David Kirby: What if The Parents Win?

I had honestly not thought that far ahead. I am so used to having all our points ignored, I think I just assumed that no matter how good the Cedillo's case was, that of course the court would not want to set the prescient.

If Parents Win in Vaccine Court, What Do We Tell the World?
David Kirby
HuffPo

Will parents win their case against the government in Vaccine Court by convincing three federal judges that there's enough evidence to support a link between the MMR vaccine, thimerosal and autism spectrum disorders?

I, for one, am not placing any bets. But several thimerosal defenders are now dispatching dire warnings about the looming decline of the nation's public health -- and the pharmaceutical industry's corporate health -- should any of the 4,800 families win their vaccine/autism case in federal court.

"Massive litigation could force companies to leave the vaccine business, threatening the future of one of medicine's greatest achievements," Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, wrote in the Boston Globe on June 3rd.

If the claims are successful, Dr. Offit wrote, they "could exhaust the pool of money currently set aside to compensate children who have been hurt by vaccines," and would open the floodgates for private litigation directly against the drug companies, threatening their financial viability and compelling them to abandon the vaccine business.

(It should be noted, at this point, that Vaccine Court claims are awarded in just one third of the cases, and payouts average about $800,000 -- which might cover the proper care, treatment, and special education of an autistic child for maybe a decade. Victory in this particular court does not get you a condo in Maui, just a little temporary financial relief from endless costs).

Critics of the autism claims also contend that a victory in court by any of the families would drive panicked parents away from immunizing their children at all, resulting in new epidemics of infectious disease and lots of sick and dying youngsters

Maybe that's why Dr. Offit -- who incidentally stands to make some money from the recently approved rotavirus vaccine he co-developed with Merck -- referred to the court as a "circus" in his Boston Globe Op-Ed.

While this gives us insight into one pediatrician's contempt for the American legal system, it is somewhat puzzling, given that the first "test case" has proceeded with nothing but respect, decorum and a sobering sense of the Herculean task at hand.

It's entirely possible that all 4,800 cases will go down in flames. But what if some of the parents and their attorneys can beat the tough odds, and make a good enough case to convince the judges?

Irrespective of one's views on the merits of these cases, I think everyone needs to stop and think about dealing with the ramifications -- on a worldwide scale -- of any family victory in Vaccine Court.

Yes, some drug companies would likely face some big lawsuits in civil court. But in the age of Vioxx and Avandia, that almost seems to be a routine cost of doing business.

And let's face it; neither the American government, nor its people, would stand for the wholesale collapse of the pharmaceutical industry -- which does, after all, keep millions of people alive each year. No, I am reasonably sure that Big Pharma, somehow, would muddle through and survive (possibly with a major assist from you, the taxpayer, so think about that one as you stand in the pharmacy prescription line).

But what about vaccination rates? Wouldn't they tumble?

Not if we start to educate parents now about the thorny issues that could arise with a decision in favor of the plaintiffs.

First of all, it's important to remember that thimerosal has been in the news since 2005, when Don Imus began to not shut up about it. Later that year, I appeared on "Meet the Press" to discuss the controversy, and the subject has been raised in innumerable media outlets ever since.

And what happened? Immunization rates rose to new record levels.

We need to show a little more faith and confidence in young parents. If causation from thimerosal is found, new parents might actually breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that childhood shots now contain only residual amounts of mercury (with the glaring exception of 90% of the flu shot, so they might want to put in their order soon for mercury-free influenza vaccine for the 2007-2008 season).

If the MMR triple-live-virus vaccine, which never contained thimerosal, is implicated, then we as a society might want to consider having those shots administered separately. Even though that would mean two more jabs for the baby, it might also calm a lot of jittery parental nerves, and keep immunization rates robust.

Meanwhile, none of the other vaccines that children receive today are on trial here, and parents will almost universally understand that.

I am sure that critics will deride this scenario as being far too rosy, and I hope they are wrong. Nobody wants to see measles, or mumps, or polio sweep the country. But I don't think that will happen.

But I do wonder about the ramifications overseas.

The US has largely removed thimerosal from the routine shots we give our own kids (out of an "abundance of precaution," we are told), but children in the developing world are afforded no such consideration.

Today, millions of children in Latin America, Asia and Africa are receiving American-export vaccines that still contain the full battery of ethylmercury -- in amounts that put children dozens of times over the US EPA maximum daily limit on vaccination days.

Immunization rates are rising in many developing countries, but so are the reported rates of autism. In Mexico, for instance, vaccine rates are now about 92%, UN figures show, while reported cases of autism are also moving upward (proof of nothing, but interesting and disturbing nonetheless).

Several well-placed sources have told me that the CDC and FDA will never agree to an outright ban on thimerosal in vaccines, due to pressure from the World Health Organization, and because the message this would send to developing nations would be untenable: "Yes, thimerosal might cause harm, but we are going to give it to you anyway, for your own good. Trust us. We're Americans. We know what we're doing."

Talk about driving people away from vaccines in droves. The result could be catastrophic, with rising rates of infectious diseases and child mortality to follow.

In other words, we can probably convince American parents to keep on vaccinating, because the mercury here has largely been removed. But what do we tell parents in South Korea, or Brazil, or Nigeria?

Thimerosal is not a necessary ingredient in vaccines. We can still ship multi-dose vials -- which require a preservative but are cheaper to buy and administer -- to poor countries, a noble goal indeed. But the preservative does not need to be based on a deadly neurotoxin.

The MMR shot itself is preserved not with thimerosal (which would kill the live viruses) but with a type of phenol. Why can't we find a non-mercury based preservative for all vaccines? I have never been able to get a satisfactory answer to that question.

But even if we could switch to alternative preservatives tomorrow, and boost global confidence in vaccines, we might still inherit another, more sinister problem to deal with.

On the very last page of my book, Evidence of Harm, I close with these words:

"If thimerosal is one day proven to be a contributing factor to autism, and if U.S.-made vaccines containing the preservative are now being supplied to infants the world over, the scope of this potential tragedy becomes almost unthinkable. The United States, at the dawn of the 21st century, is not exactly the most beloved nation on earth. What if the profitable export of our much vaunted medical technology has led to the poisoning of tens of millions of children? What then?"

We need to prepare for at least the possibility of a parental victory in vaccine court. We need to prepare our own parental population, and we need to think about what we are going to tell the rest of the world.

Vietnam just suspended a certain US-made MMR vaccine after some patients died from it. This could be the tip of the iceberg in terms of social, economic, and physical retribution against the United States.

What do we tell the Chinese and their hundreds of millions of vaccine consumers? What will we say to people in booming India, or next door in Mexico? Will our immigration policy bar parents of autistic kids from coming to America, even if American shots might have made their kids sick?

And then there is the Middle East.

Osama, for one, has a very extended family. We are exporting thimerosal containing vaccines to many Muslim nations. Some vaccines contain not only mercury, but products derived from pigs.

