The U.S. Court of Federal Claims will be trying as a test case Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services to determine whether mercury in thimerosal, an ingredient in vaccines, with those vaccines' ingredients have together been resulting in the increase in cases of autism. The government has been saying, "No." Are you surprised yet happy over this development?

I am interested, but I doubt it will come to much. If thimerosal were responsible for autism alone, then every vaccinated child, including myself and my husband, would be autistic. It may well be that thimerosal could be a contributor for those already pre-disposed to autism, but this pre-disposition is something we should be concentrating on as well.

I wonder, though, how much validity anyone will give these results whether they confirm or deny suspicions, considering it is the dreaded federal government making the decision.

Anything that helps understand autism, I am all for. I just wonder if further “proof” one way or another will change anyone’s opinions when we already have so much supposed proof both ways.

If if means cash in my bank account, I would guess that I could identify with any symptom. That is what people often do for cash when it comes down to Class Action. The lawyer is wealthy and the rest of us get a few bucks.

Here is a New York Times article about the study results:
Study Finds Vaccine Preservative Is Not Linked to Risks of Autism

Here is a well-written review of a book, Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure , by Paul A. Offit, that is going on my to-read list. Thought I'd add it to this old thread.

The General Medical Council is due to give its verdict on Mr Wakefield [the originator of this scare, referred to in Elexina's 'review' link] next month.He is surely to be found guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Ten of the twelve authors of his paper in The Lancet have formally retracted the claim, saying on the record that there is no causal link between autism and the MMR vaccine and that none was established by Wakefield's research.

Mr. Wakefield may have falsified the data in his study, in now appears.

Also, court rules no link between autism and vaccines.

I am sorry those families have children that are Autistic, but I can't say I am sorry that it was found MMR vaccine did not cause it.

I never really got onto the bandwagon suggesting that it was MMR vaccine because frankly I didn't think it was the reason my sons are Autistic.

Those vaccines are so important I am glad they were determined not to be 'guilty'.

Unfortunately we have no idea why there has been a spike in the number of cases of autism.

I suspect 'environmental' causes. We humans have changed the chemistry of our world and the places we live. We have also placed a lot of radiation in the air - TV, Radio, Cell phones, even high power electric lines leak radiation. Maybe not alpha, beta and gamma particles, but radio-waves are a form of radiation.

Yes mercury is 'deadly poison' and can or is known to drive people mad (the Mad Hatter is based upon the small fact that many hat makers went 'mad' playing with huge amounts of mercury in the hat making process) but it requires a lot more than what one gets in a vaccine shot. Mercury has a natural occurrence in most wells and water sources, we humans have been drinking it well before we found ways to process it and condense it out for use in applications, thus we have a slight immunity to its potential issues, same holds true with lead and various other heavy metals.

Chemicals and their safety ratings are based only on that chemical. There have been no studies and no safety limits put on the mix of chemicals that takes place daily inside of the common household.

While it is true that some mercury is in some vaccines, few seem to understand that their house out gasses many other interesting chemicals, from formaldehyde to complex chains from the polyesters and plastics that are in everything from electrical wiring to the TV set. While it is true that the out gassing of your electrical wiring has been tested, researched and deemed safe in and of itself, no one has bothered to link that with the outgassing from your carpet, TV and from the subfloor OSB or plywood where a complex chemical reaction takes place to make new chemicals. Look up 'outgassing in the home' and be taken on a toxic tour of trouble.

It is no secret that industrialized nations are seeing a decline in the fertility of its people, males in the western world are having mobility issues far more than men in 'third world' nations. There is a reason for this, we may not know exactly what it is, but due to where its taking place and the differences between Industrialized living and Third world living a finger points at how we live.

Diet is also not considered, while we in the industrialized nations are getting fatter, we are also eating a lot of added chemicals, from dyes to preservatives. Yes each have been tested and deemed safe, but no real study has been done on the long term combines consequences of ingesting all of those dyes, preservatives and artificial flavorings.

Vaccines make a wonderful scape goat, an easy target. There is a lot more out in the world that can be the cause of autism and ADD and other issues than the vaccines. Yet if we were to question those things we would be questioning the very basic foundations of how and where we live.

