Yet Another US Vaccines-to-Autism Test Case - The Next Hannah Poling - And Yet Another Kirby Exclusive - Spectrum Magazine - 24 April 2008

[Guest guest]

from cgmiller@...

Please circulate this one far and wide

" Guess what ............. the boy selected to

replace Hannah Poling's “test case” in the US

" Vaccine Court " , ........... he has just been found with ........

yep ........... many of the same " unusual " metabolic markers as Hannah. "

As predicted, Hannah Poling's " rare " condition is

not so rare as the US government want you to

think as its embarrassingly early appearance in

what was meant to be just another

" mercury-in-vaccines " typical test case shows.

See Yet Another US Vaccines-to-Autism " Test Case " :-

<http://spectrumpublications.com/index2.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=104 & \

pop=1 & page=0 & Itemid=94>The

Next Hannah Poling - Yet Another Kirby

Exclusive - Spectrum Magazine - 24 April 2008

____

In February, I leaked news of the Federal

government’s admission that vaccines had

triggered autism in a little girl named Hannah

Poling. The stunning revelation, though still

reverberating around the world, was roundly

downplayed by US officials, who insisted that

Hannah had an extremely rare, genetic case of

“aggravated” mitochondrial disorder, with zero bearing on other autism cases.

Dr. Gerberding, Director of the US

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

rushed to the airwaves, exhorting parents to

adhere to the nation’s intensive and virtually

mandatory immunization schedule, and brushing off

their legitimate anxieties by saying: “We've got

to set aside this very isolated, unusual situation.”

Well, the days of setting aside are over:

Hannah Poling is neither isolated nor unusual.

In fact, the boy who was selected to

replace Hannah Poling as the first-ever

thimerosal “test case” in so-called Vaccine

Court, has just been found with many of the same

unusual metabolic markers as… you guessed it, Hannah Poling.

Hannah’s case was scheduled to be heard in

Federal Claims Court on May 12 -- as one of three

“test cases” of the theory that thimerosal (a

mercury-based vaccine preservative) can cause autism.

Test cases will help address general

causation issues in all 4,900 autism claims now

pending in Vaccine Court. But following the

government concession, Hannah was withdrawn as

the first test case of the thimerosal theory, and

attorneys scrambled to find a replacement: a young boy from New York.

Last week, however, the court announced

that the replacement thimerosal test case was

also being withdrawn, in order to “proceed to an

individual hearing on a different theory of causation.”

That theory, which applies to Hannah as

well, maintains that children with dysfunctional

mitochondria (the little batteries within each

cell that convert food into energy) are

susceptible to autistic regression, triggered by

a vaccine-induced overtaxing of the immune system.

“We want to pursue an additional theory,

not a different theory,” the boy’s father told

me. “We are by no means abandoning the thimerosal

theory of causation but, in the context of the

test case, the thimerosal theory would have

eclipsed our other evidence, including evidence

of metabolic dysfunction,” such as impaired

mitchondria and low cellular energy.

Following the Poling concession, he said,

“I saw right away that we needed to pursue the

mitochondrial theory,”but the lead attorneys did

not see it that way. “Perhaps they did not

properly understand the concession, and believed

the finding was of a rare, genetically caused

mitochondrial disorder,” as the government

contends. “I think they rightly want to keep

clear focus on thimerosal in the test case, and

not muddy the presentation with other theories.”

The court’s test case process is unusual

and unwieldy. “They limit the cases to one theory

at a time, when the theories are not mutually

exclusive,” the father said. “For example,

thimerosal could cause, contribute to, or

aggravate mitochondrial dysfunction. These cases

can't be wrapped into neat little packages.”

The unexpected withdrawal of two test cases

in a row – both because of their apparent

mitochondrial underpinnings – is sure to have

larger ramifications in the Court of Federal

Claims, as well as the much larger court of public opinion.

A new, additional theory of causation is

about to be introduced in Vaccine Court: Vaccines

can trigger a chain of events in children with

mitochondrial dysfunction that causes autism.

But the US Government now has a major

quandary to deal with. Federal officials already

conceded that, far from being “theoretical,” this

chain of events already happened to Hannah

Poling. This will make it difficult, if not

impossible, to argue against compensating the boy

from New York, when compensating a nearly

identical case – Hannah Poling – was already deemed appropriate.

Some estimates of mitochondrial dysfunction

in children with autism range as high as 20%-30%.

But among the regressive subset of cases

(virtually all of the claims in Vaccine Court) up

to half of the children might show signs of it.

No one knows how many of those families

will pursue a similar strategy of individual

hearings on causation, based on the mitochondrial

concession in the Poling case. But my guess is

that there could be hundreds of them, following

in the precedent of this case’s footsteps. The

legal ramifications, inside Vaccine Court and

throughout the judicial system, remain incalculable at this point.

Still, when the American public finds out

that the exceedingly “rare” Poling case was

replaced by what is shaping up to be yet another

exceedingly rare case – they will follow the lead

of all three presidential candidates and finally

reject the tired mantra that, “there is no link” between vaccines and autism.

Then perhaps will end, “One of the most

vitriolic debates in medical history,” as it is

called by Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the

NIH and the Red Cross. “At some level,” she said,

the Poling case “was a vindication for families,”

adding that, “vaccines as a trigger carry a ring

of both historical and biological plausibility.”

The government is currently examining the

national vaccine schedule to see if we are,

perhaps, immunizing children too early and too

often (and with too much thimerosal from the flu shot).

I personally thought that one Hannah Poling

emerging out of Vaccine Court would be enough to

change the way we vaccinate in this country. But

now we have two. And there are many more Hannah’s

out there, waiting to be counted.