The Vaccine Court Saga Continues; New Case Fans the Flames of Controversy

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The Vaccine Court Saga Continues; New Case Fans the Flames of Controversy

http://autism.about.com/b/2008/04/27/the-vaccine-court-saga-continues-new-case-f\

ans-the-flames-of-controversy.htm

Readers interested in the slowly unfolding story of the Vaccine Court

autism trials may be interested in reading Kirby's most recent

blog on the Huffington Post.

But first, a little back story:

Years ago, a special court was founded to manage claims of

vaccine-related injuries. The court was created to expedite such

claims - but also to protect vaccine producers from massive lawsuits.

Over the years, the court has occasionally paid out claims, but has

gone mostly unnoticed by the general public.

About a year ago, though, thousands of parents chose to file claims

against the Vaccine Court, based on the theory that vaccines

(specifically the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in some

vaccines and/or the measles virus in the MMR vaccine) had caused the

onset of the children's autism. Because the numbers were so large, the

court chose to begin its proceedings by looking at nine test cases.

One of the cases originally chosen to be " tests " was that of Hannah

Poling. But Poling's case never did come before the court. Instead, it

was recently settled, with the court conceding that multiple

vaccinations on a single day likely aggravated an underlying

mitochondrial disorder which manifested itself in " autism-like

symptoms. " The CDC has stated that the Poling case was most unusual,

and could not be used to prove that " vaccines cause autism. " Some

members of the autism community have disagreed vehemently.

Journalist Kirby - who has written a great deal about the

vaccine/autism controversy -- has been among the most vocal in

claiming that mitochondrial disorders may be much more common than

previously thought. Now, he writes:

...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.

As written, this story certainly suggests that the Vaccine Court is

deliberately choosing not to " test " cases that relate to mitochondrial

disorder. It COULD be construed that they are doing so with ulterior

motives. Or - they might simply be choosing to focus, instead, on

cases that relate entirely to vaccines. At this point, it's hard to

see through the fog - but there's no doubt that more information will

be coming along - if not from the Vaccine Court itself then surely

from other sources.

Stay tuned.