HHS taps anti-vaccine activist to look at debunked links between autism and vaccines, sources say

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to hand over multiple sets of vaccine safety data to a discredited researcher with a history of spreading misinformation that vaccines cause autism, according to two sources familiar with the plan. Both learned about the matter during recent meetings at the CDC but were not authorized to speak about it publicly. 

David Geier, who shows up in the Department of Health and Human Services’ directory as a “senior data analyst,” will reportedly analyze the data. Geier has repeatedly claimed that vaccines cause autism — a link that’s already been fully debunked. 

“If this individual is involved, then it draws into immediate question the validity of any analysis that comes out of this work,” said a former CDC official who was told of the plan before recently leaving the agency. 

Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting CDC director, called Geier a “deeply irresponsible choice” to lead this effort as he has “no medical degree and a long history of pushing discredited theories about vaccines and autism.”

“Families affected by autism deserve credible research efforts that explore legitimate potential preventable causes of and treatments for autism,” Besser said in a statement. “They are not helped when our tax dollars and research funds are wasted on rehashing a question that has already been answered.”

Geier’s hiring was first reported Tuesday evening by The Washington Post. It was unclear Wednesday whether the plans had since changed. Neither HHS nor Geier responded to requests for comment. 

It comes as a growing measles outbreak is spreading in at least three states: Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. As of Wednesday, 377 cases had been confirmed in those states — the vast majority in unvaccinated children in Texas. It’s the largest measles outbreak in the U.S. since 2019. Two people have died, including a 6-year-old girl.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the CDC would launch a new investigation looking at possible links between vaccines and autism. Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services, led by longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., requested raw data from the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink and three other sources. The CDC is part of HHS.

David Geier and his father, Maryland geneticist Dr. Mark Geier, were a pair of researchers known for their poorly designed and retracted studies using government safety data that have long-fueled widespread misinformation about vaccines. 

According to an account in the 2005 book “Evidence of Harm,” then-congressman Dave Weldon — whose nomination for CDC director was abruptly withdrawn two weeks ago — intervened to help the Geiers access the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a CDC-housed dataset containing patient health records. This raw data is available to researchers, but isn’t public because of concerns over privacy, misrepresentation of data, and manpower.

The Geiers claimed at an Institute of Medicine panel in 2004 that the CDC data showed vaccines were linked to autism, a claim that was refuted by scientists at the meeting and in scores of published studies since. At the same IOM meeting, a scientist explained how the Geiers’ findings had failed to factor for age — children with more vaccines only appeared to have higher rates of autism because they were older and had more time to be diagnosed. (Children on average are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder around age 5.) 

The Geiers conducted research from a makeshift laboratory in their carpeted wood-paneled suburban Maryland basement; published several studies, many of which were retracted; and promoted an unproven treatment for autism that cost families tens of thousands of dollars and included injections of Lupron, a drug used for prostate cancer and early puberty. In children, it’s only approved for precocious puberty and comes with side effects including bone damage, heart issues and seizures. They diagnosed kids with precocious puberty without proper tests and misled parents into thinking they were signing up for an approved autism therapy. A 2011 Maryland Board of Physicians investigation found that the Geiers violated standards of care.

Mark Geier, who theorized that autism resulted from an interaction between mercury and testosterone, was stripped of his medical license by Maryland regulators in 2012. Maryland regulators also disciplined David Geier for practicing medicine without a license.