Skeptico reads the Simpsonwood transcript so that you don't have to (unless you really want to)

I have to hand it to Skeptico. I really do. He's managed to go through the entire 286 page transcript (warning: direct link to big file) of the infamous Simpsonwood Conference in a mere three or four days--over a weekend, yet! Given that it's a big document full of really dull, dry discussion among scientists and that this is June, when many people think of having fun outside on weekends instead of reading hundreds of pages of such tedium, that's a real accomplishment, one I haven't managed yet. (It shames me to admit that, in comparison, I've only gotten about a third of the way through it.)

He's also managed to get me to write one more time about this whole affair, even though I had said that I was going to try not to discuss this particular topic again for a while.

The Simpsonwood Conference was the conference that RFK Jr. opened his article making such dire insinuations about, claiming that it was primarily a strategy meeting to discuss ways to cover up the alleged link between mercury in vaccines and autism. I have discussed before how RFK Jr. used highly selective quoting to make what was in reality a discussion among scientists about the data for and against the hypothesis that thimerosal in vaccines cause autism and determining what studies should be done next seem very dark and conspiratorial when it really was neither. However, for reasons of space (and because there were so few examples of any excerpts that I could find that sounded even slightly conspiratorial), I only cited one example. Now, Skeptico utterly demolishes RFK Jr.'s treatment of this conference. In fact, after reading Skeptico's piece, I've been forced to change my opinion. Before, I just thought that RFK Jr. had simply let his bias and his close contact with Lujene Clark and other mercury-autism activists during the preparation of his article lead him astray. After reading Skeptico's take on the matter, now I reluctantly have to conclude that it is more likely that he was being downright dishonest in his treatment of the entire issue of the Simpsonwood Conference.

But let Skeptico explain it in the money quote from his piece:

When I first read Kennedy’s piece, I was shocked that there had apparently been some kind of cover up about thimerosal. It seemed I would have to re-examine my previous views on the subject as all good skeptics should when new evidence appears. And that was even though I have full knowledge of studies in Denmark and Canada that show autism rates increasing even though thimerosal has been banned in those countries for years. Even though I knew this, the article still sounded convincing. So I can well understand people reading this article and believing it and being livid with the vaccination industry, the CDC and everyone else involved.

But I now know Kennedy’s article is a shockingly dishonest piece of crap from beginning to end. Dishonest and manipulative. He starts with sensationalist language to imply there is something wrong going on, softening up his readers for what comes next. The scene set he, frankly, lies about what happened at the meeting. (Either that or he didn’t read the transcript – your call.) And in the absence of evidence to back up his claim, I suggest Kennedy also made up the bit about the Institute of Medicine whitewashing any embarrassing results. Kennedy wrote his alarmist piece in the knowledge that very few people (in reality – virtually zero) would bother to read the lengthy transcript to find out what actually happened. It’s nothing short of shameful from someone who I had previously believed to have the highest integrity. My only question is, why? Perhaps he’s just losing it, I don’t know.

Contrary to Skeptico's disillusionment with RFK Jr., whom he seems to have respected before this travesty, I never really thought that RFK Jr. ever really "had it" in the first place as an "investigative journalist," although he had never given me this much reason to dismiss him as a hack before. My guess is that RFK Jr. probably didn't bother to read the entire transcript in detail, just the specially berry-picked excerpts. At least, the trusting part of me that wants to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and doesn't want to have to conclude that anyone (much less RFK Jr.) intentionally distorted what was said at the Simpsonwood Conference to serve his agenda would prefer to attribute this level of misrepresentation and manipulativeness to laziness rather than dishonesty. On the other hand, as I discussed here, even a fairly cursory look at his article and the Simpsonwood transcript shows that RFK Jr. did use highly selective quoting to give the incorrect impression that Dr. John Clements, for example, urged a coverup when the full quote in context shows that he did not. Worse, Dr. Clements' in-context words were quoted almost completely even in the excerpts, making it hard to conclude anything other than that RFK Jr. was intentionally quote-mining.

But, as I said before and as Skeptico also points out, you don't have to take either of our words for it, although Skeptico made a very compelling case for intentional distortion of the contents of the transcript by RFK Jr and his making an unsubstantiated claim that the CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to "whitewash" any thimerosal/autism link. Fortunately, if you don't believe us, you are perfectly free to download the complete 11 MB PDF file of the transcript and see for yourself, and I highly encourage you to do so, if you have the stomach for it (or a case of insominia that this transcript could help with).

Just be sure to drink a lot of coffee or caffeinated colas before you start reading.