HECKENLIVELY ON THE OMNIBUS AUTISM PROCEEDING: 5/27

The Idea Makes Sense – The Omnibus Autism Proceeding – Second Set of Hearings (Thimerosal & Autism) – Day Eleven – May 27, 2008

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I need to make a request of the U.S. government. 

Please stop bringing such incompetent witnesses as Dr. Rutter into Vaccine Court.

It just ceases to be any type of intellectual challenge when your expert witnesses keep saying “I don’t know”, or “I didn’t read that article before I prepared my report”, or “the idea makes sense”, but it’s beyond my expertise to research it.

Direct Examination of Dr. Michael Rutter (Expert Witness for the Government)

Dr. Rutter is a child psychiatrist and researcher in England.  His experience with autism goes back to the 1960s.  He used to be heavily involved in treatment, but in the last decade his work has been mostly advisory.  He’s published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles, has taught for fifty years, and was previously involved in vaccine litigation (MMR) in England.

He does not believe pediatric records are good measures of autism and that the signs of autism can often be identified at 12 months.  He also believes that increased brain size is an abnormality associated with autism.  Dr. Rutter believes one of the core issues with autism is that those with autism lack is a social sense, which allows them to understand what others might be thinking.

If there are environmental factors at work he believes those would most likely occur in the prenatal period, or the early post-natal period.  Dr. Rutter does not believe there has been a spectacular increase in the rate of autism.  He also does not believe there are major distinctions between regressive and non-regressive autism.

Dr. Rutter does not believe there is reliable evidence that chronic, low-dose exposure to thimerosal causes autism.  He believes that the epidemiological studies on thimerosal and autism do not show that autism declines when the mercury is removed.  He discusses the Heron, Andrews, and Verstraeten studies.

Dr. Rutter finds Dr. Kinsbourne’s theory of how toxins, viruses, and heavy metals play a part in the development of regressive autism to be entirely speculative.

Cross-Examination of Dr. Rutter (Expert Witness for the Government)

Dr. Rutter doesn’t know whether the children who meet the diagnostic criteria for autism all have the same underlying brain pathology, although he assumes they’re probably different.  He acknowledged that in some cases a herpes encephalopathy has caused the symptoms of autism.

Dr. Rutter is unaware that on May 23 the Department of Health and Human Services is having a meeting on adverse vaccine reactions.  In his own report he has attributed an onset of epilepsy to a vaccination.

He believes it’s possible that an environmental insult might affect the pruning process of an individual in his first two years of life.  He does not know whether the brain autopsy articles on children with autism which found neuro-inflammation are relevant to the cause of autism.

Curiously, Dr. Rutter admits it’s possible that neuro-inflammation can cause autism.  He is also now surprised that the National Institute of Health is funding a study on the effect of anti-inflammatories in autism.  Dr. Rutter is not surprised, because as he says, the government funds a number of “long-shot” theories.

After being shown animal studies with infant monkeys and the effect of thimerosal, Dr. Rutter claims to be unable to address the issue because he is not a toxicologist.  He agrees though that the issue of neuro-inflammation in the brains of people with autism needs to be investigated more thoroughly.

While Dr. Rutter agreed that there was a certain number of children who displayed regression, he claims it’s unclear whether there has been any increase in autism.

Dr. Rutter acknowledges that the Verstraeten study was inconclusive.  He was unaware that in 2006 the Institute of Medicine recommended an expansion of the Verstraeten study.

Dr. Rutter had serious reservations about the Geirs’ study on autism and vaccines, but he was unaware of the study on the effect of the drug tributelene and autism, follow-up animal studies which showed neuro-inflammation as a result of thimerosal exposure, or studies showing lower than expected levels of mercury in the hair samples of children with autism.

The report of Dr. Palmer from Texas Tech University showing an increase in autism rates dependent on industrial sources of pollution was interesting, but he doesn’t put too much weight on it.

Dr. Rutter acknowledged that he has been retained on behalf of vaccine manufacturers in 2004, and that he has testified against Dr. Andrew Wakefield in the current legal proceeding to suspend Dr. Wakefield’s license to practice in England.

