A federal “vaccine court” delivered the second of a one-two punch Friday to parents who believe vaccines are to blame for their children’s autism.
In three test cases before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, parents sought to prove that the mercury-based preservative thimerosal found in some vaccines caused autism in their children. But the court overwhelming ruled against the families calling the idea “biologically implausible and scientifically unsupported.”
The cases are based on claims for compensation the parents filed with with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program — a federal fund for those injured by vaccinations.
Friday’s rulings follow a similar outcome in three different test cases last year, which looked at whether the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine together with thimerosal could cause autism.
Though there is consensus among those in the scientific community that no link exists between autism and vaccines, many parents believe otherwise. In fact, a study released earlier this month in the journal Pediatrics found that 1 in 4 parents believe that vaccines can cause autism in otherwise healthy children.
The test cases the vaccine court ruled on were selected because they were believed to be some of the strongest claims among more than 5,000 citing autism. With that in mind, the court’s broad rejection of the families’ claims does not bode well for others seeking compensation from the vaccine fund due to autism.
“Hopefully after today’s ruling, we can put this issue behind us and move forward and direct our scarce autism research dollars to studies that will provide new information about what causes autism and how best to treat it,” said Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation.
But that seems unlikely. Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism advocacy organization, said Friday it would continue to fund research examining a possible relationship between vaccines and autism.
If 1 in 4 parents believed in the tooth fairy, would that make it real?
For milennia people have created the best explanations they can for things they don’t understand. Autism is a complex disorder that appears to have multiple causal factors. Vaccine exposure was a reasonable hypothesis that has been discredited, over & over, with the same robust science that we trust our (high tech) health to. Correlation does not imply causation. It is time to Let It Go.
What a crock! Once again the trial court refused to look at evidence of harm and failed injured children. They did so in spite of the fact that all of these children developed normally then regressed into autism immediately after receiving routine pediatric vaccinations. All of these children recieved vaccinations containing mercury.
The vaccine court seems more concerned about protecting the perception of safety in the current vaccine schedule than helping children harmed by the current vaccine schedule. The court refused to acknowledge scientific evidence of injury. They also refused to offer any other explanation for these childrens’ regression other than claiming a vague and non-specific genetic cause. The government came up with this even though there was no evidence of any genetic issue admitted into these proceedings.
The Omnibus Autism Proceedings (OAP) as part of the government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has shown that it is nothing more than government attornies defending a government mandated program using government funded studies before government judges that are there to protect private businesses. It appears that there is no hope for those families whose lives have been trampled on in the quest for higher profits for drug companies.
Rachelm,
I’m sorry but your comment is far from correct. In fact, there have been hundreds of studies at universities around the world that have shown a strong probable correlation between neuro toxins contained in vaccines and autism. It has never been discredited except by those companies and government agencies that have a direct connection to the current vaccine program. Did you beleive it when the tobacco companies released studies showing that tobacco use didn’t cause cancer and was actually good for you?
When you read studies going back as far as 1965 that show a connection between vaccines and autism, one with even the slightest intellect must realize that there is enough science here to mandate deeper study into this question. Even Dr. Bernadine Healey, previous head of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) agrees that the issue of vaccines and autism has NEVER been disproven in any way. The CDC’s own research showed a probable correlation between mercury and autism and other developmental disorders, prior to the CDC’s admitted manipulation of the data. Dr David Baskin’s presentation before the IOM about the Neurotoxic Effects of Thimerosal in Autism in 2004 showed a purely scientific direct connection.
It’s time for our government and the medical community to quit lying about the lack of scientific proof. It’s time to stop trying to decide this question by using spin masters to try this in the press. It’s time to stop protecting the vaccine industry and start thinking about our children.
You are correct in that there is a compelling reason to not cause a panic about vaccine safety. More than one, really. Polio, typhus, diptheria, hepatitis….
Vaccines are not like other types of drugs…they are not enormously profitable & there is little ability to expand the market. New flu vaccines are developed w/ government money b/c they are not profitable enough for the competitive market.
I am no apologist for pharmaceutical companies or the government. But I am very concerned that far too much energy is being spent creating a conspiracy where there is none. In terms of people/entities acting in their own perceived best interst, how then to explain the behavior of Andrew Wakefield?
Although it is not well understood, the evidence is prettty compelling for a link between exposure to neurotoxins & autism. I simply disagree that the causal source is necessarily vaccines. It seems plausible that the thousandsfold increased in exposure chemicals in our soil, air, water & are ubiquitous in our homes (that are there in part because of dangerous quests for profits & the same lack of responsibility & foresight that has caused our financial problems) is the “x” factor. I struggle with the notion that the government is a bunch of lying villians trying to kill our children & these other researchers (in a publish or perish world, often w/ an intensely personal stake in the topic) are charging in on white steeds.
Rachelm,
You are incrdibly incorrect in pretty much everything you wrote. To claim that vaccines are not very profitable is laughable. Vaccine manufacturers made hundreds of millions of dollars off of the swine flu vaccine alone. How many more billions of dollars would it take for you to consider it profitable enough?
Since you brought up Dr, Wakefield so lets discuss that intelligently. His article that was removed from the Lancet had nothing to do with it’s accuracy. Dr. Wakefield was censured by the GMC (England’s medical board) not for any flaws in his research. He was censured for offerning $5 pounds to children (with their parent’s permission) to do a blood draw so that he could have a control group of children without autism. That’s it. That’s the big negative that everyone’s in arms about. Forget that his research has been shown correct in 5 other published research articles. Furthermore it took over a year for the GMC to decide if there was even a problem with this. That’s cause for pulling his research and claiming that he’s a charlatan? The big problem is that when he published the research, many doctors and drug companies saw their profits drop because parents decided to forgo getting their MMR shots.
Here’s a great idea. If vaccines are so safe (contrary to all independent research) how about making it legal for parents to sue if their children are injured by the vaccines. Since they are so safe, that should be easy. There’s no other industry that’s allowed carte blanche to injure people when used exactly the way that the manufacturor recommends. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see a connection between all of the research showing harm and the end result. A quick internet search finds research articles from universities worldwide. Allow me to give you a recent one. Look up Biomarkers of Environmental Toxicity and Susceptability in Autyism, published in the Journal of Neurological Sciences.