June 13th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
The United States Court of Federal Claims Court began a hearing that will serve as a test case for about 5000 claims of whether vaccinations had triggered autism in children. The case is Cedillo vs. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and my wife was nice enough to provide a link to the daily proceedings. As I read through the proceedings, I’ll put up some summary analysis and any noteworthy quotes.
Before I go let me reveal my biases. Yes, I do have a daughter with autism. Maybe it’s possible that it was triggered by vaccinations. Yet I do not begin the proceedings 100% in the plaintiff’s favor. At stake is access to the fund the federal government has created to protect vaccine manufacturers from monetary liability. The money comes from 50 cents to a dollar charged for every vaccination shot. If the plaintiff wins — and the case seems completely absurd — then we are talking about theft. Theft is bad, even when I’m the one stealing. 
I want the winner to be the truth.
It will be interesting to see the evidence laid out in front of the judges, known as “special masters” in these proceedings. I wish them the best of luck and hope they show no inkling of partiality as they consider the merits of the case.
Day 1, June 11
The opening statement to the plaintiff’s case and rebuttal by the defense are adversarial. The plaintiff has charged that the government has been in lockstep with the industry to protect it, while the defense attorney said he had several critiques against the industry himself. Both sides accuse the other of cherry-picking data. The plaintiff complains that there is no right to discovery and has had to fight for data, while the defendant claims the information the plaintiff asks for is irrelevant.
The story of Michelle Cedillo is quite sad. After four vaccinations with various degrees of thimerosal, a mercury-based compound, she then had an MMR vaccination. Afterwards she showed signs of wild measels, and when that cleared up she became developmentally delayed. The theory is that the mercury in the thimerosal compromised her immune system so that she could contract measels from the vaccine, and the mercury absorbed into her cells. There may be a genetic factor, such as Wilson’s disease, that prevents cells from naturally excreting heavy metals. The mercury then collects in the cells and causes neural havoc.
Plantiff brings forth Dr. H. Vasken Aposhian, a professor of molecular and cellular biology and a professor of pharmacology at the University of Arizona. The testimony and cross are strange: thimerosal is similar to mercury metal and mercury compounds such as mercuric and mercurous mercury, methyl mercury, dimethyl mercury, and ethyl mercury, and yet the effects of thimerosal do not correlate well with, for example, the extreme toxicity of dimethyl mercury. He does make interesting comments about the inability of autistic children to excrete mercury, as evidenced by the lack of mercury excreted through the hair of autistic children. Autistic children in a study had more mercury collected in their teeth than typical children. He has treated Wilson’s disease, a genetic disease that results in the accumulation of copper in human tissue, with penicillamine, so he decided to try chelating mercury out with DMSA. An interesting point is made during cross that the tolerance to mercury we expect from typical human beings may be higher than those with this genetic disposition.
This is definitely an object lesson never to use subjective adjectives in research papers. There are lots of questions as to what “lengthy”, “horrendous” and “significant” mean, and the witness has to back down.
The witness refutes an IP study from 2004, a Kern study from 2007, and a University of Missouri paper that don’t agree with his mercury results. Aposhian claims there may be a window of opportunity for harm, resulting in some studies that do their research at different times and thus get different results. He cites a study at Hopkins and a case study he did in Mexico to support his hypotheses.
After cross-examination by the Respondant, the Special Masters ask some questions. It is clear that they have read a lot of the evidence in advance.
Theresa Cedillo, the mother, is next. She gives Michelle’s story, again a very sad story of measles from the MMR and her ensuing autism. Michelle also has other conditions, like not being able to keep a lot of food down and low-density bone mass. There is no cross, but there is some review by the Special Masters as to the vaccination record.
Day 2, June 12
In the morning, further direct, cross, and master examination continued on Theresa Cedillo, Michelle’s mother. Quite the moving story, perhaps more so had I been able to watch the before and after videos of the child. All questioners were supportive.
Dr. Arthur Krigsman, pediatric gastroenterologist, took the stand in the afternoon. He started seeing autistic children in late 2000, as several children also had gastrointestinal issues. He was baffled with these kids who seemingly had no pathological cause for their issues. Most ended up having inflamed bowels. After seeing 22 kids with the same issues, he figured the autism and the bowel issues may be related. He began working with Michelle in 2002 after meeting Theresa at a Defeat Autism Now! conference. He treated Michelle for her GI issues with some success, but her treatments slowed her healing from a broken bone she suffered.
At this point I’m halfway through Day 2 and updating this post. Will continue later.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:10 am
My heart goes out to you and your family, autism is tough.
This case really should be thrown out. The causes of autism are not yet know. The discovery of the cause is hampered because autism is generally used as a catch all. It is hard to treat or research a disorder or disease when you haven’t even defined the disorder. I would also note that if mercury plays a role in autism it sounds as if the vaccines are not really the cause but are contributing to a previously undiagnosed condition. The pharmaceutical companies cannot be held accountable for a previously unknown and thus unforeseen unintended consequence. If they are smart, and pharmaceutical companies generally are, they will be taking this into consideration and will look for alternatives to thimerosal.
I would also be interested in knowing how many doses of the mmr she had when she contracted measels after the mmr. Because according to the CDC some people do not develop an immunity after the first dose.
“Why is a second dose of MMR necessary?
About 2%-5% of persons do not develop measles immunity after the first dose of vaccine. This occurs for a variety of reasons. The second dose is to provide another chance to develop measles immunity for persons who did not respond to the first dose.”
June 14th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Having read the first day and the first half of the second day, the autism-thimerosal connection seems weak, but there is good evidence that the MMR vaccine really affected this child. This may not be (again, I haven’t read it all yet) a good case for testing autism and vaccines because the MMR seems to have done so much damage on its own. I’ll have to read further testimony. I don’t think the case will be thrown out, if for the MMR stuff alone.
Dr. Aposhian’s work was in my opinion fairly questioned, and he will need help from immunologists and others to substantiate some of his claims.
June 14th, 2007 at 11:24 am
“the causes of autism are not yet known” and without investigations of this sort they many never be known. The numbers are staggering and the assistance is so lacking. I speak this from experience. I see my daughter exhaust every avenue possible to get help for her child. Until we change the paradigm that autism is behavioral and not medical, we may never make to progress to help these individuals become the highly productive adults that they could possibly be. I have to be very careful, my granddaughter is so special to me, just as she is, but I want so much more for her in the future. May God’s blessings and interventions be on each family struggling with autism and the treatments available. And, by the way, my granddaughter’s symptoms and regression did become apparent after childhood vaccinations, so no matter what the ruling is, there will be many of us who will continue to place the blame on greedy pharmaceutical companies.