Showing posts with label Poling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poling. Show all posts

May 27, 2009

Contradictory Rulings in the Vaccine Court

[An alternate version of this piece was written in response to an article in Utah Stories.]

Many have cited three cases in which The Health and Human Service's vaccine court ruled out vaccines as a cause of a child's autism, but don't mention the 10 cases (discovered by CBS News) that were won in that court by children with autism.

Three of those 10 families have gone public, The Polings, The Banks and The Hiatts.

The Poling case is the only one that received mainstream media coverage.

Only ten days after we heard that the court said MMR doesn't cause autism, we heard that the same court said that MMR caused Baily Banks autism.

"In his conclusion, Special Master Abell wrote:

The Court found that Bailey's ADEM was both caused-in-fact and proximately caused by his vaccination. It is well-understood that the vaccination at issue can cause ADEM, and the Court found, based upon a full reading and hearing of the pertinent facts in this case, that it did actually cause the ADEM. Furthermore, Bailey's ADEM was severe enough to cause lasting, residual damage, and retarded his developmental progress, which fits under the generalized heading of Pervasive Developmental Delay, or PDD. The Court found that Bailey would not have suffered this delay but for the administration of the MMR vaccine, and that this chain of causation was not too remote, but was rather a proximate sequence of cause and effect leading inexorably from vaccination to Pervasive Developmental Delay.

And he added this:

Petitioner's theory of PDD caused by vaccine-related ADEM causally connects the vaccination and the ultimate injury, and does so by explaining a logical sequence of cause and effect showing that the vaccination was the ultimate reason for the injury.

Shouldn't we be shouting a collective, "WHAT?!" to The Department of Health and Human Services for their contradictory positions?

Here is the thing, when the Department of Health and Human Services puts the Department of Health and Human Services on trial, and the Department of Health and Human Services wins, that is not news. When they put themselves on trial and loose, as in the Poling, Banks and Hiatt cases THAT IS NEWS!

THOSE are the cases we should be demanding answers from the government on.

The Poling family has requested that their daughters case files can be made public so everyone can know the reasoning behind HHS's decision, but HHS isn't sharing any of their insight into WHY Hanna deserves a million 20 million bucks for her vaccine injury.

So let's not boil this debate down to scientist v. tv stars. There are MANY in the scientific and public health community who believe that vaccines are involved in the autism epidemic.

And apparently HHS itself does too because it keeps paying claims for autistic kids.

Please take a moment and check out the VICP's vaccine injury table for yourself. You will note that "encephalopathy" is listed as a compensated injury for DTaP and MMR.

Then scroll down to the middle of the page and look at the symptoms of encephalopathy for 18 month olds:

1. Loss of eye contact
2. Unresponsive to stimuli except for loud shouts
3. Seems disconnected from the world around him

THAT is a description of a child with "autism".

THAT was a description of MY son after his DTaP shot for which he was diagnosed with "autism".

The government has ruled that vaccines do and do not cause autism. Are You ok with that solid, definitive, case closed argument?

I REALLY hope not.

It is time for HHS to make the Poling documents public, and to answer to the public for their untenable, illogical position.

March 11, 2008

The New York Times Wakes Up!

Wow!

The NYT, the most hostile publication to the vaccine/autism connection out there, that has denigrated parents like me for years, has just called for the VCIP cases to be unsealed!

The times they are a-changin!

A Puzzling Autism Case
Editorial
Published: March 11, 2008

The federal government’s concession that vaccines may have triggered brain deterioration with symptoms like autism in a young girl is sure to exacerbate concerns among parents worried about immunizations. It is imperative that the court for vaccine compensation unseal documents involved in this unusual case so that experts, families and their doctors can better understand exactly how Hannah Poling, now 9 years old, came to be harmed after receiving a battery of shots when she was a toddler.

For years medical authorities have been assuring us that sound epidemiological studies showed that vaccines and a mercury preservative once widely used in them were not implicated in causing autism, a condition characterized by lack of social skills, problems with communication and repetitive behaviors. That almost certainly remains true for the vast majority of youngsters.

Hannah’s case was complicated by a rare disorder that can deprive the brain of needed energy and cause neurological deterioration. When Hannah’s case was submitted to a federal vaccine compensation program, the government settled before the evidence was argued in a hearing. Government medical personnel apparently found that the vaccinations aggravated the underlying disorder. An alternative theory — that the vaccines may have caused the disorder — is viewed skeptically by government experts.

Top health officials are still urging parents to get their children vaccinated, and with good reason. All children deserve protection against infectious diseases, and even youngsters with these rare disorders may be at risk of neurological deterioration if they contract one of the diseases that vaccines protect them against.

It will be important to develop the best possible medical guidance for youngsters with rare defects. That effort would be enhanced if the government makes public all relevant documents in this puzzling case.


David Kirby's comments:

Stay tuned, this just got a LOT more interesting

I have been talking to lots of people over there, former colleagues and the like, for weeks

I am not taking credit for this! The Times moves at its own pace. But obviously, someone over there is paying attention

Let’s hope the FEDS release all the Poling documents – I know there will be pressure coming from Congress to do so as well

AND there is other activity going on behind the scenes right now on Capital Hill that will really shake things up, when it breaks.

Last year, an IOM panel warned senior staff at the CDC to get legal counsel. Boy, are they going to need it.

I think this long story is about to begin its final act.


DK