February 13, 2009

Thimerosal Update

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THIMEROSAL UPDATE….The vaccine/autism community has made great hay out of a single case last year in which the government conceded that a child with a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder may have been “aggravated” by a series of shots.  It was only one of thousands of cases in federal court, though, so how will they react now that the main test cases have been decided?

In a major setback for the fight to link autism to vaccines, a special federal court ruled Thursday that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and vaccines that contained a mercury-based preservative were not connected to the autism that developed in three children.

The decisions in the cases [] could potentially sink the claims of several hundred other families in an omnibus proceeding that believe the MMR vaccine alone or in combination with vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal caused their children’s autism, said Curtis Webb, a lawyer for the Hazlehurst family.

….”I concluded the evidence was overwhelmingly contrary to the petitioners’ contentions,” George Hastings Jr. wrote in the Cedillo opinion, similar to the others. “The expert witnesses presented by the respondent were far better qualified, far more experienced and far more persuasive than the petitioners’ experts.”

Needless to say, this won’t convince anyone who doesn’t want to be convinced.  “There’s no denying what happens to your child when you see it firsthand,” said Rick Rollens, who has an autistic son and co-founded the UC Davis MIND Institute.  And: “Rollens and others said these verdicts wouldn’t make parents stop questioning the safety of vaccines, especially when the parents see changes in their children right after vaccination.”

No doubt.  Time for the rest of us to move on, though.

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At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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