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 In a show of support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) whistleblower Dr. William Thompson, gastroenterologist Dr. Andrew Wakefield has filed a formal complaint[PDF] with the acting director of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In a letter dated October 14, 2014, Dr. Wakefield calls for an immediate investigation into a study that exposed a link between the timing of MMR vaccinations and autism. Entitled “Age at First Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination in Children With Autism and School-Matched Control Subjects: A Population-Based Study in Metropolitan Atlanta,” the study was published in a deliberately misleading way so as to make the MMR vaccine appear safe.

But it actually isn’t, says Dr. Thompson, the CDC epidemiologist and statistician who recently confessed to aiding the enemy in publishing false data about the vaccine back in the early 2000s. Dr. Thompson came forward with previously concealed data showing significant associations between MMR vaccination and autism among the entire autism cohort evaluated, and especially among African American children under the age of three.

“We write to report apparent research misconduct by senior investigators within the National Immunization Program (NIP), Battelle Memorial Institute at the Centers for Public Health Evaluation (CPHE), and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD), and to request an immediate investigation,” reads Dr. Wakefield’s letter.

“The research team, headed by Dr. Frank DeStefano, MD… found statistically significant associations between the age of first MMR and autism in (a) the entire autism cohort, (b) African-American children, and (c) children with ‘isolated’ autism, a subset defined… as those with autism and without comorbid developmental disabilities.”