: Central Figure in CDC Vaccine Cover-Up Absconds With $2M
Thorsen’s history of pleasing his CDC collaborators was surely the cornerstone of his academic status and success. Claus Emmeche of the Niels Bohr Institute at Aarhus described this new academic climate as one in which researchers had to justify their expense by constantly creating customers for their research. If Thorsen had done the autism prevalence and mercury research in a scientifically solid, professional manner and the results implicated the CDC, one wonders if he would have been awarded with such a generous second contract? Highly doubtful.
By interviewing a number of NANEA sect members- I mean employees, “Information” discovered obvious fiscal improprieties and questionable ethical practices were the norm. Limos picked up NANEA scientists at the airport; researchers drove Mercedes, flew business or first class, stayed in 5 hotels and held conferences in rented Danish castles. Former employees Toke and Liesel joked that NANAE’s nickname was “offsite.” Thorsen regularly took the staff away for lavish “academic” retreats; he referred to as “energy meetings.” What a freaky place.
Incredible, right? These are academic researchers at a small public university in the northern most regions of Europe, living like Beyonce or U2. And guess who was paying for all of this? That’s right, me, you and every other American taxpayer. NANEA’s “research funds” came largely from multi-million dollar CDC grants, purportedly to study autism.
How could CDC fail to be aware of these gross financial irregularities? NANAE employees report how surprised CDC personnel were when attending elaborate conferences in Denmark. Apparently, epidemiology conferences are rarely held in private castles. One would have thought this would have been a tip off regarding financial improprieties, but no. In fact NANAE’s parties and conferences just became more extravagant. An employee says NANEA meetings famous for “an opportunity for the best food and drink…summer parties, winter parties…” And still the CDC/ NANAE members Dr. Cathy Rice, Dr. Marshalyn Allsopp and Dr. Diana Schendel failed to request an audit or even take a closer look at the financial records. I wonder why?
An employee, Anya, noticed something wrong with the research on her first day of work. Isn’t that interesting? Anya got it on her first day but the CDC never caught on? The staff began to wonder about the finances but Thorsen would never discuss it. Anya describes Thorsen as a man with “an unfathomable moral sense. Under the competitive grant system, big sums were given to people like Thorsen. If you can sell yourself you secure yourself in the system. If you are immoral, you can have a great time.”
Despite all obvious signs that Thorsen was pilfering funds, the CDC gave Thorsen’s NANAE ANOTHER $8.2 million of our money in 2007. One can only speculate that despite his sloppy, error riddled and conflict of interest saturated research; Thorsen’s conclusions were very much to the CDC ‘s liking. He was their kind of scientist! Who cares if his research would not pass a stats 101 class, Thorsen was “proving” there was no relationship between vaccines and autism. They were off the hook!
By 2009 the CDC knew Thorsen stood accused of fabricating documents that promised more CDC grant money was coming but choose to keep quiet. Why wasn’t the CDC trying to get our money back? Why didn’t the CDC make this public? Why did American taxpayers find out about this theft merely by chance due to a Univ of Arhus letter distancing themselves from Thorsen? Could it be because they were embarrassed? Could it be because they did not want their prize research studies besmirched by the author’s profoundly unethical behavior? Your guess is as good as mine.
Meanwhile Thorsen is in hiding somewhere and his attorney, Jan Schneider is communicating with the Danish police. Thorsen is still listed as a contributor/editor on the new revised DSM V section on autism, a critically important diagnostic tool for Americans affected by autism. Until recently Thorsen was also listed as a professor and researcher at both Emory University and Drexel University, as well as a consultant at the CDC. Both universities have very close ties with the CDC and Emory is currently under a massive investigation for non disclose of pharmaceutical money and assorted unethical behavior. Isn’t it interesting that of all universities in the US Thorsen finds a home at Emory?
It is chilling to imagine the depths of this alleged’s felon’s influence on autism research and even more frightening that the CDC allowed this to happen.
Katie Wright is Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.
We must find Thorsen, start asking questions, what leave have the Dept of Immigration given him ? Where are is Family ? Is he close to his legal people in FLA ? Did he return from Spain ?
We must find him before THEY do !
Posted by: Dave Roberts | April 19, 2010 at 07:55 AM
Thanks, Jim, for the correction, so that my paranoid delusion is nipped in the bud!