Redirect Examination of Dr. Rutter (Expert Witness for the Government)

Dr. Rutter doesn’t believe any inference can be drawn from the studies of neuro-inflammation in the brains of people with autism.  He also has not seen any evidence of hyper-susceptibility to mercury.

He does not think the Palmer study showing industrial mercury pollution and its effect on autism has only an indirect connection to whether mercury in vaccines can cause autism.

Dr. Rutter acknowledges than in a previous instance (a paper on MMR withdrawal in Japan), he should have disclosed he was also involved in MMR litigation in England and was being paid by a pharmaceutical company.

Questions from Special Master Hastings

The Special Master elicited some further testimony on why Dr. Rutter did not think the Geier study was well-designed.

In what I thought was the most interesting part of the day, the Special Master divided up the theory of vaccine-autism causation into two parts.  The first part was that inorganic mercury caused neuro-inflammation, and the second was that this neuro-inflammation caused autism.  Hastings then asked whether one part of that belief was more credible than the other, or whether both were similarly unsubstantiated.

On the one hand Rutter said that inflammation is usually a good thing for the body, gearing it up to fight infection.  Then he seemed to switch tracks, and say that if thimerosal is causing it, you have to ask where it’s coming from.  Is it coming from dental amalgams, the vaccines, or a factory up the road.  Then one has to ask how that neuro-inflammation led to the increased head size, and other abnormalities associated with autism.

Rutter ended by saying the ideas made sense, but you had to ask if these were the factors at work in the disorder.

Closing Thoughts on this Day of Testimony

I’ve always been intrigued at how in Stephen King’s “The Stand” the bad guys didn’t fight the expected apocalyptic battle, but simply unraveled on their own, leading to their destruction.

I sense a similar unraveling in this case.  Consider the things which Dr. Rutter acknowledged, or failed to acknowledge which are clear to pretty much everybody.

1.  Increased brain size is associated with autism.  (But he has no idea what causes it.  That neuro-inflammation theory is still speculative at this time, but he doesn’t have any theory of his own.  It’s possible, though, that it might cause autism.)

2.  Dr. Rutter doesn’t believe there has been a significant increase in autism.

3.  Dr. Rutter didn’t know that the Department of Health and Human Services is having a meeting on adverse vaccine events, although he feels comfortable attributing at least one child’s epilepsy to vaccinations.

4.  He can’t comment on studies showing high than expected levels of mercury accumulating in the brains of infant primates because he’s not a toxicologist.

5.  He doesn’t believe data showing industrial mercury pollution affecting autism rates is relevant to whether mercury in vaccines can cause autism.

6.  Oh, and Dr. Rutter probably should have disclosed his ties to vaccine manufacturers when he wrote an article on the withdrawal of the MMR vaccine in Japan, but he still feels free to go after Dr. Wakefield in England for similar alleged wrongdoing.

7.  And finally, Rutter said the idea that inorganic mercury causes neuro-inflammation, which in turn causes autism, was an idea which made sense, but needed to be further researched.

And all along I bet the Special Masters were thinking to themselves, “Yes, there does need to be further research.  Why didn’t you do it before appearing in front of me?” As Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institute of Health recently observed, maybe it’s because they were afraid of what they might find.

The only problem is that such willful ignorance usually doesn’t impress a court.

Kent Heckenlively is Legal Editor for Age of Autism.

Comments

[Alan Rees]

Dear Kent,

is a full transcript of Rutter's testimony available? I shall be cross-examining him in the Court of Appeal when our case gets there in due course: http://www.vaproject.org/vaccinetrials/sweden.htm
I can send you (or anyone else) his testimony in Malmö District Court as 4 mp3 files (19 meg)

Alan Rees

[Keith91]

Kent,
Thanks for this excellent and balanced reporting. have you done something similar on the other day (May 12-27?) and if so could you let me have a link please?
Keith

[Ted Fogarty, MD]

The complete lack of diagnostic neurofunctional imaging up to the point is allowing this "uncertainty" in the individual cases. What we really need are MRI/MR spectroscopy imaging studies that in the future can prove an abnormal neuro response to a recent vaccination event.

