OTP:Grandparents, parents

Families of autistic kids get day in court;
medical community skeptical of claims
Monday, May 12, 2008 18:02 EDT

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Parents claiming that childhood vaccines cause
autism should not be rewarded by the courts when the scientific
community has already rejected any link, government lawyers argued
Monday on the first day of a hearing in federal court.

Overall, nearly 4,900 families have filed claims with the U.S. Court
of Claims alleging that vaccines caused autism and other neurological
problems in their children. Lawyers for the families are presenting
three different theories of how vaccines caused autism. The theory at
issue Monday was whether vaccines containing the preservative
thimerosal caused autism.

Lynn Ricciardella, a Justice Department lawyer, said that theory has
not moved beyond the realm of speculation. She said that the Institute
of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have
rejected any link between thimerosal and autism.

"There is no scientific debate," Ricciardella said. "The debate is over."

Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the
first three years of life and affects a person's ability to communicate
and interact with others. Medical experts don't have a comprehensive
understanding of what causes autism, but they do know there is a strong
hereditary component.

Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood
vaccines, except flu vaccines that are not packaged in single doses.
The CDC says single-dose flu shots currently are available only in
limited quantities.

Under a two-decades-old program, individuals claiming injury from a
vaccine must file a petition for "no-fault" compensation with the U.S.
Court of Federal Claims. The secretary of Health and Human Services
replaces the vaccine manufacturer or vaccine administrator to defend
the claim.

Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as test cases to
determine whether thousands of families can be compensated. Attorneys
for the boys will try to show they were happy, healthy and developing
normally _ but, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they
began to regress.

To win, the attorneys for the two boys, William Mead and Jordan King,
will have to show that it's more likely than not that the vaccine
actually caused the injury, which they described as regressive autism.

Tom Powers, one of the boys' attorneys, acknowledged that the evidence
showing thimerosal led to regressive autism was indirect and
circumstantial. Still, it's clear in the case of the two boys that they
did not show any symptoms of autism until after they had received all
their immunizations.

"Each of them had developed normally and typically well after their
first year in life," Powers said.

The attorneys for the two boys said that a study in monkeys showed that
mercury could ignite "neuroinflammation" in the brain, and such
inflammation is the hallmark of somebody with autism. They also noted
that previous studies of thimerosal were focused on autism, rather than
on a more rare, specific form of the disorder that they described as
regressive autism.

The first witness for the families, Sander Greenland, a professor at the
UCLA School of Public Health, said published studies he reviewed failed
to separate regressive autism from other types of autism when looking at
thimerosal, thus they allow for a substantial association of the
vaccines with clearly regressive autism.

Under the vaccine compensation program, officials titled special masters
serve as the trial judges. The hearing that began Monday involved three
special masters who will hear the evidence and determine whether
thimerosal belongs on the list of causes for regressive autism. The
rulings are appealable to the Court of Federal Claims.

If the families are successful, they could be entitled to damages that
cover lost income after one turns 18 and up to $250,000 for pain and
suffering.

Many members of the medical community are skeptical of the families'
claims. They worry that the claims about the dangers of vaccines could
cause some people to forgo vaccines that prevent illness.

Ricciardella argued that a marketing consultant fanned publicity about
the supposed link between thimerosal and autism in a journal called
Medical Hypothesis. She described the journal as willing to publish
radical ideas, so long as they are coherent. She also said the authors
pay to have the article published.

But Powers said those questioning conventional wisdom in the case cannot
be easily dismissed.

"These are doctors who are willing to challenge the establishment on
behalf of their patients," Powers said.

The court Web site says more than 12,500 claims have been filed since
creation of the program in 1987, including more than 5,300 autism cases,
and more than $1.7 billion has been paid in claims. It says there is now
more than $2.7 billion in a trust fund supported by an excise tax on
each dose of vaccine covered by the program.

___

On the Net:

Background on thimerosal trial: http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/node/4428

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12