CDC story deserved better coverage

I am curious, what makes a news organization pick and choose what they cover?

When the rate of vaccination exemption rose, it was reported in detail. When a whistle-blower from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) came forward and said that a 2004 study disproving a link between vaccines and autism was fraudulent, the media coverage was delayed and limited.

I am referring to an Aug. 19 release that the advocacy group Focus Autism published on its website. The news release explained that a whistle-blower inside the CDC, Dr. William W. Thompson, had helped Dr. Brian Hooker discover that a paper proving that vaccines don't cause autism was based on fraudulent data.

Since this release of information, CNN has had two I-reports taken down that talk about the CDC leaving out a subset of African-American children. Had this information been included, it would have shown a 340 percent increase in autism for those who had the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine.

In addition, The Autism Media Channel, which first released the video with Dr. Hooker's interview with Dr. Thompson, in which he spoke about great remorse over manipulating data to fraudulently show no connection between vaccines and autism, has been taken down.

Cindy Dircks

Cedar Rapids