MRI/MRS and DTMRI techniques will allow us a window into living brain chemistry that will tell the story in a way that will be much harder to debate.

[Kent Heckenlively]

Ray:

It seems to me that the rules concerning the admission of new evidence are relatively liberal. In fact, last year I was actually contacted by one of the lawyers involved in the litigation because h'd read one of my articles and come across a study of which he hadn't been aware. He wanted to cite so he could include it in his response brief. I think as long as it goes along with the theory and the other side has a chance to respond it can be included.

All the best,
Kent Heckenlively

[Ray Hausler]

It seems clear that reports of new scientific findings will
continue to surface during the autism/vaccine test cases as they have during the last two weeks. What are the Vaccine Court's rules about accepting or rejecting new evidence that
is announced during or shortly after the completion of the
vaccine-injury trials??

Thank you very much for your advice.

[Steve]

Is it just my bias or when someone says that they do not belive that the incidence of autism has increased they would instantly lose all creditbility in the eyes of the Special Masters?

[Candidly]

"He does not believe pediatric records are good measures of autism and that the signs of autism can often be identified at 12 months. He also believes that increased brain size is an abnormality associated with autism. Dr. Rutter believes one of the core issues with autism is that those with autism lack is a social sense, which allows them to understand what others might be thinking."

Could/ would Dr. Rutter outline *where* a child needs to go to be identified for problems regarding autism? Agreed pediatric records are not good measures of autism even though several parents have reported that the head circumference of their kids grew abnormally large in the first year of their life. Clearly, the pediatricians are not equipped to recognize autism even if it stares them in the face. Come to think of it, why is it that the CDC and the AAP keep saying that parents need to "talk to your doctor" when the doctors clearly have no clue as to even how to identify the disorder.

Given that one can't trust the doctors, *who* is one supposed to go to, to find out where to get relevant and pertinent treatment for one's child.

As a parent of a child on the autism spectrum, the lack of social sense being a core issue of autism is news to me. This person is obviously clueless about autism as we see it. Shoudn't there be some accountability about the quality of the witnesses that are put on the stand? Is this a horse and pony show? Countless lives are at stake here and these irrelevant parasites (because obviously they are being paid to be obtuse) are making a mockery of us and our children's lives! Whatever happened to justice? This is an outrage.

[UndertheRadar]

In accordance with Section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) announces the aforementioned meeting:

Time and Date: 12 p.m.-2 p.m., June 12, 2008 *****(Closed)******

Place: Teleconference.

Status: The meeting will be closed to the public in accordance
with provisions set forth in Section 552b(c) (4) and (6), Title 5
U.S.C., and the Determination of the Director, Management Analysis
and Services Office, CDC, pursuant to Public Law 92-463.

****Matters To Be Discussed: The meeting will include the review,
discussion, and evaluation of proposals received in response to
``Associations of Vaccine Adverse Events and Human Genetic
Variations, Request for Proposal (RFP) Number 2008-R-VAC01.****

This is the meeting that was announced in the May 23 Federal Register.

I wish I had known about this CLOSED meeting yesterday when I was up on Capitol Hill talking to my contact in an investigative subcommittee.

Their committee is getting ready to issue a press release/letter within the next few days -- hopefully in time for Wednesday's Rally -- and I'd like them to incorporate this into their letter and press the Secretary for more details.

[Richard]

I guess everyone has a price,I wonder how much it cost pharma or our own government to get Rutter to abandon his oath to do no harm.
Rutter knows he is willfully turning his back on millions of children by quoting scripted responses to get a fat paycheck.
It was more important to him to be loyal to pharma than to answer the court in a truthful and helpful way.
If he was a good man he would have testified in a fair and honest way by swaying from pharma talking points like(no real increase in autism) to bring to light the truth.
I wonder how these people sleep at night.

[Rick]

Thanks Kent for taking the time to summarize the hearings. This is a valuable service to me.

[BLUE23]

I am still in disbelief that anyone tries to still use to "broader diagnostic criteria" to account for the increase in autism numbers. Sheesh (rolling eyes)