Posted by: Twyla | April 18, 2010 at 01:43 PM
Thank goodness DENMARK did not believe the research carried out in DENMARK FOR THE CDC, by their own Dr. THORESEN.
STILL only 10 - 12 vaccines, Thimerosal Free, in their schedule.
For some reason DENMARK is not keeping up with the modern/ corrupt medicine of the USA.
Posted by: cmo | April 18, 2010 at 01:13 PM
Twyla:
Here is the site. The error was in my text, not the site.
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/thimerosal.htm
Posted by: Jim Thompson | April 18, 2010 at 09:14 AM
Per................
How to submit a crime tip to the FBI:
https://tips.fbi.gov/
Posted by: Sarah | April 17, 2010 at 10:41 AM
so... can we all each file a complaint with the US Department of Justice ?
Posted by: TexasDad | April 16, 2010 at 11:35 PM
YES!!!! As many parents that can....the more the better along with complaints to your local Congress representatives....get friends and relatives involved.....Please!!!!
Posted by: RaymondGallup | April 17, 2010 at 11:15 PM
Great article, thanks again Katie!!! You've inspired me in so many ways.. and I'm grateful that you continue to tell it like it is. Thanks for reporting real news!
Posted by: Heather Zelikov | April 17, 2010 at 02:08 PM
....Meanwhile Thorsen is in hiding somewhere and his attorney, Jan Schneider is communicating with the Danish police.
Is he hiding in the USA or in Europe ??
Perhaps groups from Autism Speaks could "walk and look for Thorsen" at the same time.
Posted by: cmo | April 17, 2010 at 11:17 AM
How to submit a crime tip to the FBI:
https://tips.fbi.gov/
Posted by: Sarah | April 17, 2010 at 10:41 AM
so... can we all each file a complaint with the US Department of Justice ?
Posted by: TexasDad | April 16, 2010 at 11:35 PM
Katie,
Thank you for your continued dedication to the community. This report is fantastic. It is beyond me how Thorsen is not a major news story...but then again it speaks volumes that he is NOT a major news story. This John Grisham novel that is our children's lives just keeps getting darker and darker. I hate it.
Posted by: Becky Estepp | April 16, 2010 at 10:41 PM
Thorsen sipping schnapps in a rented castle...while a local child with autism died. Thorsen wiggling his toes in a hot tub, while we were up night after night with children screaming from the swelling in their skulls, who wouldn't speak again for another two years. Thorsen hitting the slopes or tipping his caddy...while Michelle Cedillo went blind.
Obviously we didn't just pay for this in taxes.
Not only are the CDC uniforms bizarre, they're also disconcerting. It brings to mind another time in history when medical personel had military conceits.
http://www.whale.to/v/cdc7.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01124/nazi_experiment_1124495c.jpg
What's more disturbing is that making the comparison is seeming less and less hyperbolic these days.
Posted by: Gatogorra | April 16, 2010 at 09:20 PM
Over the years many autism organizations supported the NIH and CDC in getting more funding for autism research and what did they get.......$2 million fraud and theft by Poul Thorsen. Even when I had The Autism Autoimmunity Project (TAAP) from 1998 to 2005 and raised our own funds for Drs. Vijendra Singh, Andrew Wakefield and James Oleske, I stopped asking the CDC and NIH to fund autism research and didn't bother with them.
As a taxpayers, people should be outraged that this thief, Thorsen could do this to the American people (as well as the kids with autism and their families).
This is why over the years I always said that we should wage a campaign to cut their funding and have autism organizations do what TAAP did. All the millions that have been spent by the likes of Autism Speaks can not match the figure TAAP spent on REAL research.....not JUNK SCIENCE genetic research, monkeys looking at other monkey's butt research, etc.
I would love to see some autism organization out there beat what TAAP spent on REAL SCIENCE....like what TAAP did for Drs. Singh and Wakefield. I hope and pray some day it will happen. If not then thugs like Poul Thorsen, Brian Deer, UK GMC, etc. will win the war and believe me we are fighting a war concerning our kids versus these thugs.
Posted by: RaymondGallup | April 16, 2010 at 08:48 PM
Katie
Great report, and very scary.
