US gov't has quitely conceded a vaccine-autism case...

[sharingwisdom]

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david...i_b_88323.html excerpt:

"After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.


"The unprecedented concession was filed on November 9, and sealed to protect the plaintiff's identify. It was obtained through individuals unrelated to the case... The child's claim against the government -- that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism -- was supposed to be one of three 'test cases' for the thimerosal-autism theory currently under consideration by a three-member panel of Special Masters, the presiding justices in Federal Claims Court [which is determined to find no causal effects]. HHS Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation (DVIC) had reviewed the case and 'concluded that compensation is appropriate.'

"The doctors conceded that the child was healthy and developing normally until her 18-month well-baby visit, when she received vaccinations against nine different diseases all at once (two contained thimerosal). Days later, the girl began spiraling downward into a cascade of illnesses and setbacks that, within months, presented as symptoms of autism, including: No response to verbal direction; loss of language skills; no eye contact; loss of 'relatedness;' insomnia; incessant screaming; arching; and 'watching the flourescent lights repeatedly during examination.'

"Months after vaccination, the patient was diagnosed by Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a leading neurologist at the Kennedy Krieger Children's Hospital Neurology Clinic, with 'regressive encephalopathy (brain disease) with features consistent with autistic spectrum disorder, following normal development.' The girl also met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) official criteria for autism.

In its written concession, the government said the child had a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder that was 'aggravated' by her shots, and which ultimately resulted in an ASD diagnosis."

There was absolutely no justification for this claim of pre-existing mitochondrial disorder. This was inserted so that this case could be viewed as an exception rather than the rule. "Mitochondrial disorders are rare in the general population, affecting some 2-per-10,000 people (or just 0.2%). So with 4,900 cases filed in Vaccine Court, this case should be the one and only, extremely rare instance of Mt disease in all the autism proceedings."

"But it is not. Mitochondrial disorders are now thought to be the most common disease associated with ASD. Some journal articles and other analyses have estimated that 10% to 20% of all autism cases may involve mitochondrial disorders, which would make them one thousand times more common among people with ASD than the general population." That is because the vaccine causes the mitochondrial disorders in many children. But, all children don't receive permanent damage from vaccines. I believe the difference is in the relative strength of the child's immune system. Good immune systems eventually destroy the vaccine and its toxins. Since all small children have very immature and weak immune systems it is certainly unwise to follow the establishment medical advise to vaccinate young. Nursing a child is one of the best immune builders a woman can use.

[Braggi]

I didn't see anywhere in the article support for your headline.

Quite the opposite.

This is an opinion piece with no supporting evidence.

As usual.

-Jeff

[debbus]

The person who submitted this information listed the source (Huffington Post) in the beginning of the post. I checked the source and it is loaded with a myriad of supporting evidence, including journals etc. Check it out before you slam this person!!

I didn't see anywhere in the article support for your headline.

Quite the opposite.

This is an opinion piece with no supporting evidence.

As usual.

-Jeff

[Braggi]

... I checked the source and it is loaded with a myriad of supporting evidence, including journals etc. Check it out before you slam this person!!

I didn't slam anyone. Perhaps you misread my post.

The article is an opinion piece. The article is about a court case concerning a single person. It's not about a decision by doctors and scientists or about studies and new findings. It's about a legal decision. OK? Legal not scientific.

The court case acknowledge that the timing of a disorder followed vaccination. I don't doubt that could happen and I don't even doubt that some people could become neurologically impaired following vaccination.

What I do doubt, and ALL of the science supports me in this, is that thimerosal had anything to do with it. "The child's claim against the government -- that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism -- " was not found to be true or anything of the sort. The panel decided the child in question should have access to monies held in a fund designed to help people who were harmed by vaccination. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a fund to help people who were harmed by not getting vaccinated?

So, there is no new scientific news here. One more person will be added to that group that will be compensated through a fund set up to help people who were harmed by a vaccine. That's very specific and counts for nothing scientifically.

The article is a histrionic opinion piece that is very misleading.

-Jeff

[Zeno Swijtink]

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/us/08vaccine.html

March 8, 2008
Deal in an Autism Case Fuels Debate on Vaccine
By GARDINER HARRIS

WASHINGTON — Study after study has failed to show any link between vaccines and autism, but many parents of autistic children remain unconvinced. For the skeptics, the case of 9-year-old Hannah Poling shows that they have been right along.

The government has conceded that vaccines may have hurt Hannah, and it has agreed to pay her family for her care. Advocates say the settlement — reached last fall in a federal compensation court for people injured by vaccines, but disclosed only in recent days — is a long-overdue government recognition that vaccinations can cause autism.

“This decision gives people significant reason to be cautious about vaccinating their children,” John Gilmore, executive director of the group Autism United, said Friday.

Mr. Gilmore has filed his own claim that his son became autistic as a result of vaccinations.

Government officials say they have made no such concession.

“Let me be very clear that the government has made absolutely no statement indicating that vaccines are a cause of autism,” Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. “That is a complete mischaracterization of the findings of the case and a complete mischaracterization of any of the science that we have at our disposal today.”

Hannah, of Athens, Ga., was 19 months old and developing normally in 2000 when she received five shots against nine infectious diseases. Two days later, she developed a fever, cried inconsolably and refused to walk. Over the next seven months she spiraled downward, and in 2001 she was given a diagnosis of autism.

Hannah’s father, Dr. Jon Poling, was a neurology resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the time, and she underwent an intensive series of tests that found a disorder in her mitochondria, the energy factories of the cells.

Such disorders are uncommon, their effects can be significant but varied, and the problems associated with them can show up immediately or lie dormant for years.

There are two theories about what happened to Hannah, said her mother, Terry Poling. The first is that she had an underlying mitochondrial disorder that vaccinations aggravated. The second is that vaccinations caused this disorder.

“The government chose to believe the first theory,” Ms. Poling said, but added, “We don’t know that she had an underlying disorder.”

In a news conference on Thursday, Dr. Edwin Trevathan, director of the National Center for Birth Defects and Development Disabilities at the disease control agency, said, “I don’t think we have any science that would lead us to believe that mitochondrial disorders are caused by vaccines.”

Dr. Trevathan explained that children with mitochondrial disorders often develop normally until they come down with an infection. Then their mitochondria are unable to manufacture the energy needed to nourish the brain. As a result, they regress.

The Poling case has become a flashpoint in the long-running controversy over thimerosal, a vaccine preservative containing mercury. Some people believe that thimerosal is behind the rising number of autism diagnoses. Among them is Lyn Redwood, director of the Coalition for SafeMinds.

Many of the vaccines Hannah received contained thimerosal, and to Ms. Redwood, she is more proof of thimerosal’s dangers.

The disease control centers, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine, the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all largely dismissed the notion that thimerosal causes or contributes to autism.

Five major studies have found no link, and since thimerosal’s removal from all routinely administered childhood vaccines in 2001, there has been no apparent effect on autism rates.

Many of those who believe in an autism-vaccine link dismiss all this evidence, and Hannah’s case fuels their cause.

“Her story is very important because it echoes so many others, and it’s clear that thimerosal played a role,” said Rita Shreffler, executive director of the National Autism Association.

Dr. and Mrs. Poling said Hannah did not prove the case against thimerosal, but Dr. Poling noted that there was no debate that vaccines had risks.

“They’re not safe for everybody,” he said, “and one person for whom they proved unsafe happened to be my daughter.”