I don't need to tell you where I am going with this train of thought. You already know.

I do not think these court cases should be decided on the larger ramifications. That is just not the way our legal system works. Still, a victory for the families -- justified or not -- will produce endless headaches for the pharmaceutical industry, the US public health establishment, and the WHO.

If just one family wins their case in that Washington courtroom, then we, as a nation, have a lot of explaining to do.

NBC's Ethics Breach Angers Autism Parents

[UPDATE: NBC's web site reporting that she is 'formerly' of Johnson & Johnson. Will get confirmation of this].

NBC's stunt, using a Vice President of thimerosal lawsuit defendants Johnson & Johnson as their Chief Medical Expert without disclosing her real job is media relations for the Corporation, has garnered the ire of autism parents. Lots and lots of autism parents:

Mr. Steve Capus, President NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
June 13, 2007

Dear Mr. Capus:

The undersigned organizations are writing to you regarding the concerns among families of vaccine-injured children across the country over NBC's recent coverage of the Autism Omnibus proceedings. In particular, we take issue with the comments Dr. Nancy Snyderman made during yesterday's Today show.

While one would hope a "First do no harm" philosophy would have some bearing on the information Dr. Snyderman provides to viewers, clearly it does not.

Dr. Snyderman's ties to Johnson & Johnson, defendants in vaccine injury litigation, are obviously dictating the agenda in her appearances on your network at the risk of the safety of our children. This conflict of interest calls into serious question your journalistic integrity and credibility.

NBC's viewers were exposed to a blatant falsehood yesterday as Dr. Snyderman claimed that vaccines no longer contain mercury. This is not the case,and this misinformation has unfortunately given America’s parents a false sense of security that vaccines are now mercury-free. This false claim puts all of America's children and the unborn at risk of great harm.

The mercury-based preservative thimerosal has never been fully removed from childhood vaccines as Dr. Snyderman vehemently claimed. A simple check on the FDA's website would have confirmed this: http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1. Mercury is still in most flu, tetanus, and diphtheria/tetanus vaccines--and an array of vaccines still contain "trace" amounts. (The term "trace" must be used loosely as this aspect of vaccine production is not being regulated and there is some variation on what constitutes a trace amount. As children often receive multiple "trace" amounts of mercury in one sitting, cumulative amounts and potential adverse effects are as yet unknown.)

While no reputable medical practitioner in this country would allow even "trace" amounts of lead to be injected through vaccines given its known neurotoxicity, physicians continue to allow mercury, which exceeds the toxicity of lead by more than 100-fold, to be routinely injected into humans.

As a physician representing NBC, Dr. Snyderman has failed to tell the truth about mercury-containing vaccines and the known dangers associated with them. There is simply no excuse for such careless and false reporting while this country is in the throes of a childhood epidemic of neurological disorders.

During Monday's NBC Nightly News Dr. Snyderman stated, "there really is no science" behind the autism/mercury link. Vaccines and the mercury-based preservative thimerosal have not been ruled out as a cause of autism. To the contrary, there are literally thousands of scientific, peer-reviewed studies supporting the extreme neurotoxicity of mercury and the relationship between mercury exposure and neurological injury. The following link provides a copious amount of research which contradicts what Dr. Snyderman told the American public: http://www.generationrescue.org/studies.html

The CDC's own study conducted in 2000 clearly shows the agency knew that injuries were occurring to children from mercury-containing vaccines, yet the data was manipulated to obscure the link. Lead researcher Dr. Thomas Verstraeten had this to say regarding the CDC’s thimerosal findings:

"...we have found statistically significant relationships between the exposure and outcomes for these different exposures and outcomes. First, for two months of age, an unspecified developmental delay, which has its own specific ICD9 code. Exposure at three months of age, tics. Exposure at six months of age, an attention deficit disorder. Exposures at one, three, and six months of age, language and speech delays which are two separate ICD9 codes. Exposures at one, three, and six months of age, an entire category of neurodevelopmental delays, which includes all of these plus a number of other disorders." (Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, page 40, Simpsonwood meeting transcript)

The full transcript of this secret, closed-door meeting held by the CDC at the United Methodist Retreat Center, Simpsonwood, can be read at NoMercury.org or PutChildrenFirst.org.

Many European countries have banned the use of thimerosal/mercury in vaccines for many years. Seven states have passed legislation banning the use of thimerosal/mercury in vaccines and similar legislation is pending in over 30 additional states. If there was no science to back up the dangers of using mercury in vaccines, we wouldn't be seeing such legislative efforts to ban its use.

In her most recent NBC appearance, Dr. Snyderman was asked why parents were filing claims on behalf of their vaccine-injured children, to which she answered matter-of-factly, "money." This cavalier statement alone goes far beyond contempt and displays an appalling ignorance of the emotional and financial devastation faced by families of vaccine-injured children. This must be addressed by an immediate apology from NBC to all the parents of children suffering from vaccine-induced illnesses.

We urge you to speak with the growing number of scientists who have published research supporting a causal link between mercury in vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders, and can provide you contact information for these researchers.

Reporting false information is a disservice to the American people. When it comes to the children and the unborn in this country, we should err on the side of safety, regardless of personal belief, conviction, or backing from the pharmaceutical industry.

Based on the misinformation presented by Dr. Snyderman, and the potential for harm this has brought to bear upon children, we ask for her resignation. We will accept nothing less than a full and public retraction of her false statements, along with an apology from your
network.

We expect an immediate response to our request. We can be contacted
at 828-776-0082 or amy@....

Respectfully,
Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning (ACHAMP)
Autism Healing Network
Autism Recovery Resources of Washington (ARROW)
Autism Solution Center, Inc
Autism Society of Oregon – Lane County Chapter
Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD)
David A. Geier,Vice-President Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc.
Developmental Delay Resources (DDR)
Dr. Boyd Haley, Bio-Chemist, Chemistry Department University of Kentucky
Educate Before You Vaccinate
Foundation For Autism Information and Research
Foundation for Mercury Injured Children
Generation Rescue
John Wilson, MD Great Smokies Medical Center
K Paul Stoller, MD, President, International Hyperbaric Medical Association
KindTree Productions, Inc
Mark R. Geier, MD, Ph.D., FABMG, President Genetic Centers of America
Maryland Autism Recovery Coalition
Mercury Free Maryland
Moms Against Mercury
Moms of Hope
National Autism Association
No Mercury
SOAR! Salem Oregon Autism Resources
Talk About Curing Autism (TACA)
Texas Autism Recovery
TN4SaferVaccines
Treating Autism in the UK
UnInformed Consent
US Autism and Asperger Association
World Mercury Project

Media White Wash of Vaccine Hearings

So the media coverage that I have looked at has been a mile wide but only an inch deep. Most outlets are just reporting the "no link" party line, with the notable exception of Sharyl Atkinson at CBS.

Fox's John Gibson interviewed Dr. Raj for his show. Dr. Raj did not know how to pronounce thimerosal but she was sure that it was safe. Not the kind of "expert" advice that I am gonna bet my child's brain on.

