Dirty Deeds Often Require Dirty People: Book Review of Master Manipulator by James Ottar Grundvig
NOTE: We excerpted this review of "Master Manipulator: The Explosive True Story of Fraud, Embezzlement, and Government Betrayal at the CDC” from Epoch Times. Read the full review here.
By Lou Conte
Dirty deeds often require dirty people.
For the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Poul Thorsen, the subject of James Grundvig’s just-released book, “Master Manipulator: The Explosive True Story of Fraud, Embezzlement, and Government Betrayal at the CDC” (Introduction by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), was the right man at the right time.
In the late 1990s, the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Division, led by Dr. Coleen Boyle, was facing a growing public realization that autism was reaching epidemic levels. Many parents and some scientists suspected vaccines were the culprit in triggering the catastrophe. They pointed the finger at the increasing levels of Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in many vaccines. In a stunning failure of oversight, no government regulatory agency caught the fact that mercury exposure in childhood vaccines vastly exceeded safety limits.
The secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) was facing billions of dollars in compensation claims in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) in what would later become the Omnibus Autism Proceedings.
Grundvig reveals internal emails—acquired through Freedom of Information Law filings—suggesting that the CDC, an agency administered by the secretary of HHS, needed data to exonerate vaccines. The pace of events Grundvig lays out along with internal CDC emails implies that the government officials needed it fast.
Enter Poul Thorsen, a visiting Danish scientist with lavish lifestyle ambitions, little talent, a poor work ethic, and an eye for the ladies. With an overabundance of grandiosity, Dr. Thorsen created a research group called the North Atlantic Neuro-Epidemiology Alliance (NANEA) in 1999.
The ‘Danish Studies’
Poul Thorsen is currently in Denmark and is awaiting extradition to the United States. (Office of the Inspector General, Secretary of Health and Human Services)
Poul Thorsen. (Office of the Inspector General, HHS)
Thorsen had access to Denmark’s national disease registry, a health care database of all Danish citizens that would be used to “backtest” data for studies that would gin up statistics to show that autism rates in Denmark went up after the removal of Thimerosal, thereby proving that increases in autism incidence rates could not be blamed on the preservative.
As Grundvig demonstrates in “Master Manipulator,” Thorsen and his NANEA cohorts excluded the data that showed the rates dropped by 30 percent when the mercury was removed in Denmark. Noticing the data manipulation, leading scientific journals (JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine) refused to publish the paper.
The Journal of Pediatrics ultimately published Thorsen’s paper, but only after a CDC executive, Dr. José Cordero, twisted the arm of the journal’s chief editor in a letter, which was also acquired through Freedom of Information requests. Read the full review here.
This review incorrectly states that the article by Thorsen was published in The Journal of Pediatrics. In fact, it was published in Pediatrics, which is not affiliated with The Journal of Pediatrics.
Posted by: MLH | July 07, 2016 at 03:40 PM
Bob Moffit,
"After listening to FBI Director James Comey's incomprehensible explanation recommending no charges be filed against Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton"
Comey provided a Christmas gift to Trump six months early. Had he recommended indictment, with the infinitesimal probability that the AG would have followed it, Clinton would be out of the race and Sanders (a far more formidable candidate against Trump) would have the nomination. Now, a wounded Clinton will be the nominee.
And, that's with only the tip of the iceberg being revealed. If in fact the deleted emails were hacked and will be posted by Wikileaks et al, that may be where the real misconduct will be revealed. If that occurs after the convention, as I assume it will, the results will be devastating. And, we really have no idea how many emails were deleted. The only number we have, ~30,000, was provided by Clinton. Not exactly an objective source! How do we know it's not 100,000? Are these numbers of missing emails any better than the data we get from VAERS???
I think Comey was quite clever here. He arranged the timing and came to conclusions that made it obvious the outcome was a complete sham. He appeared to be 'taking one for the team', but actually protected himself and his superiors while raising doubt in the minds of many potential voters. In his last full year with Lockheed Martin, he earned more than $6 million in compensation. Now I can see why!!!!