John
Posted by: John Stone | April 16, 2010 at 05:55 PM
Behind Poul Thorsen is a network of enablers. Certainly descriptions of their perks were whispered amongst jealous underlings, and rationalized as a fitting reward for people sparing the world of disease.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Posted by: nhokkanen | April 16, 2010 at 04:45 PM
Katie,
Have you ever asked for a sit down with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now? please... our community needs a voice, and right now the only hope outside of AOA is independent news. Can you get a show on LInk TV,, or Freespeech TV. Do it girlie.
Posted by: spacekitty | April 16, 2010 at 03:41 PM
Tired of it All;
It would be nice to blame one man, a past president. Easy, simple, wrong, and worst of all - it will let a lot of evil doers off the hook!
But Bush nor any other president had anything to do with it.
It is more complicated than that. Look just a little further down the ladder like the heads of the NIH, HHS, FDA, and the CDC. - and then the minions underneath them.
There are a lot of highly trained people involved in this than just some politic guy that appeared on the scene, briefly. All these highly educated, highly motivated, well trained in the scientific, and medical field , all in high places, all greedy, with no empathy had been going on for 30 plus years. The worse about all this is they are still there or have retired with fat wallets, and a good reputation. I want that reputation tarnished. I want their names published, I want it explained how they purposely dropped the ball each and ever time.
I want all of society to look at them with contempt!
I want their own children and their grandchildren to look at them with disgust, to the extent that they change their last names, or denie they are any kin to these sleeze balls.
Posted by: Revengedesired | April 16, 2010 at 03:17 PM
Thorsen's work is filling orders. A bag man, a lackey. Highly paid, but his greed, as so many others like him is his downfall. If someone could get to him before he has an "accident" and hand him a million dollars I would be willing to bet it would be the new Simpsonwood.
Personally I wish Jack Bauer would find him and ask him a few questions in a dank basement with a single bulb hanging from the ceiling, drip, drip, drip from a leaky overhead pipe and reverberating acoustics that echo every cry.
Posted by: bensmyson | April 16, 2010 at 03:00 PM
As "Thorsen, Autism Speaks, and CDC - Wasting a Decade Together" points out Katie Wright seems to be caught in her own web of words.
Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!—One; two: why, then
'tis time to do't.—Hell is mercky.—Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and
afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our
pow'r to accompt?—Yet who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him?
Posted by: Media Scholar | April 16, 2010 at 02:37 PM
Katie,
Thank you for your hard work and courage. To those who would threaten the health of our babies, take heed the wisdom borne of a natural phenomenon -- do not step between a mother bear and her cub. For that cub's not going down without a fight from momma bear.
Posted by: Donna K | April 16, 2010 at 02:21 PM
I would guess after years of providing "phony science" for "phony studies" to support the "phony outcomes" desired by those providing funding...
that Dr. Thorsen decided just to steal instead.
We are getting so many damn "Pauls" involved with vaccine fraud, we must be careful not to get them mixed up.
Posted by: cmo | April 16, 2010 at 02:13 PM
I found Thorsen! He's on Julie Gerberding's staff at Merck!
Posted by: ObjectiveAutismDad | April 16, 2010 at 02:09 PM
Folks,
This is just a small puzzle piece of the CDC's Anti-litigation bloc of Autism research A.K.A. A combination in restraint of justice.
Upon the conclusion of their in-house fact finding, Aarhus University vacated Dr. Poul Thorsen, AND very publicly withdrew from the CDC anti-litigation Autism research bloc.
Not amazing one bit, in order to keep the CDC fraudster story from reaching international notice, HHS terrorists hastily cashed in three more human shields which effectively smothered the Thorsen story just as it had reached a major media hub in Philadelphia.
http://xrl.in/53kr
Memo to Kathleen Sebelius:
Politics is the business of exchanging favors. Justice isn't.
Asking the media to not ask us about vaccines and autism suggests the propriety of a civil lawsuit based solely on civil.
Love,
Smoochies
Posted by: kerbob1 | April 16, 2010 at 01:50 PM
The headline of this article asks, "How Did the CDC Miss The Gross Financial Irregularities . . ."?
There is an EASY answer to that question: George W. Bush and his administration.
Posted by: TiredOfALLofThis | April 16, 2010 at 01:17 PM
Your children are sick so that this man could party. Wow.
