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Summary
Summary
The explosive true story of fraud, embezzlement, and government betrayal.
In 2000, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) carried out a secret mission to bury, skew, and manipulate data in six vaccine safety studies, in a coordinated effort to control the message that "vaccines do not cause autism." They did so via secret meetings and backtesting health-care data. The CDC invested tens of millions of dollars in a foreign health-care data analytics startup run by Danish scientist Poul Thorsen, a move to ensure that no link ever surfaced. But fate had other ideas. The agency soon learned it couldn't control Thorsen. In 2011, the US Justice Department indicted him for the theft of more than $1 million of CDC grant money.
Master Manipulator exposes the CDC's hidden agenda for the cover-up. Influenced by Big Pharma money, future high-paying jobs, and political lobbyists, CDC executives charted a course different than what the findings of earlier vaccine safety studies revealed. The CDC needed an outsider to "flatten" the results of the data, while building an exit strategy: a fall guy in case the secret plan was exposed. Thorsen fit the bill nicely, conducting studies overseas. But the CDC's plan backfired, as Thorsen took the money to the bank and the power went to his head. It would take years for his fraud scheme--funneling CDC grant money to a Danish university and then back to a CDC bank account he controlled--to play out.
Master Manipulator is a true story of fraud and betrayal, and an insider's view of what takes place behind the closed doors of agencies and drug companies, and with the people tasked to protect the health of American children. It's a cautionary tale of the dangers of blind trust in the government and the health-care industry.
Author Notes
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the nation's leading environmental activists. His writing has been included in anthologies of America's best crime writing, best science writing, and best political writing. He is president of Waterkeeper Alliance, the world's largest clean water advocacy group; a professor of environmental litigation at Pace University Law School in White Plains, NY; and a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Mr. Kennedy is a former Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan. He cohosts thre weekly radio show Ring of Fire.
Reviews (1)
Choice Review
This purported work of investigative journalism reads more like a muddled thriller that attempts to vilify the administrators and scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Grundvig, an investigative journalist, hashes through a conspiracy theory that claims the CDC deliberately manipulated data to hide a linkage with the preservative thimerosal in vaccines and autism. The author attempts to substantiate his argument by cherry-picking information found in government reports, emails, and medical literature; nonetheless, most of his brazen claims are unsourced. Layered on this narrative is the sensationalized story of the embezzlement of CDC research funds by a Danish scientist investigating a potential vaccine-autism link. Throughout the work, Grundvig projects thoughts and motivations on his subjects while making ad hominem attacks against these individuals. The work contains a foreword by Sharyl Attkisson, an investigative reporter, author, and host of the news program Full Measure, as well as an introduction by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Lacking balance and authority, this work has no place in an academic collection. Summing Up: Not recommended. --Kimberly Kristin Mitchell, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