And can I ask, what sort of deal with the devil has Paul Offit has made that people still consider him a credible source for objective advice on vaccine safety? The man holds a vaccine patent with Merck! But no one seems to care! ABC's website quotes Paul Offit, again telling us that vaccines are made of bubble gum and raindrops, with out disclosing the conflict of interest.

But the prize for most egregious conflict of interest goes to NBC for their coverage of the vaccine trials with their expert Dr. Nancy Snyderman. Nancy, who is just looking out for our best interests, assures us that there is no connection what so ever and thimerosal is out of all vaccines except for one (she thinks) which only has a trace amount. (Check the CDC's web site to see if she is right). Also Nancy is a Vice President at Johnson and Johnson who are currently being sued for their Rhogam shot for pregnant women that contained thimerosal. NBC forgot to mention that.

[UPDATE: NBC's web site reporting that she is 'formerly' of Johnson & Johnson. Will get confirmation of this].

[Internet chatter had indicated that she had been suspended by NBC for making a Tylenol commercial, but she was reportedly on the air today the 13th.]

One story after another say "no evidence". Has any one in the media stopped to ask themselves, "Then what are these parents going to be presenting in court from 9am to 6pm for two weeks?" And if it is open and shut and there is no evidence to support the theory, then why will it take the Special Masters a year to render their decision?

"Hmmmm...", some smart journalist somewhere should be thinking. "I wonder if I should listen in on the hearings and see what the petitioners have to say".

Michael Dorausch has noticed reporting irregularities as well:

Vaccine Related Autism Cases Killed in Press
planetc1.com-news@11:24 am PST email to the editor
by Michael Dorausch, DC

When it comes to the press, the near 5000 parents suggesting vaccines were the cause of their child's autism and who are seeking compensation from a federal vaccine fund, have a better chance of getting Paris Hilton elected as president in 2008 than they do getting their stories told without bias in the news.

It was late Saturday night when I noticed the first 50 or so articles appearing on Google News, related to hearings that began on Monday, involving parents of autistic children that believe vaccinations are the cause of their child's disorder.

These were all pre-release articles and they were being distributed by major newswires, appearing in the most local of papers, both on Sunday and Monday. By Sunday afternoon there were about five hundred indexed in Google News, and the court cases had not even started.

The articles were written by different authors but nearly every one of them contained the same information, all content probably being derived from the same original source. You can do a Google News search to view articles that were published on Sunday, a day before the court hearings began.

The theme in nearly every article painted a picture of scientists versus activists. In every article I viewed there was a suggestion that scientists had strong evidence, citing government supported studies, that vaccinations have nothing to do with autism. In my opinion, the majority of articles also portrayed activists as hysterical parents that were not interested in science, but instead fear a government conspiracy cover-up.

In all articles I viewed, the scientific evidence cited comes from government supported studies and some even featured comments from "experts" that have ties to vaccine manufacturing. What I expect you won't see in the news are any independent studies that may suggest otherwise. However, what you may see in the news will be researchers and scientists that have taken a stance against the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal (thy-MEHR'-uh-sahl), having their credibility attacked.

Regardless whether who is wrong or right, both parties deserve an equal voice. In my opinion, methods used in creating and distributing current news, make this nearly impossible.

It would be nice to someday see an author actually do research on a topic such as this, and deliver a story that was equally weighted, providing unedited quotes from both governmental and nongovernmental scientists, parents, activists, researchers, and others knowledgeable on the topic. Getting it published and distributed in the major media is a whole other story.

UPDATE: After reading his article again, I have realized that no media outlets are reporting on the trial, just that there is a trial. Are the parents the only ones listening in on the trial?

Isn't this case is far more important than all of the celebrity trials of the last 20 years combined? Either parents are right and we are poisoning generations of children, or parents are wrong and we are threatening the vaccine program that can save lives.

Yet court TV's web site makes no mention of the hearings. They do however have a front page article on how fans were disappointed that Tony Soprano didn't get wacked.

UPDATE: About.com to the rescue! Lisa Jo Rudy is covering the trial and even interviewing a lawyer for the petitioners. Thanks for the balance Lisa.

Welcome Thi-Curious

I have lots and lots of new visitors today because of the Vaccine Omnibus Hearings and apparently the Wall Street Journal is linking here, so to those of you who have come to learn about Thimerosal and it's relationship to autism, I would like to bring your attention to a few posts that will be of interest to you.

1. A brief history of thimerosal that I wrote two years ago to educate some Senators.

2. A discussion of the fatal flaws in the two studies that are used most often to prove that thimerosal in vaccines has no relationship to Autism.

3. A good primer on what is going on in the hearing this week.

4. Your source for daily updates on the hearing.

5. Information for those of you who would like to listen in on the hearings for yourself via teleconference.

6. A picture of my beautiful 5 year old son Chandler who regressed into autism following his 18 month vaccinations.



Thank you for visiting and let me know if I can be of assistance.

Let the Games Begin

EVENT INFORMATION
-----------------

Company: US Courts
Event Title: Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Case #98-916V. (Day 1)
Event Date: Jun 11, 2007
Event Time: 9:00 AM EST

You previously registered for the following event

EVENT INFORMATION
=================

Title of Event: Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Case #98-916V.(Day 1)
Speaker:
Event Date: Jun 11, 2007
Event Time: 9:00 AM, EST
Conference ID: 8882103
Daily audio and transcripts can be obtained at:

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/omnibus-austim-proceeding

For general information visit:

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/vaccine-programoffice-special-masters

To access the audio conference portion:
* US/Canadian participants dial: (888-638-9716)

* Please tell the operator you are calling to join the autism hearing.

VAP on Vaccine Omnibus Hearings

Vaccine Autoimmune Project (VAP)
June 10, 2007

The first Autism-Vaccine trial from the group of 4,800 will be heard in the Federal Vaccine Court on June 11, 2007:

United States Court of Federal Claims - Office of Special Masters Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services Case No. 98-916V ftp://autism.uscfc.uscourts.gov/autism/cedillo.html

Theresa Cedillo is a dear friend to everyone at VAP, and her daughter, Michelle, has suffered greatly from adverse reactions to vaccines. Her story is not just a "case", it's unbelievably heart-wrenching.

With the permission of the Cedillo's, VAP will provide updates of the trial beginning June 11 by posting daily transcripts and, if available, audio. Dr. Yazbak will include commentaries.

http://www.vaproject.org/vaccinetrials/us.htm

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) is a federal program that was passed by US congress in 1986 to compensate families for injuries and death as a direct result of vaccinations.

The program "shielded" vaccine-makers so they would not go bankrupt as a result of being sued for vaccine-injuries. It also enabled vaccine manufacturers to add countless inadequately tested vaccines to the child vaccination schedule. Patients pay a 75 cent excise tax for each vaccine and that adds $200 million to the compensation fund each year. The pharmaceutical companies do not have to pay for the vaccine injuries they cause. Tax payers do.

