The decision by three independent special masters is especially telling
because the special court's rules did not require plaintiffs to prove
their cases with scientific certainty -- all the parents needed to show
was that a preponderance of the evidence, or "50 percent and a hair,"
supported their claims. The vaccine court effectively said today that
the thousands of pending claims represented by the three test cases are
on extremely shaky ground.
In his ruling on one case, special master George Hastings said the
parents of Michelle Cedillo -- who had charged that a measles, mumps
and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused their child to develop autism -- had
"been misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical
misjudgment."
Hastings said that he was deeply moved by the suffering autism imposed on families such as the Cedillos, but that "the evidence advanced by the petitioners has fallen far short of demonstrating . . . a link."
You would hope this would put an end to this bullshit, but the work of charlatans is never done.
The vast majority of the scientific establishment, backed by federal
health agencies, has strenuously argued there is no link between
vaccines and autism, and warned that scaring parents away from
vaccinating their youngsters places children at risk for a host of
serious childhood diseases.
To be clear, the stupid people refusing to vaccinate their kids don't just put their own kids at risk; they put at risk all kids who have not yet had their shots. I think it's unfair for the fuckwits' kids to suffer for their parents' Luddism, but it's a fucking crime that other people's children could potentially die or be seriously, permanently injured.
Well it's a good thing parents still have a choice regarding the welfare of their own children and their safety and it's not up to you or your way of thought. Your comments stun and embarrass those who do not necessarilly believe that vaccinations are a cause of autism, but respect the HARD decision that parents have to make regarding them. I dare you to spend one day in the lives of these parents who have to deal with the emotional, mental, physical and monetarily draining that this problem has caused themselves and their family. Put your passionate blame on the drug companies who are making a buck off a child's health, rather than fighting to see what is causing this epidemic.
Posted by: disgusted | February 12, 2009 at 04:04 PM
Yes it would be very inconvenient to say that Autism, Tourette syndrome, Lupus, or any of the other controversial and misunderstood afflictions in medicine are caused from environmental exposure or such things as vaccines...
It is much easier to present complicated and overwhelmingly misunderstood science at a court of uneducated common folk and scream bloody murder to them -- accusing the plaintiffs of bringing down modern society.
It is easier, but it is a deadly, dangerous and sickening game American Doctors play.
Take drugs. Take drugs. Take drugs... right?
Don't bother us with your questions... take drugs.
Oh, and cigarettes have never never been PROVEN to cause cancer, so we should lift all warnings on them to using the same logic. You think we've proved causation with tobacco? Like Lupus, Tourettes, and now vaccines... direct causation is not provable... but we have to have the balls to at least warn people instead of saying NO WAY is there a connection. Buyer beware baby.
Posted by: raaa | February 12, 2009 at 04:34 PM
Thank you for explaining the Unscientific Method to us, ra^3. If you can't disprove a cause, you have to warn people about it? Okay, you being a dumbass might cause cancer.
There isn't even a correlation between vaccines and autism.
Posted by: Mithras | February 12, 2009 at 04:57 PM
Put your passionate blame on the drug companies who are making a buck off a child's health, rather than fighting to see what is causing this epidemic.
You all are the modern equivalent of the people who burned witches at Salem. Something bad happens and you blame whatever it is you don't understand.
By the way, the people who push vaccines are pediatricians, who do understand the evidence and are so committed to children's health that they routinely lose money by providing them.
Posted by: Mithras | February 12, 2009 at 05:02 PM
The statement that drug companies "are making a buck off a child's health" seems both redundant and nonsensical. First, drug companies—along with doctors, nurses, and hey, the entire medical industry—are in the business of making money from health, so I'm not sure what's exceptional here. Second, if you're saying that drug companies make money from people getting autism…how? There aren't any pharmaceutical treatments for autism. If the drug companies aren't "fighting to see what is causing this epidemic" as you say, then they're missing a valuable money-making opportunity, since a treatment, cure, or vaccine for autism would be worth a tremendous amount.
I'm no fan of "big pharma," or of any part of our health care system, but the antiscience about vaccines doesn't seem to have anything to do with that. It has everything to do with people being scared and ignorant.
Posted by: tomemos | February 12, 2009 at 05:16 PM
I have a son with autism, and the anti-vax folks make me *crazy*. I understand the desire to find someone or something to blame, I really do (and I prefer to blame my ex-husband's bad genes) but I think parents really owe it to themselves and their kids to try to be a little more critical when looking at the arguments and evidence for or against *any* treatment. There are way too many people buying into all kinds of crazy quack treatments (chelation, anyone) and not enough time and effort and money being spent on effective, developmentally-based therapies. Ugh.
Posted by: Ruth | February 12, 2009 at 06:45 PM