Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Judges Ruling in Federal Vaccine Injury Controversy
Seeking Compensation from the Federal Vaccine Injury Fund
In an article in The New York Times, three federal judges recently ruled against three families in test cases seeking compensation for child autism cases from the federal vaccine injury fund.
The judges said that the families had not shown that their children’s autism was brought on by the presence of thimerosal, a mercury vaccine preservative, by the measles virus used in the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine.
According to the article, there are 5,000 more cases pending where families are seeking compensation from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, by trying to prove that MMR vaccines injured their children.
In a published statement, the Department of Health and Human Services said this determination by federal judges should reassure parents that vaccines do not cause autism.
Vaccine Symptoms and Injuries
The compensation fund was created because it is recognized that vaccines are not risk-free. In a small number of cases they can cause seizures, high fevers and other symptoms. The fund was created to compensate those victims, and comes from a tax on all vaccines.
Vaccines Causing in Autism in Children?
Some organizations, such as Generation Rescue, blame vaccines for autism.
At issue in these cases was whether vaccines could bring on autism, which comprises a wide spectrum of symptoms that often begin to show up when children are one to three years old — both the time when language develops and when children get many of their shots.
Severely affected children may develop the following symptoms:
- stop speaking,
- develop ritual behaviors and devastating fears, and
- become prone to violent outbursts.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), say that the benefits of vaccines are immeasurable and far outweigh any possibility of a minuscule risk and that children are at much greater risk from infectious diseases than from vaccines.
The AAP recommends that the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program help compensate families whose children may have been harmed by a vaccine while providing liability coverage to vaccine administrators, including pediatricians and manufacturers. They suggest families who are trying to prove cases about thimerosal file a claim with the VICP first, and if that fails, to file a civil claim.
A statement released by the AAP says that current scientific evidence doesn’t support the theories that vaccines have caused Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), multiple sclerosis, autism, or other demyelinating disorders.