Our children, Jonny and Sierra are also in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and their cases will be heard by the Federal Vaccine Court. Both developed Autism and immediate life-threatening damages and long-term illnesses as a direct result of their vaccinations.

Jonny and Sierra's story - published May 8, 2007 Vaccine Induced Autism:
http://www.vaproject.org/personalstories/jonny-sierra.htm

For countless families, these years have been unimaginable as they've waited for their children's stories to be heard. The near 5,000 cases are just a mere fraction of children who experience serious adverse vaccine reactions. Most do not get accepted into the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program because there is just a small window of opportunity due to the very limiting restrictions for filing. For those who make it into the National VICP, the federal court can never grant true justice or fair compensation to the children who have been harmed by vaccinations.

All vaccine-injured children are left to needlessly suffer. Families are left with the outrageous bills, system discriminations, and pain. As a result too many children go without the care they require and many are eventually institutionalized.

VAP Co-Founder and Director, Ray Gallup shares his son's story Eric's story and the Autism Epidemic:
http://www.vaproject.org/personalstories/erics-story.htm

It costs $3.2 million to take care of an autistic person over his or her lifetime. Caring for all people with autism over their lifetimes costs an estimated $35 billion. 1 in 150 children has autism, a figure the CDC estimated several years ago but only recently published. 1 in 6 children suffer from a developmental disorder.

Ray Gallup has been tracking the Autism statistics for the community since 1998:
http://www.vaproject.org/statistics/autism-statistics.html

Words cannot begin to describe this nightmare and the ruthless harm countless children have endured across the globe. As more vaccines have been added to the vaccine schedule, more and more children suffer form serious injuries, illnesses, and death. All childhood disease of enormous proportions is rapidly on the rise. This outbreak coincides with the increases in the mass-vaccination schedule.

VAP extends it heart and support to the Cedillo's. We hope that everyone will share their prayers with this family.

Thank you,
Barbara and Butch Labrecque
Ray Gallup

Vaccine Autoimmune Project (VAP)
Funding science and care for the inflicted
http://www.vaproject.org
Barbara Labrecque
Butch Labrecque
Ray Gallup

PARENTS TO:
*JONNY ~ "RECOVERED" AUTISTIC ENTEROCOLITIS, ORGAN DISEASE, GI/BOWEL
DISEASE, "LNH", PANCREAS DISEASE, METABOLIC DISEASE, IMMUNE
DYSFUNCTION, ALLERGIC GASTROENTERITIS, MITOCHONDRIAL DISEASE, OCD &
ANXIETY, POST-VACCINE ENCEPHALOPATHY DAMAGES
*SIERRA ~ "RECOVERED" AUTISTIC ENTEROCOLITIS, APRAXIA, AUTOIMMUNE
ENTEROCOLITIS, ORGAN DISEASE, GI/BOWEL DISEASE, "LNH", PANCREAS
DISEASE, METABOLIC DISEASE, IMMUNE DYSFUNCTION, ALLERGIC
GASTROENTERITIS, ALLERGIC ENTEROPATHY, PROTEIN-LOSS ENTEROPATHY, POST-
VACCINE ENCEPHALOPATHY DAMAGES, SURVIVED ON A FEEDING MACHINE 3 YEARS

Barbara H Labrecque
Child Advocate
bnblabrecque@stny.rr.com
607-734-0036
President, Vaccine Autoimmune Project (VAP):
http://www.vaproject.org
Founder, Recovering Autism
Founder, TOXIC HUMANS
RecoveringAutism meetup:
http://autism.meetup.com/223/about/
1 in 6 children suffers from a developmental disease ~
1 in 150 have Autism...
There is NO such thing as a "genetic" epidemic!
Just gimme some TRUTH!

Kirby on HuffPo: See You In (Vaccine) Court

See You In (Vaccine) Court
by David Kirby
The Huffington Post
Posted June 7, 2007 | 07:05 PM (EST)


On Monday, one of the most important legal proceedings in American medical history will get underway at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington. There, a special panel of three judges will begin hearing evidence to support -- and refute -- the hypothesis that mercury in vaccines and/or the live-virus measles-mumps-rubella shot caused autism or autism-like symptoms in some American children.

Monday will mark the first time ever that evidence of autistic harm from childhood vaccines is examined and cross-examined in a court of law. This is far from a slam dunk case for either side, and the stakes - professional, financial, emotional - could not be more intense.

These three judges from the federal "Vaccine Court," as it is called, are about to dip into the raging, contradictory waters of the vaccine-autism contretemps, knowing they must emerge on the other side, each with their own acutely anticipated decision about causation. Ultimately, they must deliver judgment on some 4,800 claims that have been languishing in the system for years.

I do not envy them their task.

Technically, at least, this is not a trial at all; it is an "Autism Omnibus Proceeding" in a no-fault, supposedly non-adversarial adjudication. The judges are not judges, but "Special Masters;" plaintiff families and their lawyers are called "petitioners," and the defendant, called the "respondent," is not some drug giant, but the Department of Health and Human Services, represented by well-funded attorneys at the US Justice Department.

Any claims awarded in Vaccine Court are paid from a 75-cents-per-vaccine tax footed by consumers, leaving vaccine makers free from liability.

But if even one case of causation is determined, then private lawsuits in civil courts - where the drug makers themselves are on trial - would soon flood the dockets. (Ironically, if families lose in Vaccine Court, they are free to sue in civil court. Having autistic kids appear before sympathetic juries is Big Pharma's big nightmare, and it's why a secret rider was attached to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to bar thimerosal cases from civil court and force them into Vaccine Court).

Over the next three weeks, evidence on both sides of the first "test case" will be picked apart to its bare bones, with one gaping exception. Petitioners were just denied access to the government's vast vaccine safety database of HMO patients, which was used by CDC officials to conduct a four-year study that ultimately found no link between thimerosal and autism. Earlier versions of the study, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, however, clearly showed increased risks for many neurodevelopmental disorders, depending on the dose of thimerosal administered.

No wonder a special panel convened by the NIH recently issued a harsh critique of the CDC's data collection and management, saying the study contained "several serious problems... weaknesses and limitations" that "reduce its usefulness" in proving or disproving causation.

And so, numbers culled from the government's massive database will be submitted as Exhibit A for the defense, though the other side will be forever barred from seeing the actual raw data, in order to replicate what the CDC researchers found. (Exact replication is impossible because original datasets, culled at taxpayer expense, somehow "went missing" and are no longer available for re-analysis - a possible felony violation of the federal Data Quality Act).

On the other hand, the burden of proof for plaintiffs is lower in Vaccine Court than other federal courts, which could even things out a little.

Nearly all of the government's evidence will be "epidemiological" in nature - based on large population studies of computerized data. These include the CDC study, plus similar research done in Sweden, Denmark and the UK which found that, if anything, thimerosal had a "neuro-protective" effect on children by apparently reducing their risk of autism.

Petitioning attorneys will counter that Federal Court rules regard epidemiology alone as being "insufficient" to disprove causation, and will surely use the NIH panel's critique of the government's own database as a roadmap toward defanging the CDC's conclusions. To begin with, the CDC found an autism rate of just 11-per-10,000 children at the largest participating HMO, where the actual rate is currently 73-per-10,000. Why so many excluded children, they will likely ask, and how did this affect the rate of outcomes?

As for Denmark, petitioning lawyers will argue that autism case numbers increased after 1992, when thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines, mostly because the Danish government happened to switch from counting inpatient-diagnosed cases only - about 13% of the total - to counting all inpatient AND outpatient cases nationwide. By 1999 the total number had "gone up" to about 200 children a year, in a nation of 6.2 million people - well below the current US rate of 1-in-150 kids, and not exactly a raging epidemic.

The lawyers might also point out that incidence and prevalence rates of autism actually declined in Denmark during 2000, and again (we now know, only through FOIA) in 2001. And they could cite a media quote from Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, professor of public health at UC-Davis School of Medicine and chair of the NIH panel that critiqued the CDC study. Flawed as the CDC analysis was, she called it "an improvement on other studies, including the two in Denmark, both of which had serious weaknesses in their designs."

For their side of the argument, family lawyers will present thousands of pages of published "biological" science, as opposed to epidemiology. They will examine data from animal models, test tube studies, and examinations of children with autism; they will try to present a plausible biological mechanism by which mercury (and to a lesser extent, MMR) could cause autistic-like symptoms -- at the molecular, cellular, and clinical level.

Among this evidence is research suggesting that:

1) Many children with autism, probably due to genetics, are deficient in certain sulfur-based proteins that defend against heavy metal accumulation in humans. The proteins, which include glutathione, are called "thiols," and sometimes "mercaptans," from the Latin mercurium captans, or literally "mercury capturers."

2) Many children with autism show signs of heavy metal accumulation, including elevated levels of proteins called "prophyrins" a bio-marker of lead and mercury toxicity. They also present with low levels of mercury in baby haircuts, (versus control children) suggesting a heavy metal "efflux disorder" that prevents the proper metabolism and excretion of heavy metals.

3) Exposure to extremely low doses (micromolars) of thimerosal, previously thought to be safe, shut down 25% of brain stem cells, in one lab study.

4) In another, low-level exposures of a few minutes duration killed many of the immune system's "dendritic" cells, disrupted production of immune-system messenger chemicals called "cytokines," and caused inflammation.

5) Meanwhile, many children with autism show signs of immune deficiency AND hyperactivity, as well as cytokine imbalances and inflammation, (they also show signs of chronic autoimmunity, where the immune system attacks the body and brain).

6) Organic ethylmercury from thimerosal crosses the blood-brain barrier in primates, where it quickly converts to inorganic mercury, which can remain trapped in the brain for decades.

7) Inorganic mercury trapped in primate brains caused neuro-inflammation (ie, rapid brain growth) by activating "glial" cells in the brain.

8) Autopsies on autistic human brains found chronic inflammation, apparently linked to the brain's immune system and produced by activation of its "glial" cells.

9) Another autopsy study also showed ongoing neuro-inflammation, possibly from heavy metal exposure, and signs of autoimmunity. (Other studies have found rapid brain growth in infants with autism.)

10) Thimerosal can disrupt a chemical process called "methylation," critical for gene expression, neural function, memory and attention, and the production of sulfur-based "thiol" proteins like glutathione.

Plaintiff lawyers will also show data from a study of birthday videos proving that many kids with autism were meeting or exceeding developmental milestones at age one, only to have tumbled into a wordless, autistic world by age two. They will also show home videos of plaintiff children, before and after their own regression, and in many cases, of the same children a few years after experimental treatments - including chelation (for heavy metal removal) and methyl B-12 (for repair of methylation) - that seem to have vastly improved their condition.

At this point, government lawyers will surely try to discredit these biological studies, one-by-one. They could succeed, though it will be tough, given the data's provenance. Lead authors come from institutions such as Harvard, Northeastern, Columbia, UC Davis, Johns Hopkins, and the Universities of Washington, Arkansas, Kentucky and Rochester, and their papers were published in peer-reviewed journals such as Molecular Psychiatry, and the NIH's Environmental Health Perspectives.

The defense also has a few biological studies to support its side, including one showing no difference in the mercury levels of blood and hair of typical vs. autistic kids. But the mean age in this study was four years old, and mercury does not linger around in blood or hair for that long.

Another study showed the thimerosal containing drug Rho-Gam (given to pregnant women, and not a vaccine) did not increase the risk of autism in children, though this study was funded by Johnson & Johnson, the product's manufacturer and a potential thimerosal litigation defendant.

Likewise, the plaintiffs might offer some epidemiology, including one study from the University of Texas showing increased rates of autism in school districts near mercury-emitting coal power plants, and another, funded by the CDC itself, where children with autism in the SF Bay Area were 50% more likely to be born in the region's most mercury-polluted tracts, suggesting "a potential association between autism and estimated metal concentrations."

Finally, expect to hear hours of testimony about California. Mercury was phased out of childhood vaccines (except the flu shot) a few years ago, the argument goes, so there should have been a drop in autism rates by now, especially in California, which keeps the most reliable autism statistics. It's a very powerful contention, but it may be too early to make any final conclusions.

Among the youngest children, 3-to-5-year-olds, the number of cases was still increasing after the first quarter of 2007. These kids were born and vaccinated between 2002 and 2004, after thimerosal was removed from vaccines, right?

It's true, most companies started making preservative-free vaccine in 2001, but they also continued making product with thimerosal, as a backup during the transition period. Little, if any of those mercury-containing vaccines were ever recalled: They remained on the market, until they were finally used up or expired, in 2003.

Government lawyers will likely point to a 2002 survey of vaccine providers, conducted by the CDC, showing that just 2% of the pediatric shots contained thimerosal. But this was a survey of providers under CDC contract only, and CDC had a record of buying mercury-free vaccines for its clients (ie, state, county and other public health clinics) even before 1999, when the federal government called for the removal of thimerosal from the pediatric schedule "as soon as possible."

It's not clear how many of the CDC contract providers surveyed were in California, where the vast majority of children receive care in private practices and large HMOs. Moreover, the CDC survey was merely a "convenience sample," which are so inaccurate in representing the general population they are virtually never used in published data. In fact, the US DOJ itself defines them as "rarely useful in evaluation and usually hazardous."

Meanwhile, the state has quietly been tracking the number of autism cases by birth year, as well as age group, meaning we can look at the very youngest children entering the system. In the first quarter of 2003, there were 170 children with autism in the state system born in 2000 (or, roughly, three-year-olds). In the first quarter of 2004, the number of three-year-olds increased 8.2% to 184. In 2005 the same number went up 13%, to 208, and in 2006 it jumped nearly 27% to 264. But this year, among kids born in 2004, it was 251, a 5% drop.

