The autism connection to vaccines should be over. A few days ago, a U.S court ruled that the evidence just isn't there. End of story. Or is it? I highly recommend you read the blog entry by "Orac" on this as he summarizes the research that launched a thousand lawsuits. Andrew Wakefield is a fraud. I had written before about how his Lancet study in 1998 had been found to be false and was retracted. The Sunday Times in the UK explain how Wakefield faked his data. Unfortunately, the antivaccine movement had used this as their vehicle to show that someone or something caused autism in their child. Wakefield has actually been deified by these people even though he was paid by lawyers to do the study. He is exactly what is wrong in healthcare. Heck, he is the Madoff of medicine. Thousands of cases of measles have been caused by him. More and more other viruses will also be back.
So now that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (get ready to see more of these in the future) does not have to pay and the highest U.S. court to date said there is no merit to the evidence, will that stop the antivaccine movement? Well, let's look at Rita Rubin's piece in the USA Today. After this huge court case result is handed down, one mother says, "We're going to have our day in court". Ma'am, with all due respect, that was your day in court.
I understand this is a sad day for these parents. I don't want to sound unsympathetic. I have been blessed with healthy children and I have a large number of autistic children in my medical practice. I feel for them. I am not sure, however, that continuously trying to find a culprit (vaccines) is healthy. People like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. need to move on and stop giving these parents false hope so that they may finally get some closure and heal.
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