Posted by: Kristina | April 16, 2010 at 12:49 PM
I would like to personally thank Poul Thorsen. If it weren't for his egregious megalomania and greed, the important information about his connections to CDC, Emory, Drexel, DSM-V, etc. might not have come to light so readily. And if it weren't for his certainty that he has the CDC over a barrel because he knows where the bodies lie WRT their vaccine/autism studies, he might not have been so emboldened to act the way he did. So to the consummate toady-turned-extortionist/embezzler, I doff my hat, salute, and say "Well done!"
Might I suggest that next up is your "contrition tour", wherein you write a tell-all book and rehabilitate your precarious reputation by traipsing around to all the major interview shows, revealing how you were framed by the CDC because you grew a conscience and threatened to go public with the truth that thimerosal and vaccines actually do cause autism and that your studies were a fraud perpetrated in concert with the CDC?
P.S. -- Who IS paying your lawyer, exactly?
Posted by: Garbo | April 16, 2010 at 12:40 PM
Katie:
Thank you for waking me up to the scope of Thorsen's prominence as well as the scope of his misbehavior. I think our community needs to start beating the drum on Thorsen far more loudly than we have, thanks for giving us all the ammunition to do so.
JB Handley
Posted by: JB Handley | April 16, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Meanwhile the AP today is reporting more shenanigans by Brian Deer. Under the banner "Experts say autism bowel disease may not exist" we find this:
"....According to reports from London's Royal Free Hospital, eight of the 11 children included in Wakefield's original study had normal bowels. But in the Lancet study, 11 of the 12 were said to have a swollen bowel, which was said to be proof of a new gastrointestinal disease affecting autistic children.
In 2005, Wakefield started a clinic in Texas to research and treat the syndrome.
The original biopsy slides from the children in the Lancet study are no longer available. Deer asked independent experts to examine hospital reports on the biopsies, who failed to find any distinctive inflammation that would qualify as a new disease.
In an accompanying editorial, Sir Nicholas Wright from the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said "any firm conclusion would be inadvisable." He said several studies have shown a link between inflamed bowels and autism, but too little evidence exists to prove there is a new illness."
Does Nicolas Wright's comment support the headline? How many hundreds of children did Wakefield and his colleagues study? How many peer-reviewed papers did he and his colleagues write on the subject? (I think Wakefield said in his interview with Dr. Mercola on youtube that it was nineteen.) But Brian Deer didn't ask his "independent experts" to review them, just the Lancet case study of 12 children. And why is the salient point that the disease is not "new"? Surely the important point is that autistic children tend to be afflicted with gastrointestinal disease, which it sounds like "Doctor" Deer and his partners are confirming.
Posted by: Carol | April 16, 2010 at 12:00 PM
Sickening.
We cannot rely on our government agencies, nor can we count on our mass media to even cover this story. It's just bizarre. And as others have pointed out, the press paints Dr. Wakefield as dishonest, when he was one of the few that would do honest research to help vaccine injured children, and at the same time the press ignores Thorsen's incredibly unethical behavior (except for apparently the Danish press -- good for them! They seem to have some independence!)
As Jim T. said, Katie, "Thank you for this excellent articulation of the CDC Denmark scandal." BTW, the CDC "fact" sheet on thimerosal that Jim linked to is now gone - "The page you requested cannot be found at this time. It may be temporarily unavailable or it may have been removed." Assuming it was there when Jim linked to it, this shows that the CDC is paying attention to AoA and that they know they are screwing up and bullshitting the public, so they removed that "fact" sheet because they figured it would not stand up to AoA's scrutiny.
Posted by: Twyla | April 16, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Katie, thank you for your courage and your amazing investigative journalism skills!
Posted by: Nicole M. | April 16, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Great article Katie!
Can Thorston be made to testify in vaccine court? We need a bounty hunter or a Tommie Lee Jones.
Posted by: Holly M. | April 16, 2010 at 11:12 AM
How sickening that these people lived the high life flying first class to their summer parties in a castle while we cared for our sickened children, fought with insurance companies, remortgaged or lost our homes. They manipulated data while we desperately searched for answers. They sacrified babies for grant money. And then somehow when this all comes to light, we are supposed to trust that in spite of this their science was sound? Yet, Dr. Wakefield's science, which was never implicated, was erased from history because of a blood draw at a birthday party and a lack of some made up signature requirement? How does this happen?
Posted by: Joanna | April 16, 2010 at 11:10 AM
yeah, one by one alot of these heralded researchers (Thorsen, Fombonne etc.) are being found out as incompetent or worse. Yet, the science types just brush it off as no big deal. The major media is complicit when they choose not to report this and yes, Dr. Wakefield stands up to his principles, tall and proud. It's all so absurd.
Posted by: jen | April 16, 2010 at 10:57 AM
In addition to taxpayer money, CDC partner Autism Speaks has funded Dr. Thorsen though its walks for years.
"Dr. Poul Thorsen, NANEA, Aarhus University, Denmark and Dr. Manuel Posada de la Paz, Health Institute Carlos III, Spain are actively engaged in an international network regarding issues of the epidemiology of autism organized by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) and Autism Speaks (AS)."
http://www.eais.eu/downloads/EAIS_Newsletter_July_2008%5B1%5D.pdf
(2008) Total: $1,014,900 for 3 years
http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/research/grants/research_we_have_funded_epidemiology_winter_2008.php
Paul Thorson (2001 and 2002): Risk Factors for Neurodevelopmental Disorders: MMR Vaccine and Childhood Autism ($105,300).
Used medical records in a group of children in Denmark to determine the change in rates of autism as a function of MMR vaccination."
http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/research/initiatives/naar_environmental_factors.php
Posted by: Thorsen, Autism Speaks, and CDC - Wasting a Decade Together | April 16, 2010 at 10:31 AM
Oh, and Katie;
As usual loved the way you presented this. I love your writing, period!
I read it to husband this morning and he was truly amazed. He did not know about Congress investigating Emory.
He was wondering if he had gone back to Emory Clinic as Dr. Shoffner wanted him to, so they could look into the environmental cause of his mitochondrial disorder, if he told them it was right after a tetanus shot that it would have been covered up?
I pointed out that Dr. Shoffner did leave Emory clinic and go to Cleveland for a time. Pure speculation I know - but with all the crooked, underhanded, immoral antics - both our imaginations really takes off.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 16, 2010 at 10:26 AM
The Chinese reduced their population by aborting any child after the first one.
The rest of the governments are getting rid of our population by acquired immune diseases.
I heard on the news that there were not enough young population to support the retiring old population.
I guess I am going back to school to learn a new trade in my old age. I think I will go into nursing. I might could make a difference there.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 16, 2010 at 10:16 AM
When can the congressional investigation start!! This is our money and we have every right to understand how it is/was spent. Lets see these CDC officals publicly defend the crook (Thorsen).
Posted by: Steve | April 16, 2010 at 10:16 AM
well researched article.. thank you Katie.
I didn't know Emory was also under investigation. I'd be interested in hearing more about that.
Regarding the Thorsen story and the lack of reporting on it by the mainstream media, I think we parents are going to have to be more aggressive and just get on the media's case about this story and other misinformation they spew.
I wrote this letter to Time magazine.
To the Editor,
The piece "The Perils of Plastic" Time, April 1, 2010 stated:
"Even autism, which remains a mystery, may have environmental triggers. (Vaccines have been repeatedly exonerated in autism debates, a conclusion that's accepted even by scientists who see the possibility of other environmental risk factors in the condition.)"
This statement is incorrect and misleading. Vaccines have been implicated in autism. In the Hannah Poling case, the HHS conceded that vaccines triggered a mitochondrial dysfunction resulting in this child's autism. Furthermore the US Government has settled hundreds of thousands of vaccine injury cases and paid out millions of dollars through vaccine court so please be careful saying vaccines have been exonerated when they have caused serious injury including developmental delays and seizures. Each vaccine injected into a child carries a risk for adverse reaction.
Furthermore, the CDC has never done a single safety study on the current childhood vaccine schedule. Not one. Because they've never done the science on the vaccine schedule, they cannot exonerate vaccines in autism. Why? Because they do not know the culmulative, long term effect of 24+ vaccines have on the immune system of a young child yet this is the schedule the CDC recommends to peds across the country. Promoting an untested schedule is akin to playing Russian roulette with our kids.