This could be attributable to some quarterly reporting glitch, and the caseload could easily be made up in the next quarter (that data will be out in mid-July). But if the deficit continues, the 2004 birth cohort could finish out as the first in which case numbers actually fell. (A similar trend might be emerging at Northern California Kaiser, a major HMO).

Of course, it would take tremendous resources to get to the bottom of this, lawyers might argue. One would need full medical records on each of those 251 kids born in 2004. Did any receive thimerosal still left in California vaccines (or prenatally via Rho-Gam)? How many were exposed to mercury in flu shots during pregnancy and as infants? And in a population that is now one-quarter foreign born, how many children immigrated from countries where immunization with thimerosal is now routine? (Vaccination coverage in Mexico is now 92%).

Is immigration helping keep the California numbers up? We don't have that data. But we do know that, since 2003, the rate of increase among white and black children was 48.6% and 51.6%, respectively. Among Asian children, however, it was 79%, and among Hispanics, 84.2%. Probably something worth looking into (as well as the effect of aggressive early intervention campaigns, which have consistently brought down the average age of diagnosis and would likely drive up the number of three year olds in the system).

But again, this is epidemiology coming out of California, and the Special Masters are looking at specific children with specific claims before their court. Officials from the state have been warning all of us (and that includes me) not to read too much into these numbers.

At the International Meeting For Autism Research last month, California health officials presented their data along with this caveat: "Limitations of the database and lack of individual exposure data prevent conclusions, based on these data, about thimerosal as a cause or modifier of autism in a specific subgroup or child."

It is entirely possible that thimerosal itself did not cause the autism epidemic, but that is not what is on trial here. Even so, for the sake of argument, let's say that a "specific subgroup" of people with autism, maybe 1%, was affected by mercury in their vaccines. With an estimated 1.5 million Americans with autism, that would mean 15,000 people severely impacted by thimerosal.

But, if causation can be shown in even 1% of cases, this would provide tremendous hope for the other 99%. Yes, some cases may be purely genetic in nature. But for everyone else, if we can show how thimerosal caused "autism," we might be able to do the same for, say, pesticides, PCBs, flame retardants, jet fuel, environmental mercury in air, water and fish, or any combination thereof.

It's a tough call and, like I said, I don't envy these Special Masters, though I do thank them for opening the proceedings to the public.

And I will see you in Vaccine Court.

----------------

David Kirby is author of the book "Evidence of Harm." Many of the studies cited here can be found on his Powerpoint slides at www.evidenceofharm.com

Legal Times: Vaccine Omnibus Hearings

UPDATE: Welcome Wall Street Journal Readers. For helpful background on the Thimerosal, Vaccine research, and daily hearing updates, visit this post. Enjoy!

Test Case Linking Vaccines and Autism Reaches Federal Court
Tuesday June 5, 3:02 am ET
Tony Mauro, Legal Times

The family stories are remarkably, painfully, similar.

They begin begin with toddlers developing well, and happily. Then they are taken to the doctor's office for routine vaccines which, in the early 1990s, often were bundled together.

A week after the shots, the devastation begins: loss of speech and eye contact, high fever, constant pain, screaming, bowel problems, no sleep. The children no longer respond to their names; later, they are diagnosed with autism or related disorders.

"Words alone cannot explain the trauma of watching your only child's health deteriorate to such a degree before your eyes," Theresa Cedillo of Arizona writes in an e-mail to Legal Times.

On June 11, the case of Michelle Cedillo, Theresa's daughter, goes before an extraordinary tribunal assembled by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Its goal is to determine, for the first time in a judicial proceeding, whether the combination of certain vaccines and thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative, can cause autism -- a set of disorders that is gaining attention as more and more children are diagnosed, as many as one in 150 children born in the United States. The government has long denied such a link exists.

In her first comments to the media since her case began in 1998, Theresa Cedillo tells Legal Times, "The profound downward change in Michelle's health began seven days following the MMR [measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine]."

Of her daughter, now 12, she adds, "Her childhood has passed right before our eyes spent in hospitals and doctors' offices, not in parks and with little friends. The trauma of the sheer human suffering she endures every day is beyond explanation and understanding, filling us with overwhelming anguish."

Michelle, her mother says, "will require a very highly skilled and involved level of daily care as she continues to age ... It is our hope that she can gain some type of communication skills in the future."

Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services was picked as a test case from more than 4,800 autism claims that have been filed with the little-known court, which sits anonymously overlooking Lafayette Square near the White House. The outcome of the case, the court hopes, will guide the disposition of other claims and prevent the need for repetitive discovery and expert witness testimony.

The determination also could shake -- or bolster -- public confidence in the vaccine system and affect autism litigation worldwide.

During three weeks of testimony, the hotly contested issue of causation will be advanced and picked apart by expert witnesses. A sign of the emotions infused into the case: The court sealed the names of the witnesses, for fear they would be harassed.

The trial before three special masters will take place in a 400-seat courtroom that may be filled with parents and their lawyers, as well as lawyers and lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry, which has a huge but indirect stake in the case. Special arrangements have been made to enable out-of-town parents to listen to the trial by phone, and transcripts and audio of the trial will be made available online.

"There's never been another case like this," says Kevin Conway of Boston's Conway, Homer & Chin-Caplan, one of Cedillo's lawyers.

TOO STRONG A CASE?

The proceeding is more than five years in the making. The plaintiffs lawyers and the government, with an occasional assist from pharmaceutical companies, have been jockeying over discovery issues for years. On May 25, the special masters denied a long-pending request by the plaintiffs for access to a massive vaccine database developed by the government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and private managed-care organizations.

"It's infuriating," says Conway, asserting that the database would have been an important resource for Cedillo's witnesses. Instead, he says, about 250,000 other documents have been released over the years, which Conway describes as "a haystack without a needle -- useless."

Some lawyers also question whether Cedillo's was the right one to pick as a test case. Michelle's extreme reaction, while not rare among claimants, may not result in a ruling that that will help children with a less severe or more delayed injury. "Her case may be too strong," says Curtis Webb, a plaintiffs lawyer from Twin Falls, Idaho. "I wonder if a ruling in her favor will let other kids win."

Rita Shreffler of Nixa, Mo., is one of the parents who hopes to be in the audience for at least some of the trial. Shreffler is the mother of Andrew, 15, and Mary, 13, both of whom have autism -- both, she believes, the result of childhood vaccines.

"They were totally normal until about 18 months," she says in a phone interview. After their routine vaccinations, "I saw them slip away. There were really drastic personality changes." Andrew cried constantly, she recalls. "I swear he didn't sleep for three years."

Shreffler, now executive director of the National Autism Association, has joined the upcoming claims court litigation on behalf of her children. "If you look at the scientific evidence, it's a no-brainer" that the mercury in the thimerosal preservative caused or contributed to their autism. "My son got a level of mercury injected into him, which, under [Environmental Protection Agency] guidelines, would be safe only if he weighed 1,100 pounds."

