Republicans put anti-vax fraud who hawked autism cures in charge of proving vaccines cause autism

[muriel_volestrangler]

I won’t say that the GOP couldn’t have found a more representative person to lead their ableism-driven attack on childhood vaccinations, and people with autism. But they would have had to bust anyone worse out of prison or a grave.

A long-discredited researcher and vaccine skeptic will conduct a government study on whether vaccines cause autism. A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current and former federal health officials.

The Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to conduct the analysis, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Geier and his father, Mark Geier, have published papers claiming vaccines increase the risk of autism, a theory that has been studied for decades and scientifically debunked.

David Geier was disciplined by Maryland regulators more than a decade ago for practicing medicine without a license. He is listed as a data analyst in the HHS employee directory.

You can and should read the complaint against David IANAPBMDI Grier. And the order.

Do you believe RFK Jr. didn’t know about this clusterfuck? If so, would you like to buy a bridge?

As an aside, apparently hormone therapy for minors is OK with Republicans if you prescribe it for the wrong reason. Bonus points if you aren’t legally allowed to prescribe so much as an aspirin.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/03/republicans-put-anti-vax-fraud-who-hocked-autism-cures-in-charge-of-proving-vaccines-cause-autism

Anti-Vaxx Not-A-Doctor Picked To Head HHS's Vaccine-Autism 'Study'

I don’t know what I was thinking. I must have been terribly naïve when I suggested that perhaps Robert F. Kennedy Jr. actually should “investigate” the non-existent link between autism and vaccines. I guess I thought that it would prove to him, once and for all, that autism as a vaccine “injury” is not a real thing — but it didn’t occur to me that the people running the “investigation” would be unqualified weirdos who already share his beliefs. I guess I thought they’d be, you know, actual scientists or something. My bad.

RFK Jr.’s pick to lead this study is, of course, not a scientist. He’s not a doctor, though he has gotten in trouble for practicing medicine without a license before, so there’s that. His father was a doctor, so perhaps if we were in medieval times he might have learned medicine as a trade and be considered a highly sought-after barber-surgeon, were any of us looking to have our humors properly balanced.

Why has David Geier been picked to do this study instead of, say, a qualified scientist? Because he and his father (the one who actually is a doctor, though a repeatedly censured one who had his license suspended) have previously done studies they claim prove that thimerosal — organomercurial compound that is no longer used in vaccines apart from some flu vaccines — causes autism. It doesn’t, and it remains unclear why they would think vaccines that do not contain thimerosal also cause autism. Maybe it’s some kind of homeopathy thing and they think vaccines retain a memory of the existence of thimerosal? Who can say?
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In 2015, a paper co-authored by the Geiers on the “link” between mercury in vaccines and autism was retracted by the journal Science and Engineering Ethics because they and the other authors failed to disclose conflicts of interest, as well as because “the article itself contains a number of errors, and mistakes of various types that raise concerns about the validity of the conclusion.”

https://www.wonkette.com/p/anti-vaxx-not-a-doctor-picked-to