- Florida pastor not backing down on Koran-burning | Video
- B vitamins found to halve brain shrinkage in old
- Fidel Castro says Cuban model no longer works
- Obama: U.S. can't afford to extend tax cuts for rich | Video
- Firm can't fire man for 1.8 cent theft
- Former singer with boy band LFO dies of leukemia
- Economists cut U.S. growth forecast again
- Pressure mounts in U.S. against Koran-burning plan | Video
- Europe Factors-Shares set to dip; U.S. jobless claims eyed
- REFILE-UK Stocks -- Factors to watch on Sept 9
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. NASDAQ delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
U.S. court rules again against vaccine-autism claims
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal cannot cause autism on their own, a special U.S. court ruled on Friday, dealing one more blow to parents seeking to blame vaccines for their children's illness.
The special U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that vaccines could not have caused the autism of an Oregon boy, William Mead, ending his family's quest for reimbursement.
"The Meads believe that thimerosal-containing vaccines caused William's regressive autism. As explained below, the undersigned finds that the Meads have not presented a scientifically sound theory," Special Master George Hastings, a former tax claims expert at the Department of Justice, wrote in his ruling.
In February 2009, the court ruled against three families who claimed vaccines caused their children's autism, saying they had been "misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment".
The families sought payment under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a no-fault system that has a $2.5 billion fund built up from a 75-cent-per-dose tax on vaccines.
Instead of judges, three "special masters" heard the three test cases representing thousands of other petitioners.
They asked whether a combination vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, plus a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal, caused the children's symptoms.
MYSTERIOUS CONDITION
More than 5,300 cases were filed by parents who believed vaccines may have caused autism in their children. The no-fault payout system is meant to protect vaccine makers from costly lawsuits that drove many out of the vaccine-making business.
Autism is a mysterious condition that affects as many as one in 110 U.S. children. The so-called spectrum ranges from mild Asperger's Syndrome to severe mental retardation and social disability, and there is no cure or good treatment.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine has reported several times that no link can be found between vaccines and autism.
Supporters of the scientific community welcomed the ruling.
"It's time to move forward and look for the real causes of autism," said Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation. "There is not a bottomless pit of money with which to fund autism science. We have to use our scarce resources wisely."
But advocates for the idea that vaccines are dangerous said they would not give up. "We hope that Congress will intervene in what is clearly a miscarriage of justice to vaccine-injured children," said Jim Moody of the Coalition for Vaccine Safety.
Autism Speaks, another advocacy group, said it would also not completely abandon the theory that vaccines might cause autism.
The organization said it would invest "in research to determine whether subsets of individuals might be at increased risk for developing autism symptoms following vaccination."
But the group also said it was clear that if such a link did exist, it would be rare.
"While we have great empathy for all parents of children with autism, it is important to keep in mind that, given the present state of the science, the proven benefits of vaccinating a child to protect them against serious diseases far outweigh the hypothesized risk that vaccinations might cause autism," Autism Speaks said in a statement.
(Editing by Philip Barbara)
This won’t stop the vaccine-autism conspiracy theories. It will probably inflame them.
Of course a fed court ruled against their being liable. This is covered in conflict of interest 101… We know what we know. Just like we knew about Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, + a host of other screw ups the govt doesn’t want to own.
like Born2Late said..suprise,suprise. Jab an infant with organic mecurials AND adjuvants to make it REALLY rock, several times in infancy and in childhood, with no effect..is patently absurd..
I do not think parents who said the kids were fine before the vaccinations are lying.
There are a lot of problems with them,mad cow disease, egg and mercury allergies.
The only way I could be convinced that there is no vaccine-autism link is if there is no correlation between the rate of autism in vaccinated and non-vaccinated populations, but everytime I come across those studies there is a very clear correlation. “Correlation does not imply causation” Yes, but it freaks me.
again, jabbing mercurials and adjuvants into infants and kids is bound to have adverse affects. I know that the medics and pharma peddlers have a lot at stake. It’s just amazing how much the developing human body can take, isn’t it..serial vaccinations, BPA, phthalates, and so on..Just amazing..
I have good news for you then; there is NO correlation. The people of Britain, Ireland, Texas and the Nordic states, spooked by these scares have been avoiding vaccines. Thiomersal has been all but removed from vaccines in any case, since about 2001. Autism rates have not declined at all, in fact they’ve gone up.
Oh, and so have childhood illnesses and deaths from measles, mumps and rubella, but who cares about that, right? What’s a few hundred preventable children’s deaths so you can carry on pushing your discredited and wildly ignorant conspiracy theories?
http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com
Pharmaceutical companies run the USA. How many pills are you addicted to v/s the quality of life you do not live.