That mercury was delivered in the form of thimerosal, a preservative that is nearly 50 percent mercury.

With the addition of more vaccines -- for Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) and hepatitis among others -- to the typical regimen in the 1990s, children were exposed to more and more mercury.

"We were set up for disaster," says Cheryl Gaudino of Attleboro, Mass., another parent who believes there is a vaccine-autism connection. In 1997, when he was 13 months old, Gaudino's son Ryan was given the Hib and MMR vaccines during a doctor's visit for an ear infection. He'd had several rounds of antibiotics for earlier illnesses, so his immune system was already compromised, she says.

Within days, Ryan had an intense allergic reaction and developed vasculitis. "That means the valves in your veins leak," Gaudino says. "There is pooled blood under the skin. He looked like a burn victim." A photo from that time confirms her description.

Ryan recovered, but then lost language skills and continues with severe problems. "He can get out some of his wants," says Gaudino. "He will screech; he can hit himself; he can hit you."

'NO EVIDENCE OF HARM'

The question of whether thimerosal leads to autism did not surface widely until the late 1990s. Parents and autism groups now point angrily to both government and drug company documents that show questions were being raised years earlier about the safety of the mercury preservative. Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a controversial Rolling Stone article in 2005 accusing the government of "whitewashing" evidence of thimerosal's effects.

But the government, while phasing out the use of mercury preservatives in most vaccines, still says there is "no evidence of harm" from thimerosal. A 2004 study released by the Institute of Medicine, founded as part of the National Academy of Sciences, said the accumulation of scientific evidence "favors rejection of a causal relationship."

For many, that closed the debate, but for parents, bolstered by new studies that reach the opposite conclusion, as well as their own experiences, the connection is still apparent. Future test cases before the claims court will examine whether thimerosal alone, or the MMR vaccine alone, can also cause autism.

The Cedillo trial is a crucial moment not only for the causation issue but for the vaccine compensation system, devised by Congress in 1986 to limit the liability of vaccine makers.

Broad-based vaccination is one of the success stories of the 20th century, effectively killing off diseases ranging from smallpox to polio that used to afflict millions. The compensation system was meant to handle the rare but inevitable injuries that result from allergic and other reactions to vaccines. Under the 1986 law, instead of suing manufacturers, those injured by vaccines file claims against the government in the federal claims court -- which some call the "Vaccine Court."

Special masters acting as trial judges hear individual cases and award damages once a causal connection has been made. Pain and suffering damages are capped at $250,000, but lost wages, medical and educational costs, and lawyers' fees can all be compensated. Awards can top $1 million, and more than $750 million has been paid out since the program began.

But nobody envisioned the torrent of autism claims.

"This is the biggest group of cases we've ever handled," says Gary Golkiewicz, the court's chief special master. Cedillo and future test cases, says Golkiewicz, "will be critical in presenting the issues so we can get these decisions out as quickly as possible."

More than 5,100 autism-related claims have been filed since 1999 (some have been withdrawn) compared to 2,700 for all other vaccine claims since the program started operating in 1988.

If causation is shown, where will the money to compensate victims come from? Under the program, patients pay a 75 cent excise tax for each vaccine, which adds $200 million to a compensation fund each year, for a current total of $2.5 billion.

So the autism litigation, even if successful, won't actually cost the pharmaceutical industry a dime. And no drug-company lawyer will have a formal role in the upcoming trial. Yet the drug companies will be watching.

A PRO-VACCINE CAMPAIGN

One concern the companies have is the effect the case might have on public confidence in vaccines generally, says Randolph Moss, a partner at WilmerHale who advises pharmaceutical industry clients on vaccine issues. "This trial is a big deal from a public health perspective," Moss says. "There could be very dramatic public health consequences if the judges were to conclude, despite the strong scientific evidence to the contrary, that there is some connection between vaccines and autism or similar neurological disorders."

The CDC has voiced similar concerns, and pro-vaccine groups are approaching the media in advance of the June 11 trial.

But Jared Hansen of Framingham, Mass., sees an inherent conflict of interest for the CDC. "The same agency that is responsible for promoting vaccines is also assessing their risk," Hansen says. "It's a real tangle."

Hansen is another claimant in the upcoming autism litigation. His sons Jacob and William both have autism. Their problems began soon after they received standard vaccinations as toddlers. Jacob was not diagnosed with autism until after William was born and had received vaccinations.

Hansen says his main hope for the trial, which he will follow on the Internet, is that "the science finally gets a hearing." He has an open mind about it and says more research is needed.

"There is science to be done, yes," he says. "But with children involved, shouldn't we err on the side of safety?"

NAA: Dr. Proffit's Conflict of Interest

VACCINE-INDUCED AUTISM VICTIMS IN THE THOUSANDS WILL FINALLY GET DAY IN COURT

Despite spin from pharma companies and their minions that these cases are threats to disease outbreaks, parents cite ongoing conflicts of interest as the real threat to vaccine safety and disease

Washington, DC – Hearings will begin on June 11th at the U.S. Federal Claims Court to determine if autism is linked to vaccines and their components, including the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. As the Autism Omnibus Proceeding approaches, parents of children diagnosed with autism are calling attention to the conflicts of interest they believe continue to threaten the safety of vaccines.

Among the concerns cited by parents are the close ties between pharmaceutical companies and government regulatory agencies. A July, 2003 UPI investigation revealed the following:

* In two cases in the past four years, vaccines endorsed by the CDC were pulled off the market after a number of infants and adults appear to have suffered devastating side effects, and some died. Critics now worry about a possible link between vaccines and autism, diabetes, asthma and sudden infant death syndrome, among other ailments.
* Members of the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee get money from vaccine manufacturers. Relationships have included: sharing a vaccine patent; owning stock in a vaccine company; payments for research; getting money to monitor manufacturer vaccine tests; and funding academic departments.
* The CDC is in the vaccine business. Under a 1980 law, the CDC currently has 28 licensing agreements with companies and one university for vaccines or vaccine-related products. It has eight ongoing projects to collaborate on new vaccines.

Dr. Paul Offit, MD, former chairman of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which guides vaccine policy decisions at the CDC, embodies the conflicts of interest concern of parents. Dr. Offit has been a long-time defender of injecting mercury, a known neurotoxin, into infants and pregnant women. He is also co-patent holder of the RotaTeq vaccine with pharmaceutical giant Merck, a funder of his research for over a decade. Offit is speaking against parents today in support of the vaccine program and pharmaceutical companies at a press conference sponsored by Every Child by Two, a group also funded by pharmaceutical companies and supportive of injecting mercury into infants.

“In my opinion, as glaring as Dr. Offit’s conflicts are, what’s even more disturbing is that such close ties between vaccine policy decision makers and vaccine manufacturers are routine,” said parent and National Autism Association board member Scott Bono. “The bottom line has become vaccine profit rather than vaccine safety. Children diagnosed with autism are suffering the consequences of an unprecedented greed, and their parents aren’t going away until the public knows the full details of this man-made disaster.”

