NEWSFLASH: Rechtbank oordeelt dat thimerosal geen autisme veroorzaakt
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism, a special federal court ruled Friday in a long-running battle by parents convinced there us a connection. While expressing sympathy for the parents involved in the emotionally charged cases, the court concluded they had failed to show a connection between the mercury-containing preservative and autism.
Autisme theorie definitief afgedaan
The ruling came in the so-called vaccine court, a special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims established to handle claims of injury from vaccines. It can be appealed in federal court. Friday’s decision that autism is not caused by thimerosal alone follows a parallel ruling in 2009 that autism is not caused by the combination of vaccines with thimerosal and other vaccines. The new ruling was welcomed by Dr. Paul Offit of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who said the autism theory had “already had its day in science court and failed to hold up.” In Friday’s action the court ruled in three different cases, each concluding that the preservative has no connection to autism.
Truthers en maatregelen
On the other side of the issue, a group backing the parents’ theory charged that the vaccine court was more interested in government policy than protecting children. “The deck is stacked against families in vaccine court. Government attorneys defend a government program, using government-funded science, before government judges,” Rebecca Estepp, of the Coalition for Vaccine Safety said in a statement. Meanwhile, in reaction to the concerns of parents, thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines in the United States.
Cijfers en Feiten
More than 5,500 claims have been filed by families seeking compensation through the government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and the rulings dealt with test cases to settle which if any claims had merit. Worry about a vaccine link first arose in 1998 when a British physician, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, published a medical journal article linking a particular type of autism and bowel disease to the measles vaccine. The study was later discredited.
