A US Federal court designed to provide compensation to children injured from vaccines, has declared that evidence supporting an alleged causal link between autism and a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines is 'scientifically unsupportable'. Congress set up the special judicial forum, sometimes called the "vaccine court," in 1986 to address claims over vaccine safety, following pressure from parents and anti-vaccine lobbies who insisted there was a link. Three test cases brought before the court were to pave the way for a class action by thousands of parents of children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but after reviewing the cases it was deemed there was no convincing evidence. The vaccines and autism theory was popularised by Dr Andrew Wakefield following the publishing of his 1998 Lancet paper, which has subsequently been retracted. Wakefield was the subject of the longest investigation in the history of the UK General Medical Council for misconduct surrounding research for this paper. The GMC found he had been "callous" irresponsible" and "dishonest", was paid by lawyers to prove a link between vaccines and autism, had a patent submitted for his own single measles vaccine and conducted unnecessary and painful invasive procedures on children without the correct ethics approvals.
A US Federal court designed to provide compensation to children injured from vaccines, has declared that evidence supporting an alleged causal link between autism and a mercury-containing preservative in vaccines is 'scientifically unsupportable'.
Congress set up the special judicial forum, sometimes called the "vaccine court," in 1986 to address claims over vaccine safety, following pressure from parents and anti-vaccine lobbies who insisted there was a link.
Three test cases brought before the court were to pave the way for a class action by thousands of parents of children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but after reviewing the cases it was deemed there was no convincing evidence.
The vaccines and autism theory was popularised by Dr Andrew Wakefield following the publishing of his 1998 Lancet paper, which has subsequently been retracted. Wakefield was the subject of the longest investigation in the history of the UK General Medical Council for misconduct surrounding research for this paper. The GMC found he had been "callous" irresponsible" and "dishonest", was paid by lawyers to prove a link between vaccines and autism, had a patent submitted for his own single measles vaccine and conducted unnecessary and painful invasive procedures on children without the correct ethics approvals.
