Alright so, I think we all heard by now that there is a CDC senior researcher that is stating CDC hid or omitted some numbers indicating African American male children have a higher risk of autism when given the MMR vaccine on schedule. Dr. Thompson was among those scientists along with Dr. Allsopp and Dr. Boyle among others in 2004 study which stated there was no link between MMR and Autism. It seems that now 10 years later, Dr. Thompson is having regrets because there were some data or numbers that were left out of the study.
Then Dr. Wakefield released this video making the connection of Tuskegee medical experiment on Blacks and CDC deliberately leaving data out for Black boys. Wakefield is a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them. My guess is he used that analogy because he knew it would provoke raw emotions in particular against Dr. Allsopp who is an African American Researcher at CDC and was part of this 2004 autism and MMR study. For the record, personally I like Dr. Wakefield. I think he is charming, charismatic and in his own way cares about autism families. I know he gets beat down because of his own study and how he got paid by this or that. On the other hand one can make the same analogy with previous CDC director who now works for Merck which manufactures vaccines. In other words, I think we all do what is best at the time with what data and information we have.
So where does this leave us and what happens now in moving forward. As I have said many times, I am not a researcher nor pretend to play one anywhere, but I know Dr. Allsopp and she is an amazing researcher and one of the most sincere people I have ever met during my autism advocacy. Dr. Allsopp knows what it is like to be a minority especially an African American woman in the south, she went through hell and back to reach where she is today. I remember I once asked her how she deals with racism and she said “the best payback is success in your own life”. I have sought and received Dr. Allsopp’s advice and wisdom many occasions about racism and autism. She has always told me to do my best and help those behind me by example. If you can believe it – I once contacted the White House and asked them to assure more diverse members in IACC and they said to send my suggestions. (I know the White House would actually care about my suggestions). I called Dr. Allsopp and asked her who I should recommend and the first thing she said was let’s make sure we get those that don’t just look like us, but will speak and advocate for minority autism families and children.
Dr. Allsopp is thoughtful, kind, shoots from the hip and she has put me in my place many times and rightfully so. Dr. Allsopp is one of the main reasons we had diverse folks in the Somali Autism Study done by the University of Minnesota. I remember when the guidelines were being written for the grant – I called Dr. Allsopp and asked to please make sure there is a community portion. And, if you follow my blog here then you know when UMN finally got that grant – the first three people they hired were non Somali and non-minority. They hired three Whites and sent them to CDC about a Somali autism study that was advocated and made possible by Somali autism parents for Somali autism children. Well – you can imagine how livid I was. I called Dr. Allsopp screaming and cursing probably in Somali and English and Dr. Allsopp calmed me down and said – CDC will fix this. As a result, UMN added Somalis to those doing the research. So, I know Dr. Allsopp & there is no way in hell – she would harm any minority child.
Therefore, I stand-by and defend Dr. Allsopp 100%.
I do however hope that CDC comes out with a stronger statement than this or comments and explains their 2004 study, how and why some data was taken out and what it now means for the millions of autism families in this country. For the record, I did ask CDC director’s office to send me answers regarding this because we can’t just pretend it did not happen. I also contacted the law firm representing Dr. Thompson and asked if Dr. Thompson is standing by his claims and they said yes he is. The only thing he did not like was that Dr Hooker taped their conversations and Dr. Wakefield put his name online without his permission. In other words, his lawyers are saying Dr. Thompson is now saying CDC took some data out which stated Black boys were at a higher risk for autism if given the MMR vaccine on time. Therefore, given the many problems our Somali autism community has with Minn dept of health and their inability to help families and the community’s fear of autism and rightfully so. It is best if CDC came out with much stronger statement and really explained what happened, why it happened and what do we do now. Given this study and this study, I think ignoring will only make more parents not trust CDC which will have much worse public health consequences.
As usual, above words do not represent any agency, committee or candidate.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate