Outside researchers can request access to VSD data by submitting study proposals to the CDC. The Geiers have, in the past, gained access. But, they lost that access at least twice, the Journal reported. In 2004, the CDC kicked the Geiers out after officials determined that they had misrepresented their plans for the data when they initially submitted their proposal to the CDC. They were barred again in 2006.

Now an HHS employee, Geier is seeking access to the data once again. The Journal reports that Kennedy has assigned researchers at the National Institutes of Health to assist Geier and that those NIH employees have sent a request to the CDC to hand over all of VSD’s data. This request reportedly caused alarm at the CDC and the project’s health care sites around the country, which are concerned about protecting the security of private patient data.

It’s unclear whether Geier has regained access to the data. But people familiar with the matter told the Journal that Geier aims to reanalyze the CDC’s data on thimerosal to try to prove a link to autism. The sources also said that Geier is interested in proving that the CDC is corrupt.

In the May hearing, Kennedy, who also supports the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, defended Geier. Kennedy said that “there has been a lot of monkey business with the VSD” and that Geier is “the only living independent scientist” who has seen the data and can determine if it has been altered. (Hassan interjected that Geier is not a scientist.) Kennedy also falsely claimed that a court overturned the medical board’s finding that he had practiced medicine without a license and awarded Geier $5 million.

That did not happen. But Kennedy may have been referring to the fact that Mark Geier filed a lawsuit against the medical board over a 2012 cease-and-desist order that alleged he improperly prescribed medication for himself, his wife, and his son while his medical license was suspended. Mark Geier sued the board, saying the order was malicious because it contained personal information, including the medications Geier had prescribed. A Circuit Court sided with the Geiers, awarding them nearly $5 million in total. But the win and the award were overturned on appeal in 2019.