Convicted CDC fraudster's vaccine-autism research must be reopened, scrutinized and redeveloped

By ljdevon // 2026-08-26

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The scientist whose work helped dismiss more than 5,000 vaccine injury claims filed by parents of autistic children is expected to plead guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges, raising urgent questions about whether the research that shaped American vaccine policy for two decades was built on manipulated data and whether those dismissed claims should now be reopened, scrutinized and re-developed into robust studies truly investigating the vaccine autism link. Poul Thorsen, 65, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist, faces two counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money laundering related to over $1 million in CDC grant money that he allegedly used to buy a home, two cars and a motorcycle. This guy didn't care about finding the cause of autism. He was concerned about taking the money to enrich himself, while real studies were never given the time of day. The funds he squandered were earmarked for autism and public health research. Mockingly, federal prosecutors confirmed they are working with Thorsen on a plea deal, though details remain undisclosed. The implications extend far beyond Thorsen's personal legal troubles. His research, published in 2002 in the New England Journal of Medicine and in 2003 in Pediatrics, was used to dismiss over 5,000 claims filed by parents of autistic, vaccine-injured children in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding before the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Key points:

Thorsen faces 11 federal charges related to stealing over $1 million in CDC grant money.
His 2002 and 2003 studies were used to dismiss over 5,000 vaccine injury claims.
Both studies show significant methodological flaws and ethical violations.
CDC officials allegedly covered up Thorsen's failure to obtain required ethics approvals.
Mary Holland Esq. and other health freedom experts are calling for the reopening of dismissed vaccine injury cases.

The Madsen study: A flawed foundation

The 2002 study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, examined whether the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism. The researchers claimed to have found "strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR vaccination causes autism" after analyzing data from 537,303 Danish children. But the study's conclusions rest on fragile ground. The researchers reviewed clinical records of only 40 of the 316 children identified with autism in the study cohort - a validation sample of just 13 percent. Independent researchers Brian Hooker and Karl Jablonowski found significant errors in the paper, concluding that the study's unadjusted results "do not support rejecting the causal link" between the MMR vaccine and autism. The study also contained a critical temporal flaw. The researchers began follow-up for all children at age one year, but MMR vaccination typically occurs at 15 months. This means children were assigned to the vaccinated group only after receiving the vaccine, while unvaccinated children remained in the comparison group. Children who received the vaccine later were counted as unvaccinated person-time, potentially diluting any true effect.

The thimerosal study: Data that defies logic

The 2003 study published in Pediatrics examined whether discontinuing thimerosal-containing vaccines in Denmark led to a decrease in autism incidence. The study found that autism incidence increased after thimerosal was removed from vaccines in 1992, leading the authors to conclude that "ecological data do not support a correlation between thimerosal-containing vaccines and the incidence of autism." This conclusion contradicts basic logic. If thimerosal caused autism, removing it should lead to fewer cases, not more. The researchers sidestepped this problem by attributing the increase to better diagnosis and changes in reporting practices. But they failed to adequately account for two critical changes that occurred during the study period: outpatient clinics were included for the first time in 1995 when reporting autism cases, and a new law required autism cases to be reported on Denmark's National Registry. Independent researchers Hooker and Jeffrey Allen Trelka concluded that the study's findings "may have been skewed by participant selection and changes in diagnostic groupings."

Ethical violations and institutional cover-up

Both studies relied on Danish population data but bypassed ethical reviews required for this category of research under federal law. When the CDC discovered that Thorsen never applied for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals, the agency did not report the errors or retract the studies. Instead, FOIA documents show that CDC supervisors ignored the missteps and covered up the illegal activity. If he veered away from the IRB oversight and approval process, he was avoiding basic questions about informed consent, medical ethics and privacy for research involving human subjects. Dr. Dave Weldon, a physician and former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said the real crime extends beyond misusing research dollars. "Unresolved allegations around his research served as the basis for the CDC and the U.S. government dismissing vaccine injury claims by thousands of injured children. These actions set back vaccine safety research by more than two decades." Danish independent vaccine safety researcher Vibeke Manniche said the guilty plea calls Thorsen's research into question. "An obvious question is whether he also has been cheating with data to achieve the results he sought," Manniche said. "A good rule in gold-standard science is replication, and it would be wise, for so many reasons, to replicate his work."

Conflicts of interest and compromised science

The studies had multiple conflicts of interest that were never adequately addressed. Three authors received direct funding from the CDC for vaccine safety projects. One author was a CDC employee, and two were employees at Staten Serum Institute, a Danish vaccine manufacturer. Thorsen built a research empire called North Atlantic Epidemiology Alliances, which advertised its close association with the CDC autism team. The agency paid Thorsen and his research staff over $14 million to create various research papers assuring the public on vaccine safety. It's corruption at the highest level. Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer at Children's Health Defense, said there are "numerous data irregularities" in the Thorsen studies and called for a separate investigation against Dr. Diana Schendel, Thorsen's direct grant supervisor, who maintained an inappropriate romantic relationship with him and approved all of his invoices for expenditures from his CDC grant money.

A framework for honest research

Any new study examining vaccine safety must address the fundamental flaws that plagued the Thorsen research. Researchers must obtain proper ethics approvals before beginning data collection, with independent oversight to ensure compliance. They must include complete datasets, not cherry-picked subsets that conveniently support predetermined conclusions. A proper investigation would examine the full Danish population registries, including the approximately 4,400 autistic children who were excluded from the Thorsen analysis. It would look at whether autism diagnoses increased following vaccine introduction when accounting for changes in diagnostic criteria and reporting requirements. It would examine whether certain populations, such as Black boys with MMR vaccination timing, show elevated risk. The study would track children prospectively from before vaccination through their developmental years, using consistent diagnostic criteria and accounting for all potential confounders. It would examine biological mechanisms, including how thimerosal affects the developing brain, how the immune response to vaccination might trigger neurodevelopmental changes in vulnerable children, and whether genetic susceptibility factors influence outcomes. Above all, such research must be conducted independently of vaccine manufacturers and government agencies with a vested interest in the outcomes. The stakes remain too high for anything less than rigorous, transparent, and honest science. As Weldon said, "It would be a miscarriage of justice if a plea deal failed to include a thorough investigation of allegations of scientific fraud." The evidence suggests that Thorsen's research was compromised by financial misconduct, ethical violations, data irregularities, and conflicts of interest. The scientific claims of vaccine safety built on this foundation may be equally compromised. The families whose claims were dismissed deserve answers. The truth about what happened to those children deserves to be told. Sources include: X.com NEJM.org Pubmed.gov