Federal Vaccine Court Rules Against Autism Families
Government's Refusal to Fund Sound Science Stacks Deck Against Vaccine-Injured Children and Casts Doubt on the Integrity of the National Immunization Program says SafeMinds.
Washington, D.C. - March 12, 2010 - Autism and mercury advocacy organization SafeMinds regrets today's ruling by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims against three families who argued that vaccines which contained the mercury based preservative thimerosal contributed to their child's autism. The denial of reasonable compensation to families was based on inadequate vaccine safety science and poorly designed and highly controversial epidemiology studies supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the defendant in vaccine injury cases and is also responsible for carrying out the very vaccine safety research that should be integral to court decisions. This conflict of interest means the deck is stacked against families when they enter "vaccine court" and is yet one more reason for parents to doubt the integrity of the National Immunization Program.
"The government has its thumb on the scales of justice," said Laura Bono, parent of a vaccine injured child whose case was dismissed. "The Vaccine Injury Compensation Act passed by Congress in 1986 gave immunity to vaccine manufacturers and diminished the incentive to create safer products. Meanwhile, the law only gives the illusion that parents will have their day in court. The process is dysfunctional and many families will not see justice done."
Two HHS agencies, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are responsible for conducting vaccine safety research. Calling into question the scientific integrity of this research, a top CDC funded vaccine researcher, Poul Thorsen, responsible for the oversight of some of the most influential and controversial studies that have been claimed as evidence for no link between autism and thimerosal, is alleged to be under investigation when funding documents were found to be forgeries and millions of dollars were missing.
The director of the NIH institute in charge of autism studies has admitted that HHS has a conflict of interest in conducting autism-vaccine research due to the court cases. Last year, the government dominated Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee blocked critical vaccine-autism research studies from moving forward. "The government must fund an extensive vaccine safety program, including studies of the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children," stated Lyn Redwood, Vice President of SafeMinds. "Trust in the immunization program will continue to deteriorate without adequate and unbiased safety science."
Over 5,000 petitions have been filed in the vaccine court alleging that vaccines caused a variety of damage to the developing brain, immune system, and other metabolic pathways ultimately giving rise to a diagnosis of autism. Already, the court has awarded approximately $5 million in compensation for such cases, of which the Hannah Poling case is the most well-known. Many of these cases were quietly settled by the government so the public is not aware of them. Thus the court has already decided that vaccine injury is linked to autism.
Today's ruling against families demonstrates that the process is arbitrary. The question is not whether some cases of autism have a vaccine etiology. The government has admitted that. The only remaining question is how many kids have been injured - and what must be done now to treat these kids and prevent further injury.
SafeMinds wishes to recognize the bravery and perseverance of the families who now may face a lifetime of inadequate support for their disabled children.
The Coalition for SafeMinds (Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) is a nonprofit organization founded to investigate and raise awareness of the risks to infants and children of exposure to mercury from medical products, including thimerosal in vaccines. Further information about SafeMinds and the harmful effects from mercury exposure may be found at www.safeminds.org
i want to know what is that vaccine call...
Posted by: genesis | September 23, 2011 at 09:09 AM
"...Special master Denise K. Vowell noted that in order to succeed in their action, the parents would have to show "the exquisitely small amounts of mercury" that reach the brain from vaccines can produce devastating effects that far larger amounts from other sources do not. The ruling said the parents were arguing that the effects from mercury in vaccines differ from mercury's known effects on the brain. Vowell concluded that the parents had failed to establish that their child's condition was caused or aggravated by mercury from vaccines...".
Please help me understand this; is the argument that small doses of something are more toxic than the effects of larger ones?
Posted by: Steve | March 13, 2010 at 09:05 PM
"Woe to those who are enacting harmful regulations and those who constantly writing, have written out sheer trouble, in order to push away the lowly ones from a legal case and to wrest away justice from the afflicted ones of my people" (Isaiah 10: 1-2)
Posted by: Autism Grandma | March 13, 2010 at 05:19 PM
What the gov't isn't going to help?? They were so Johnny-on-the-spot to do the harm!
Go figure.
Posted by: kathleen | March 13, 2010 at 08:07 AM
Unfortunately the headlines are, "3 Rulings Find No Link to Vaccines and Autism" (today's New York Times)
None what so ever? Nothing? Does Hanna Poling know this? Do the doctors that told me otherwise know this?
Where are the headlines saying vaccines kill, maim, cause brain injuries, paralysis, pain and suffering? Where are the headlines saying vaccines do not guarantee immunity, spread disease? Where are the headlines saying the Obama administration is concerned about the epidemic of autism? Where are the headlines saying "Justice Denied"
Tomorrow's headline, "Boxcars Loaded, Anti-vaxers quarantined in interest in National Security"
Posted by: bensmyson | March 13, 2010 at 07:56 AM
Sorry, Charlie -- only the best tuna gets to be Starkist.
