WASHINGTON (CNN) — A special court ruled Thursday that evidence presented in three cases by parents of children with autism did not prove a link between autism and certain early childhood vaccines.
A special court denied Mike and Theresa Cedillo’s claim that vaccines caused autism in their daughter, Michelle.A special court denied Mike and Theresa Cedillo’s claim that vaccines caused autism in their daughter, Michelle.
The ruling came from a panel of “special masters” who began hearing three test cases in 2007 involving children with autism — a disorder that their parents contend was triggered by the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella combined with vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative.
There has been a long running debate, of several years length, that tried to link vaccines with autism. But, no reputable scientists ever agreed with that particular link. Nevertheless, because conspiracy thinking has become such a staple of our society, there were people who were convinced by the advocates of a link between some of the stabilizing additives and autism. That link has never yet been proven by standard repeatable double blind studies. In spite of that, our modern American tendency to believe the worst possible interpretation of any and all data led to a rather large group of people who were convinced that somehow, something was being hidden. It does not help that there are instances when data has been hidden or twisted. Most people are unable to evaluate the difference between data that has only been tested by a limited pool of people who could have been influenced and data from a much broader pool of scientists who are very unlikely to have been influenced by inappropriate connections.
Most people in the United States of America have never lived in a country in which childhood vaccinations were not regular and reliable. They have forgotten that measles is not simply a childhood disease but that it can also kill, in certain cases. They have never known what polio can do and how many it can kill. They rely on the lack of communicable childhood diseases as though it were a given that will never change. And, in that reliance, they can make a terrible mistake. The rate of childhood measles is going back up in this country. The rate of tuberculosis is increasing. The rate of mumps is increasing. You get the idea.
For those few who are old enough to remember the days before massive childhood vaccinations, they remember. They remember children crippled for life with polio. They remember childhood epidemics which temporarily closed schools or caused a quarantine sign to be hung on the door of your house. They remember that vaccinations eliminated those diseases. Were there children who had side effects? Certainly, but the rate of side effects were significantly fewer than the rate of the uncontrolled diseases. And, if we are honest, many of the side effects are quite controllable and not dangerous.
Sadly, autism in the USA is increasing. No one knows why. But autism is not increasing in most countries in the world. And, most countries in the world use the same exact vaccines that we use. They are approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). But, again, most people are unable to evaluate that type of evidence. And, so, sadly, they have been misled by the conspiracy theorists, by the lawyers who are looking to make some good money off of the tragedy of people who are suffering, and even by those who do not care about the children who suffer because childhood vaccinations are being refused by undereducated parents in the USA.
Fortunately, the court of special masters found for science and against the conspiracy theorists and the predatory lawyers. So, at least the companies that manufacture the WHO approved vaccines will not have to pay for manufacturing the vaccines we need. And the predatory lawyers will not be paid. But, sadly, too many parents will continue to deny needed vaccines to their children, and too many parents who are bearing up under the scourge of autism will feel that no one cares for them (even though they were wrong about the link between autism and vaccines), and too many predatory lawyers will continue to look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow by presenting conspiracy theories and honest human finiteness as though they were absolute truth.
How sad for the children of the United States of America.
I saw an ad on TV about immunizing your child. I thought that was strange, until my wife explained about the current trend against immunization. I’m old enough to remember folks who had childhood polio in wheelchairs. I’d hate to live with the fact that I could have prevented that in my child with immunization.