For more information, visit www.nationalautism.org and www.putchildrenfirst.org/Quicksummary.html

Vaccines Hearings PR Out of The Gate Early

This seems to have started Friday. Both sides are issuing press releases and conference calls and articles and such. With two weeks to go.

AUTISM FAMILIES KEEP CLOSE WATCH AS FIRST TEST CASE GOES TO VACCINE COURT

Washington, DC – The first test case of approximately 4800 claims that vaccines caused autism goes to federal court June 11th. Cedillo v. HHS will be heard by three special masters, part of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, established under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP).

Parents filed the claims after their children regressed into a diagnosis of autism following multiple rounds of vaccines, many of which were preserved with amounts of mercury that exceeded EPA guidelines.

Thimerosal’s inclusion as a vaccine component increased in the early 90’s, its rise mirroring the alarming rise in autism. Parents note their children’s symptoms of autism mimic mercury poisoning and many autistic children are now being successfully treated for mercury poisoning and damaged immune systems.

Earlier today, Ann Brasher, Board Member of the National Autism Association (NAA) stated, “I believe that NVICP will not provide the specialized medical care necessary for autistic children despite a favorable ruling for the plaintiffs. But the overwhelming evidence needs to be explored. The public deserves to know all the facts and the truth behind them.” Parents cite fatal flaws in the NVICP including:

* Families are forced to sue the government, which has no incentive to settle and can drag out cases for years while children go untreated.
* Unlike civil court, there is no right to discovery in vaccine court and no jury trial.
* The master denied access to vaccine company documents and CDC/HMO vaccine database records that would be routinely available in civil court.
* Tax payers end up paying for pharmaceutical mistakes. No other industry is allowed unparalleled protection in a “Free Market” economy.
* The massively profitable vaccine industry is not held liable, therefore has no incentive to create safe vaccines.

Several families who have waited years for justice and are willing to share stories of their children’s regression will be available for interviews during the hearings. For contact information, please write to naa@nationalautism.org.

To learn more, visit www.nationalautism.org.

Contact: Amy Pisani For
Immediate Release
Phone: (860) 443-1166 May 31,
2007
E-mail: amyp@ecbt.org Every Child By Two and the Sabin Vaccine Institute
Will Brief Reporters on the Upcoming Omnibus Autism Proceeding
³Vaccine Court² Hearing Scheduled to Begin June 11, 2007

What: Leading experts will brief reporters on the upcoming Omnibus Autism
Proceeding, which is scheduled to begin June 11 at the U.S. Federal Claims
Court in Washington, D.C. The Court will hold evidentiary hearings to
determine whether autism should be deemed a possible vaccine-caused injury
under the U.S. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Just over
4,800 petitioners have filed claims alleging that vaccines caused their
children's autism. The actions and decisions of the Court could have
significant legal and public health implications.

Who:
Bruce Berman, Partner, WilmerHale LLP
Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, FAAP, President, Sabin Vaccine Institute and Chair,
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine, The George
Washington University

Paul Offit, MD, Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases and Director, Vaccine
Education Center, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Amy Pisani, MS, Executive Director, Every Child By Two

When: Monday, June 4 from 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Where: Sabin Vaccine Institute, 1889 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., 8th
Floor Conference Room

RSVP: Please E-mail Amy Pisani (amyp@ecbt.org ) by
Friday, June 1 and let her know whether you will be attending in person or
by phone. The dial-in number is 1-866-463-5401 or 212-457-9857 and
participant PIN code is 590870#.

###

Every Child By Two, the Rosalynn Carter/Betty Bumpers Campaign for Early
Childhood Immunization, works to ensure that all children receive timely
immunizations and continues to seek methods to institutionalize vaccine
delivery and insure access to vaccines for all children. For more
information, please visit www.ecbt.org .

The Sabin Vaccine Institute is a non-profit public organization dedicated to
saving lives by stimulating the development and distribution of vaccines
throughout the world. The Institute is committed to continuing the work of
Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the oral live virus polio vaccine, who
envisioned the enormous potential of vaccines to prevent deadly diseases. To
learn more, visit www.sabin.org .

A-CHAMP Will Report Daily On Vaccine Hearings

A-CHAMP TO PROVIDE DAILY LEGAL REPORTING
ON CEDILLO HEARING IN VACCINE COURT

New York, New York
June 4, 2007
Contact:
Robert J. Krakow, Esq. 516-354-3300
rkrakow@earthlink.net

A-CHAMP, an organization that advocates for children with vaccine injuries and autism, is pleased to announce that it will be providing daily reporting and commentary on the proceedings in Cedillo v. The Department of Health and Human Services, the first case to be heard of the more than 4800 pending in the vaccine court’s Omnibus Autism Proceeding. The Cedillo case, which will be heard beginning June 11, 2007 by three Special Masters of the United States Court of Federal Claim will consider one theory relating to the claim that vaccines are a contributing causal factor in autism.

Mary Holland, Esq., who teaches law at New York University Law School, will be posting daily commentary on the proceedings on the A-CHAMP blog at http://achampblog.org. Ms. Holland has a child who has been diagnosed with autism but does not have a legal claim pending regarding her child’s disorder.

The goal of A-CHAMP’s reporting by Ms. Holland will be to provide incisive and accurate summaries of the proceedings. The proceedings, which are unprecedented in the history of tort litigation, have been a subject of confusion and controversy among parents. We hope that by elucidating the complexities of the proceedings parents will be placed in an improved position to understand the nature of the issues that will be decided in the vaccine court.

A-CHAMP will also be posting background articles and relevant documents on its website that will be linked to achampblog.org. As the Cedillo case proceeds A-CHAMP invites those who follow the proceedings to comment on it and on our reporting and commentary.

While it has been described as a “test” case the decision in the Cedillo case will not be binding on any other case nor is it necessarily representative of any other case. Many of the facts that likely will emerge in the Cedillo case will also very likely be unique to that case. Nevertheless, as the first legal proceeding in which the substantive claim that vaccines cause autism will be considered, the Cedillo case has historic implications.

For that reason and many others ACHAMP will be there to offer information and commentary to interested parents and others.

To register for daily audio feeds of the Cedillo proceedings go to:
http://registration.teleconferencingcenter.com/menu.php?short_name=autismphoneaudio or

http://tinyurl.com/2owrwd

To view the public documentary record of the Omnibus Autism Proceeding, obtain files containing the proceedings beginning June 11, and other relevant links go to:

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/omnibus-austim-proceeding

A brief biography of Mary Holland, Esq. will be posted at achampblog.org.

Listening in on the Vaccine Hearings

For anyone who wants to listen to the Vaccine Omnibus Hearings that begin on June 11th, Jeff Sell has passed on the link to register.

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/omnibus-austim-proceeding