Above is a purported text message exchange between CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson and de-licensed British doctor Andrew Wakefield. The conversation allegedly took place on the day Thompson released a
public statement confirming his allegations that CDC committed research misconduct in omitting associations of autism with early measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination. Also confirmed by Dr. Thompson’s press release was that Wakefield
outed him without permission to do so, as first reported on
Autism Investigated.
This supposed
exchange between Thompson and Wakefield, along with
another between Thompson and Wakefield’s wife, are often cited to wrongly deny Wakefield betrayed Thompson by outing him. Never considered is the circumstances under which Thompson presumably apologized to Wakefield, where Thompson likely felt heavily coerced into doing so.
By the time he supposedly issued that apology, Thompson learned the hard way that any information he disclosed which was subsequently shared with Wakefield could be publicly released by him anytime at will. Such information includes phone conversations Dr. Thompson had with autism parent and scientist
Dr. Brian Hooker, who tape-recorded Thompson without his knowledge. Snippets of those recordings have been released in videos posted online by Wakefield’s Autism Media Channel which was how Thompson was outed in the first place.
Wakefield clearly has no shame in what he did, having previously
lied to Autism Investigated that he had obtained permission to release Dr. Thompson’s identity when he had not prior to Thompson’s press release. This lack of permission from Thompson to out him would later be deemed
“irrelevant” by Wakefield in an email response to journalist Celia Farber. She had been covering the whistleblower story for The Epoch Times and posted what were purported to be Wakefield’s and his wife’s text message exchanges with Thompson on her personal blog that included what is perhaps his coerced apology to Wakefield.
Apparently agreeing with what Wakefield wrote her, Farber issued the below
challenge to Autism Investigated:
“In terms of timeline, Dr. Thompson was kindly inclined toward Dr. Wakefield on Aug 20, 2014 [Note: date is wrong, it was Aug 27, 2014], AFTER the events you describe as treacherous to Dr. Thompson. This is detailed in published texts between the two of them, as well as dr. Wakefield’s wife Carmel. Please square this with your thesis. I am curious. Confused.”
With Thompson now outed to the very people at CDC whom he is blowing the whistle on, among the last things he would want is yet more information he shared to be publicly released by Wakefield prematurely. That would surely be one of the last things Thompson’s lawyers would want as well.
No wonder he may want to make nice with Wakefield. Not doing so could jeopardize Thompson’s position as a whistleblower all the more.
Correction: Dr. Thompson has never confirmed the alleged text message exchanges between him and the Wakefields. This article has since been altered slightly to reflect that fact.
