• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

The Case for Vaccine Linked to Autism Goes to Court

Posted on: Monday, 12 May 2008, 09:00 CDT

Mainstream medicine faces a federal court battle from families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism.

The families are looking for vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots.

Attorneys will use two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., to determine whether children and their families in similar situations should be compensated. The attorneys will have to prove that both boys were healthy and developing normally before they were exposed to vaccines with thimerosal that caused their regression and symptoms of autism.

In recent years, thimerosal has been removed from all standard childhood vaccines except flu vaccines that are not packaged in single-dose. Single dose flu shots, according to the CDC, are currently only available in limited quality. The Institute of Medicine concluded in 2004 that there was no credible evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism.

Nearly 4,900 families in the United States have filed Court claims alleging that vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in children. Lawyers will present three different theories of how vaccines caused autism.

Plaintiffs were instructed by the Office of Special Masters of the claims court to designate three test cases for each of the three theories—nine cases in all. Three special masters have been assigned to handle the cases. Three cases in the first category were heard last year, but no decisions have been reached.

The first two of the three cases begin on Monday. They will focus on the second theory of causation: that thimerosal-containing vaccines alone cause autism. The plaintiff in the third case originally scheduled for hearing this month has withdrawn and lawyers and court officials are working to agree on substitute case.

Test case hearings for the third theory of causation are scheduled for mid-September.

For the case hearings this month, lawyers say they will present evidence that injections with thimerosal deposit a form of mercury in the brain and that mercury excites certain brain cells that stay chronically activated trying to get rid of the intrusion.

Attorney Mike Williams said that in some children there is enough of it to set off a chronic neuroinflammatory pattern that can lead to regressive autism.

The families’ attorneys are hoping to convince the special master hearing their cases that thimerosal belongs on the list of causes for the inflammation that leads to regressive autism.

William Mead and Jordan King, the attorneys for the two boys, will have to show that it is more likely than not that the vaccine actually caused the injury.

Some members of the medical community are skeptical of the families’ claims. They say making claims about the dangers of vaccines could cause some people to forgo vaccines that prevent illness.

"I think that what's so endearing to me about the anti-vaccine people is they're perfectly willing to go from one hypothesis to the next without a backward glance," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Autism is a developmental disability that affects a person's communication and interaction with others, it typically appears during the first three years of life. Medical experts don't have a comprehensive understanding of what causes autism, but they do know there is a strong hereditary component, according to psychiatrist, Dr. Andrew Gerber.

Gerber said toxins from the environment could play a role, but no current data supports this.

The scheduled arguments will be heard throughout the month but a final decision could take several more months. Claims that are successful would result in compensation taking into account lost earnings after age 18 and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering.

The families’ and the federal government can appeal the special master’s decision to the Court of Federal Claims or to a federal appeals court.

More than 12,500 claims have been filed since creation of the program in 1987, including more than 5,300 autism cases, and more than $1.7 billion has been paid in claims, according to the court Web site. A trust fund supported by an excise tax on each dose of vaccine covered by the program is now more than $2.7 billion.

---

On the Net:

FDA - Thimerosal in Vaccines

CDC - Thimerosal in Seasonal Influenza Vaccine

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category