Another issue that seriously puts into question the validity of the science that supposedly exonerates vaccines, is that Dr. Poul Thorsen, one of the lead researchers in the Thimerosal study, is currently under investigation for fraud and forging documents. He allegedly stole over $2 million dollars in grant money from the US government.
Time magazine may want to an investigative piece on Mr. Thorsen.
Here's some background:
Statement From Aarhus Unversity regarding Thorsen:
http://www.rescuepost.com/files/thorsen-aarhus.pdf
Central Figure in CDC Vaccine Cover-Up Absconds With $2M
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/central-figure-in-cdc-vac_b_494303.html
How Did CDC Miss The Gross Financial Irregularities of Danish Autism Researcher?
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/04/how-did-cdc-miss-the-gross-financial-irregularities-of-danish-autism-researcher.html#more
Poul Thorsen's Mutating Resume
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/03/poul-thorsens-mutating-resume.html
Posted by: sarah | April 16, 2010 at 09:55 AM
I agree with Maurine. It will probably be up to Katie to track him down and turn him in. The authorities are busy staking out Dr. Wakefield.
Posted by: pass the popcorn | April 16, 2010 at 09:35 AM
I'm curious, is this the CDC/HHS version of health care reform? And is this why General Sebelius wants the lamestream media to ignore us?
Posted by: Harry H. | April 16, 2010 at 09:17 AM
Fabulous reporting job, Katie!
What's wrong with ABC, NBC and CBS newsrooms? Why aren't they covering this?
Autism parents have so much on their plates already...they have to do investigative journalism too?
Appalling. Both the content of your report and the fact that you are the only one in the US covering it.
Thank God for Age of Autism, and the amazing brains who contribute here!
Posted by: Beth | April 16, 2010 at 09:06 AM
Is there an English language translation of the Danish newspaper article?
Posted by: MB | April 16, 2010 at 09:02 AM
Age of Autism out-scoops the mainstream media on an Autism story yet again. Last time so many people had read A o A's coverage on Thorsen, so many had passed it from person to person, that the mainstream media HAD to write about it. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. No wonder the newspapers are going bankrupt - true investigative reporting is dead in the MM.
Posted by: AnaB | April 16, 2010 at 08:51 AM
Great research job. Wow! Thanks for all the info. Maybe you can find him???????
Maurine
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | April 16, 2010 at 07:59 AM
Great Job Katie.
Talk about "winning the lottery". Is Sharyl Attkisson aware of this?
Posted by: Charlie | April 16, 2010 at 07:18 AM
Where is the main stream media on this?? They were all over the Wakefield paper retraction (in between pharmaceutical commercials) like flies on dog chit. But not one stinking word about Thorsen.
Meantime Wakefield has made himself available for interviews, while Thorsen has gone *poof*
How can I not see those in the main stream media as anything but complicit???
Posted by: Robin Nemeth | April 16, 2010 at 07:10 AM
Katie:
Thank you for this excellent articulation of the CDC Denmark scandal. Thorsen profits by supporting continued vaccine thimerosal damage to children. The cult that he operated is nothing new as far as cults go.
But how did the CDC miss the gross financial irregularities of Danish autism researcher? The how is obvious. They did nothing.
One must then ask why they ignored it.
It is crystal clear that selling vaccines cannot be accomplished without overstating vaccine safety and understating vaccine damage. In fact completely ignoring all damage and risk appears to be the ultimate goal.
So the CDC apparently reached out and grabbed whatever Thorsen offered and were happy to pay him well. It was the cost of doing business. And the business of the CDC is promoting vaccine sales—not promoting vaccine safety. Julie Gerberding’s swift transition from the head of the CDC to the head of vaccine sales for Merck is a clear example.
So as to the question “why did the CDC miss the gross financial irregularities of Danish autism researcher?”--the answer is that the CDC is complicit in this scandal. Just read a CDC posted “fact” sheet on thimerosal in the flu shot (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/thimerosal.htm). The CDC has the audacity to promote neurotoxins as safe when injected into in children and pregnant women.
The CDC has lost its way and should be disbanded.
Posted by: Jim Thompson | April 16, 2010 at 07:00 AM
Speechless.
Posted by: GH | April 16, 2010 at 06:21 AM