Friday, February 29, 2008

Vaccines Linked to Autism

WorldNetDaily has a story about the recent ruling in "vaccine court". The ruling was made in favor of an autistic child. She developed autism after her 18-month well baby visit. She had received several shots some of which contained thermosil. Here are some clips from the article.

This case echoes the stories of thousands of children across the country," said NAA President Wendy Fournier. "With almost 5,000 similar cases pending in vaccine court, we are confident that this is just the first of many that will confirm what we have believed for so long – vaccines can and do cause children to regress into autism."

Fournier called on the Centers for Disease Control "to acknowledge that the current vaccine schedule is not safe for every child and as with the administration of any medicine, individual risks and susceptibilities must be considered for each patient."

The Department of Health and Human Services said its Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation, or DVIC, "has reviewed the scientific information concerning the allegation that vaccines cause autism and has found no credible evidence to support the claim. Accordingly, in every case under the Vaccine Act, DVIC has maintained the position that vaccines do not cause autism, and has never concluded in any case that autism was caused by vaccination."

Kirby said that for most affected families, the fine distinction between claiming that vaccines did not "cause" autism but instead aggravated a condition to "manifest" as autism is a fine distinction that is not so important.

While it's too early to tell, he said, "this concession could conceivably make it more difficult for some officials to continue insisting there is 'absolutely no link' between vaccines and autism."
It also puts the federal government's vaccine court defense strategy somewhat into jeopardy, he said.


"DOJ lawyers and witnesses have argued that autism is genetic, with no evidence to support an environmental component," he pointed out. "And, they insist, it's simply impossible to construct a chain of events linking immunizations to the disorder. Government officials may need to rethink their legal strategy, as well as their public relations campaigns, given their own slightly contradictory concession in this case."

The bottom line, he said, is that the public will demand to know what is going on inside the U.S. federal health establishment.

"The significance of this concession will unfortunately be fought over in the usual, vitriolic way – and I fully expect to be slammed for even raising these questions," Kirby writes. "Despite that, the language of this concession cannot be changed, or swept away."

The key words contained in the concession, he says, are "aggravated" and "manifested."
"Without the aggravation of the vaccines, it is uncertain that the manifestation would have occurred at all," Kirby argues.


"When a kid with peanut allergy eats a peanut and dies, we don't say 'his underlying metabolic condition was significantly aggravated to the extent of manifesting as an anaphylactic shock with features of death,'" he continues. "No, we say the peanut killed the poor boy. Remove the peanut from the equation, and he would still be with us today."

Whatever the government's further explanation, says Kirby, "they cannot change the fundamental facts of this extraordinary case: The United States government is compensating at least one child for vaccine injuries that resulted in a diagnosis of autism. And that is big news, no matter how you want to say it."

4 comments:

Matt said...

Just to let you know, I like the new layout. About the post however, my 16 year old brother has severe autism, he is non-verbal, and only partially toilet trained. I tend to dismiss the notion that autism is caused by vaccinations. Why? Because mainly it makes me angry that something so simple took so much away from my brother and me. But please, remember everyone with autism in your prayers. Autism is a national epidemic that is still largely ignored.

Frances Clements said...

Matt,
I am sorry to learn that your brother has autism. I don't think the point of this article was to link all cases of autism with vaccines. I posted it so that more parents would be aware of the remote possibility. I will definitely pray for your brother.

There was a girl at our church in Phoenix with autism. I know it was really difficult for her and her parents. I was never sure what was appropriate to say or do around her. Do you have any advice?

P. S. Thanks for the complement on the new layout. I got tired of the banners having to be shrunken to fit in the old one.

Matt said...

How to act? Sure. The most important thing to do is not stare. Just treat children with autism like anyone else. Treat them the same way you would treat one of your kids' best friends. And don't be afraid to actually talk to them. I know that my brother must get very tired of people talking "pass" him instead of to him. That's all I can think of.

Frances Clements said...

Thanks, Matt. Talking to her was one thing that I wasn't sure about. Sometimes it seemed to really upset her. Thanks for answering.