Oops! Wrong mercury! Wrong sound bite!
These stacked court rulings don't magically negate mercury's toxicity and erase volumes of PubMed studies. They don't heal vaccine injury victims' encephalopathy, autoimmunity, gastrointestinal damage and myriad disorders, as written up in medical journal case reports and in the NVICP files.
What these case rulings do is ensure that public health administrators can continue to abrogate their ethical responsibilities to all tax-paying consumers, and vaccine manufacturers continue to have no incentive to guarantee safe products and work to improve them.
Today was no victory, except for denialists and profiteers.
Posted by: nhokkanen | March 12, 2010 at 11:37 PM
Thumbs on the scales of justice
Thumbs on the honesty, integrity of science
Thumbs on the coverage in the media
Thumbs on the doctors who treat the injured
Thumbs on shielding doctors and industry
Thumbs on making the environment toxic
Thumbs on making our food unsafe to eat
Thumbs on insurance companies who don't help
Thumbs on research going nowhere
Thumbs on too many children brothers sisters parents grandparents generations past present future
Thumbs on the silent President Congress
The Thumbs are killing us killing this country
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy
Posted by: michael framson | March 12, 2010 at 10:41 PM
Okay, maybe the only "bright" spot in this whole ruling is that it came out on a Friday afternoon (and right before Spring Break in our area... Best time if you don't want most people to find out about it...
Okay, I am really trying to find some bright spot.
But I encourage everyone to go over to the National Autism Association website and follow the links to call on an investigation in regards to this injustice!
Posted by: Judith | March 12, 2010 at 10:28 PM
Charlie! That's so great! And when they fail, they maim! Which is even greater if you make money from treating chronic disease!!! Yay pharma, yeehah!!!! Don't take out those toxic ingredients! They're awesome!
Posted by: Gatogorra | March 12, 2010 at 10:06 PM
check.... can we move over to an UNbiased court now?
no amount of money or power will reside in history over simple observation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHqVDMr9ivo
MAKE AUTISM STOP
Posted by: MAKE AUTISM STOP | March 12, 2010 at 08:58 PM
Are any of us surprised? Surely you all by now know about the government's finger on the justice scale. This is exactly what I was expecting to hear.
The only bright spot in all this - is this time when it comes out -I do not read it in the paper alone. I am not alone with deep hurt, and worse hopeless, helpless rage.
Now I have Gotogorra talking about villians twisting their black mustaches, Judith being disgusted, Maurine talking about cover-ups, Dawn telling us this is right up there with 6 million deaths of Jews, and Charlie being sarcastic.
Thank You all. Because last time The Lexington Herald quoted a bad, evil but very elite peditrician. One of those doctors with one of those mustaches. It is a bad thing to think of standing outside his house and dreaming of throwing rotten eggs at his house, and car; and toilet papering his trees written in red ink - killer and maimer of innocents. Much better to hear from others and not be alone.
Posted by: Benedetta | March 12, 2010 at 06:05 PM
It is beyond obscene that the CDC & HHS can base case after case on their bullshit epidemiology, and can see that "real science" is never allowed to see the light of day.
I suppose a parent could still get two seasonal, and two H1N1 shots this year and try their vaccine case again next year....
Posted by: cmo | March 12, 2010 at 05:55 PM
That's terrific news! Hopefully this wakes people up to the truth about vaccines. They save lives, AND don't cause autism. How great is that?
Posted by: Charlie | March 12, 2010 at 05:39 PM
Autism families are now connected to every atrocity of history. This being one of them.
Posted by: Dawn | March 12, 2010 at 04:54 PM
Just withhold the bad news on Thorsen long enough so that the Danish thimerosal study isn't called into question and plaintiff attorneys have no time to repond.
Score two points for Thorsen and the CDC.
Oh, who am I kidding. Families could have shown a film of Thorsen, Madsen and Simpson twisting their curly mustaches and plotting to mangle the data; they could have had audio tapes of Fombonne sniggering over his study manipulations and the buckets of cash he makes from placating pharma, etc. The special masters would have all farted in unison, cleaned their ears with celophane for however long the evidence aired and claimed to have heard nothing. They were only following orders.
Posted by: Gatogorra | March 12, 2010 at 04:43 PM
No doubt this will be covered in every newscast and every newspaper before the sun comes up tomorrow.
maurine
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | March 12, 2010 at 04:26 PM
UGH! UGH! This is unreal! Unbelievable!!
And mainstream media is covering this, but they have barely made mention of the $2 million dollar question surrounding Poul Thorsen!
I'm so disgusted!
Posted by: Judith | March 12, 2010 at 04:07 PM