CBS News, Sharyl Attkisson Reports Vaccine Watch

[Guest guest]

June

19, 2008, 10:34 AM

Vaccine

Watch

Posted

by Sharyl Attkisson|

19

http://preview.tinyurl.com/4r5y34

(AP)

After a decade of denying any possible

association between vaccines and autism, the government quietly settled a

vaccine-autism case last fall. When news of the case leaked out to the public

months later, government officials labelled the case of Hannah Poling an

" anomoly. " The truth is, nobody is in a position to know whether

Hannah's case is an exception. Government officials have told CBS News that

they have not tracked vaccine-autism claims to see how many of them might

involve children with the same undetected mitochondrial disorder Hannah had...

one that may have made her susceptible to side effects from vaccines,

triggering her autism. Government officials have also acknowledged to CBS News

that they haven't looked for common denominators in other autism-related cases

which have been compensated in federal vaccine court. Yes, there are other

cases that have been paid. As CBS News has reported, the government has been

settling vaccine injuries that resulted in autism and/or autistic symptoms

since at least the early 1990's, while at the same time telling the public there

is no cause for concern. Not all of the cases are published, but some of them

are and can be found by searching legal case databases. That... with the help

of some well-placed sources... is how CBS News turned up at least nine more

cases... and counting. Considering that only a tiny fraction of vaccine-autism

claims find their way to the little-known vaccine court, these cases are just a

sampling of the total that may actually exist in the population. Further,

according to knowledgeable sources, vaccine injuries compensated in the past

due to encephalopathy (or brain damage) " often " resulted in autism,

but the autism label was not used. Again, the government does not track how

many of the encephalopathy cases involved children who got autism or ADD after

their vaccinations.

One important factor is often lost in the discussion of a handful of cases: the

fact that the debate has shifted from whether vaccines have any relationship to

some cases of autism... to what is the role of vaccines in some cases of

autism. And how big is the pool of cases. If vaccines can trigger autism in any

way, directly or indirectly, that contradicts all the rhetoric and dogma heard

from many public and government health officials for the past decade. And it

supports what many other researchers have been saying for a decade, often to

deaf ears, even after they published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Which is probably why Hannah's case is resonating under the radar in the

medical community. A government conference has now been scheduled for later

this month to examine mitochondrial disorders like hers and autism or

neurological " triggers " (i.e. vaccines). See below.

Workshop

Mitochondrial Disorders of Childhood: Testing, Potential Relationships to

Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Triggers for Neurological Deterioration June 29,

2008

Workshop Goals and Objectives

" Mitochondrial Disorders of Childhood: Testing, Potential Relationships to

Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Triggers for Neurological Deterioration " is

a workshop to be held on Sunday June 29th after the close of the United

Mitochondrial Disease Meeting in Indianapolis at the Hyatt Regency

Indianapolis. The workshop will convene 11 experts in mitochondrial disorders

or autism to discuss how the neurology of mitochondrial disorders might inform

autism research.

The conference is sponsored by a number of Federal agencies including DHHS,

CDC, FDA, NINDS and NIMH. Observers are welcome as seating allows.

Location

Hyatt Regency Indianapolis