Well, Well, Well: Vaccines and autism

[Guest guest]

Well, Well, Well: Vaccines and autism

Connie / health@...

http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=11292

If we're to believe CNN's Brown brought

us the whole story with her February 12 coverage

of the immunization controversy, the only cause

for concern is the one posed by parents opting

out of vaccine programs. And if we're to believe

Newsweek's Sharon Begley ( " Anatomy of a Scare, "

February 21, 2009), the entire controversy was

built on a house of cards that has now been demolished.

The Huffington Post and F Kennedy Jr,

however, add key information omitted from the

other stories. The US " vaccine court " on February

20, 2009 awarded the parents of 10-year-old

Banks a lump sum of over $810 000 plus an

estimated $30 000 to $40 000 annually, based on

an unequivocal ruling made in June of 2007 that

his brain damage was a direct result of his MMR vaccine.

His was not an isolated ruling. A CBS

investigation has found that the vaccine court

has awarded close to $2 billion in compensation

to over 1300 families claiming vaccine damages

since 1988. " In many of these cases, " writes

Kennedy, " the government paid out awards

following a judicial finding that vaccine injury

lead to the child's autism spectrum disorder. "

But in many of the successful cases, though

medical records show the children display classic

symptoms of regressive autism, the word " autism "

was avoided. The court is, in Kennedy's words,

" quite willing to award millions of dollars in

taxpayer funded compensation to vaccine-injured

autistic children, so long as they don't have to

call the injury by the loaded term `autism.' "

In 's case, evidence provided by a

neurological exam 16 days after his MMR shot had

shown Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis

(ADEM), which led to Pervasive Developmental

Delay. The court ruled 's ADEM " severe

enough to cause lasting, residual damage, " and

that he " would not have suffered this delay but

for the administration of the MMR vaccine. "

Care taken to avoid a link between vaccines and

autism is understandable: a causal link would do

irreparable damage to vaccine programs. Care

taken is therefore extensive; jury trials aren't

allowed, vaccine defenders have unlimited

resources for expert witnesses and litigation

costs while plaintiffs cover legal costs on their

own. And, Kennedy informs us, plaintiffs have no

right to discovery against the pharmaceutical

industry or the government—US government

epidemiological data of vaccinated children has

been kept out of the hands of plaintiffs and independent scientists.

The Centers for Disease Control has also actively

suppressed and defunded epidemiological studies

that might establish a causal link, and refused

to fund research comparing vaccinated groups with

unvaccinated-by-choice groups of children not in the public school system.

Vaccines have in some instances been a great gift

and saved lives. But they have also become big

business, and business needs growth. Opposition

to mass vaccination programs is, contrary to

common belief, gaining momentum with good reason.

The Journal of Child Neurology has published an

analysis of previously published research that

had initially concluded no connection between

vaccines and autism—and now concluded it had

wrongly drawn those conclusions, that there is in

fact a significant link between blood levels of

mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder.

The award to 's family followed a judgment

by the same court that had thrown out three

claims involving MMR and autism, a victory hailed

by vaccine proponents as proof that doubts about

vaccine safety had been demolished. But in light

of this new information, that's clearly not the case.

Dr Bernadine Healy, former director of the

National Institutes of Health, has called for

more research into sub-groups potentially at

increased risk of vaccine reactions. In a CBS

interview late last year, she said she believed

" governments have been too quick to dismiss the

concerns, " and that she " takes issue " with the

decision of the Institute of Medicine not to look

for susceptibility groups. She, along with

thousands of others, rightly opposes the stalling

of science out of fear what the research might yield.

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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

Vaccines - http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm

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