History of Brian Hooker (bioengineer) in Timeline

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: April 13, 2026

Brian Hooker is a scientist known for his controversial views on vaccine safety. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering and formerly served as a professor of biology. Hooker is a prominent figure in the anti-vaccine movement, advocating for the disproven theory that vaccines, specifically the MMR vaccine, cause autism. His claims have been widely refuted by the scientific community, and his research has been criticized for methodological flaws and biased interpretations of data. Despite this, he continues to be a vocal proponent of his views, participating in documentaries and public forums to promote vaccine hesitancy.

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Full Timeline

2004: Thompson Co-authorship

In 2004, William Thompson co-authored a paper that allegedly did not disclose a correlation it had found between autism and the MMR vaccine among African-American boys. According to Thompson's later allegations in 2014, this led to controversy and disagreement among the study authors.

2004: Source of Controversy

The 2004 study is the source for the controversy in 2014, when Hooker published a paper based on it that claimed a statistically significant correlation between autism and the MMR vaccine among African-American boys if it was administered at a certain age.

2014: William Thompson Allegations

In 2014, William Thompson alleged that a paper he co-authored in 2004 had not disclosed a correlation it had found between autism and the MMR vaccine among African-American boys. The study did not have racial information on a large proportion of the boys being studied. When Thompson's co-authors performed a more in-depth analysis, the correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism ceased to exist. Thompson disagreed with their decision, but didn't disclose the alleged correlation for ten years.

2014: Hooker Publishes Controversial Paper

In 2014, after talking to Thompson, Hooker published a paper titled "Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young African American boys: a reanalysis of CDC data" in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration. The paper claimed that the 2004 study showed a statistically significant correlation between autism and the MMR vaccine among African-American boys if it was administered at a certain age. The journal retracted the paper for scientific misconduct, citing undisclosed conflicts of interest and concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis.