We Never Said the A word

[Guest guest]

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1040050.html

'We never said the A word'

Bill Graham, a candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, filed a

2002 lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer that drew the ire of

advocates for tort reform. He was the lead attorney for the

plaintiffs in and Jane Doe v. Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics.

The 27-page summary of allegations charges that the company

distributed a vaccine containing mercury that led to " severe

neurodevelopmental disorders " in the couple's 2-year-old son. In

2006, it was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Judge A.

Beaty Jr. for lack of a proper expert witness.

Some parents have blamed mercury-containing thimerosal in vaccines

for causing autism, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention says the " weight of scientific evidence " indicates that

vaccines are not associated with the disorder.

Lawsuits over vaccines and autism have been criticized by

conservative groups calling for tort reform.

" When you look at this Ortho-Doe case, it's precisely the junk

science, junk claim that those of us in tort reform have opposed and

harshly criticized, " said Copland, director for the Center for

Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute.

But Graham cautioned against making assumptions about the lawsuit.

" We didn't even say the word autism in the complaint, " he told

Dome. " To say that it had any relationship to autism ... it was never

an allegation in the complaint. "

Beaty, however, did not shy away from the word, using autism or

autistic 64 times in his 25-page opinion about the vaccine

RhoGAM. " Plaintiffs have failed to present sufficient evidence from

which a jury could conclude the thimerosal in RhoGAM caused Minor

Child Doe's autism, " he wrote.

Graham said that he filed a number of subsequent cases about the same

type of mercury poisoning without mention of autism.