Posted by: Ronald Kostoff | July 07, 2016 at 07:30 AM
This news is so amazingly welcome, the snippets that got through about Poul Thorsen were enough to indicate that like an iceberg more than nine tenths were below the waterline and yet to emerge. I have dubbed him the real Doctor No for years, he was the ArchPriest of the blatant untruth that there is no link between vaccines and autism. This is certainly powerful stuff for a film which unlike Vaxxed is unlikely to be pulled, or if it is it will send the book sales soaring, and more so if it is banned! This ought also to be grist to Donald Trump's campaign, strong evidence of government corruption at every imaginable level. It suggests too strong echoes of Winston Churchills' dictum that you can fool all the people for some of the time and some of the people for all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Tony Bateson Oxford UK
Posted by: Tony Bateson | July 07, 2016 at 06:30 AM
I've always understood how someone like myself wouldn't have a clue as to what was happening with statistics, but I will never understand how professionals in the field failed to catch the data manipulations. As I said in another post, I read this book and it's definitely a must read for those who are involved in the vaccine/autism/vaccine injury battle. This is how it all came down. Still, I think of all the young doctors that I know: top of the class, never got a B in their lives, for sure took statistics and passed it, and can pick up a trade journal dense with statistical data and apparently understand it. On the other hand, this Thorsen dude who never seemed to have excelled in anything except the art of the lie completely bamboozled an entire generation of smart doctors. And in fact, they are still bamboozled. I am not quite as bamboozled after reading this book and watching the movie Bought and Trace Amounts. Of course, VAXXED really lays it out but not about how the data was manipulated, just that it was. Help!!!
Posted by: kapoore | July 06, 2016 at 10:19 PM
Good thing we have the soccer world straightened out.
Millions of people living with life long neurological damage - eh - whatever.
Department of JUSTICE?! What a cruel joke!
Even the progressive news media's coverage of whistleblowers; Assange, Snowden, Manning is a double standard. Never once have any of the more reputable progressive media outlets even mentioned Thompson. (Excluding The Thom Hartman Program).
https://theintercept.com/2016/07/05/washington-has-been-obsessed-with-punishing-secrecy-violations-until-hillary-clinton/
I really thought General Lynch was a champion of the underdog. Thorsen's extradition could lead to much needed help for so many people, and even she won't do it. Why do "liberals" continually stick it to the people who champion them the most?
Posted by: annie | July 06, 2016 at 03:28 PM
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2106204-master-manipulator-reveals-how-fraudulent-research-hid-truth-about-autism/
Posted by: reader | July 06, 2016 at 02:12 PM
It should no longer surprise anyone in our once great country to acknowledge we have lost many of the "guaranteed freedoms" our Founding Fathers had tried their best to provide us. Consider ...
After listening to FBI Director James Comey's incomprehensible explanation recommending no charges be filed against Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton .. after publicly identifying numerous prosecutable infractions the FBI uncovered clearly proved her actions to be EXTREMELY CARELESS .. a standard of law that has been used for decades to prosecute similar .. "unintended exposure of classified information" for people .. (apparently of lesser rank and prominence than Ms. Clinton) .. who were not only prosecuted .. but .. imprisoned as well .......
should we be surprised that no one in the FBI or US Justice System has sought to extradite the INDICTED Poul Thorsen .. when others INDICTED .. (apparently of lesser importance or prominence than Thorsen) .. are eagerly, relentlessly pursued and extradited for similar CRIMES?
Where have you gone Joe Dimagio .. our nation turns its lonely eyes towards you .........
Posted by: Bob Moffit | July 06, 2016 at 08:59 AM
Dr. José Cordero, letter to the editor link isn't working.
Posted by: Danchi | July 06, 2016 at 08:24 AM