A Science Becomes Un-Settled.

According to an article in huffingtonpost by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the war on mercury in vaccines is about to heat up.

Poul Thorsen is a leading scientist on the primary team that produced reports of the safety of mercury in vaccinations for the CDC. Apparently rather than do research, Thorsen took the money and now has absconded. He also was illegally taking salaries from two different universities.

Thorsen published a paper claiming that removing the mercury actually increased autism in Denmark by 20 fold. That was refuted when it was revealed that the increase was due to the new requirement to report autism on the national registry, along with the opening of a clinic for autism.

”Thorsen's partner Kreesten Madsen recently came under fierce criticism after damning e-mails surfaced showing Madsen in cahoots with CDC officials intent on fraudulently cherry picking facts to prove vaccine safety.

“Leading independent scientists have accused CDC of concealing the clear link between the dramatic increases in mercury-laced child vaccinations beginning in 1989 and the epidemic of autism, neurological disorders and other illnesses affecting every generation of American children since. Questions about Thorsens's scientific integrity may finally force CDC to rethink the vaccine protocols since most of the other key pro vaccine studies cited by CDC rely on the findings of Thorsen's research group. These include oft referenced research articles published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the New England Journal of Medicine and others. The validity of all these studies is now in question.”
[bold emphasis added]

Both Thorsen and Madsen appear to be ethically challenged, and the CDC seems implicated also. It will be interesting to watch this play out.

To my knowledge, none of the AGW supporters such as PZ Meyers has ever admitted to the science of AGW not being settled. The supporters are so rabid that they deny any value to blatant evidence of malfeasence.

In the case of vaccinations, PZ has accused those who decline the vaccinations of being Typhoid Marys and traitors to their kind. Will he recant this type of accusation in the face of cherry picked data? He didn’t recant AGW in the face of cherry picked data. In fact he increased his venom at those who question it.

As Vox Day points out, the potential for big money corruption is easily seen, as in the case of tobacco-funded research on cancer. Pharmaceutical money is hardly different. Scientists who might lose funding due to a finding that is contrary must have extremely firm ethics in order to resist a little data push in the more acceptable direction. Apparently, many scientists and CDC bureaucrats have ethics that are more Consequentialist.