Here's another account of the court decision, from Consumer Health Digest 12 Feb 2009 -- a free weekly email newsletter cosponsored by Quackwatch and National Council Against Health Fraud:

quote:

Court rules out autism-vaccination link.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has found no link between autism and vaccination. In a stunning trio of decisions, Special Masters have concluded that no credible evidence exists that MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) or thimerosal-containing vaccines can combine to to cause autism. The decisions completely debunked these notions and implied that doctors who base their treatments on them are unscientific and unethical. More than 5,000 families who claim that vaccines caused their children to become autistic are seeking compensation under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation

The decisions came in three cases selected to "test" how similar cases should be handled. One Special Master said, "Sadly, the petitioners in this litigation have been the victims of bad science, conducted to support litigation rather than to advance medical and scientific understanding." Another said that the child's parents had been misled by doctors who were guilty of "gross medical misjudgment."

Autism-Watch has posted key findings http://www.autism-watch.org/omnibus/overview.shtml and links to the hearing transcripts and decisions. http://www.autism-watch.org/om...document_index.shtml

I've been collecting links to articles on this topic since suspicion was first raised by a publication in Lancet in 2004. There was even an editorial in the NY Times (9/9/08) about it prior to this latest decision.

An article in New England Journal of Medcine Sept 2007 noted that:

quote:

[The FDA] found safety guidelines for methylmercury (environmental mercury), but not for ethylmercury (thimerosal). Although these two molecules differ by only one carbon atom, the difference isn't trivial. Ethylmercury is excreted from the body much more quickly than methylmercury and is therefore much less likely to accumulate. For this reason, the safety guidelines that had been established for methylmercury weren't likely to be predictive of the safety of ethylmercury.

The only silver lining here is that serious research into the cause and prevention of autism won't be distracted by going down this blind alley again.

More consequences: Charity chief quits over autism row (Guardian 25 Jan 2009):

quote:

A senior executive of the world's largest autism charity has resigned in a dispute about whether vaccinations could be a cause of the developmental disorder that affects an estimated one in 100 children.

Alison Singer says that numerous scientific studies have disproved the link first suggested more than a decade ago and that Autism Speaks, a US-based organisation committed to funding further research, needs to "move on".

It also says that the link between autism & MMR vacciine was first made by Wakefield in 1998 (whose work has been discredited), six years earlier than the Lancet study I mentioned.

No doubt conspiracy theorists will keep churning this theory forever...

Wakefield himself has been traced to America, where he's not allowed to practise as a doctor.He is working in a clinic which deals with such cases. Clients report that he is present whenever there's a consultation.

He has made very substantial sums of money out of this scare.

Questioned, he now says that he his report did not say that link was proved and he himself has never said there was a link proved between the vaccine and autism.Really? Who'd have thought it? That's what lawyers call special pleading (it's not allowed in court proceedings).

So far as I can tell he's not yet been dealt with by the General Medical Council here. He is accused of offences against the doctors' code of practice and ethics and faces being , in effect, barred from practising for life.He was supposed to appear a month or so ago, when this matter last reported. While he stays in America he won't, I imagine, be dealt with.

Like the villains in mad-slasher movies, some persistent medical charlatans just keep popping back up for more mischief after apparent stakes through the heart such as judgments, settlements, or government consent decrees. Look at Kevin Trudeau, whose face appears on my tv with disquieting regularity...

quote:

Originally posted by Professor:

Look at Kevin Trudeau, whose face appears on my tv with disquieting regularity...

Had to look him up on Wikipedia, Prof, he not, fortunately, being known here. The article did raise one smile.Of his new book " Recession Cures" the writer solemnly notes " The book promises ways to wealth creation for the American consumer; it offers very little actual solutions". Well now, that sounds exactly like our respective governments on the subject of cures for the recession

I suspect a lot many have to do with the mother’s diet during pregnancy. There is a lot we don’t know about how things like nutrasweet can affect our bodies, and even less how they can affect a fetus. If vaccines were the culprit, we would all be autistic.

Kevin Trudeau is another monster with a body count on his hands. He prescribes fake cancer treatments and people wonder why they still die of cancer when they take them. He and Jenny McCarthy should be shot into a volcano.

I'm relieved that decision after decision shows that vaccines are not harmful, and are necessary. If only popular culture would start to realize that anti-vaxxers are doing more harm than good...

I was discussing this with an older cousin this weekend and brought up all the proof AGAINST the link and she answered, "I don't believe in data." What do you do with that?