Family Forum / Parenting / Children's Health / March 2008

http://ilenarose.blogspot.com
Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal applauds this ruling.   

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57629
   

The federal government  continues to deny a link between vaccines and
autism, but the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has ruled in favor of a
child alleged to have regressed into autism as a result of
vaccinations.
(NOTE FROM ILENA;  The Snake-oil (Vaccination) Propagandists spread
these same denials. www.breastimplantawareness.org/snake-oil.htm)

Several of the vaccinations included the controversial mercury-based
preservative thimerosal, points out the National Autism Association,
which sees the ruling as confirmation of the claims of many parents.

"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."

(Story continues below)

The government's unprecedented concession – filed Nov. 9 and sealed to
protect the plaintiff's identity – was obtained through individuals
unrelated to the case, said David Kirby, author of "Evidence of Harm:
Mercury in Vaccines and The Autism Epidemic, A Medical Controversy."

The concession was made by U.S. Assistant Attorney General Peter
Keisler and other Justice Department officials on behalf of the
Department of Health and Human Services, the defendant in all vaccine
court cases.

A CDC panel, meanwhile, voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend flu
shots for all school-age children. The move would compel private
insurers to cover the costs and require the CDC to make the vaccine
available to anyone who can't afford it.

The NAA criticized the CDC decision, noting thimerosal is still found
in flu shots recommended for children and pregnant women.

Thimerosal in vaccines is suspected of causing brain damage and
weakening the immune system, making some children susceptible later to
infection from measles, mumps and rubella shots.

Kirby, writing for the Huffington Post, reported the government's
written concession said the child had a pre-existing mitochondrial
disorder that was "aggravated" by her shots and ultimately resulted in
a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.

"This statement is good news for the girl and her family, who will now
be compensated for the lifetime of care she will require," Kirby
writes. "But its implications for the larger vaccine-autism debate,
and for public health policy in general, are not as certain."

The government's concession, he says, seems to raise more questions
than it answers.

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 State 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."