The Court Gets It Right

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Via Dr. Joe Albietz on Twitter, this breaking news:
A special court ruled Thursday that parents of autistic children are not entitled to compensation in their contention that certain vaccines caused autism in their children.

"I must decide this case not on sentiment, but by analyzing the evidence," one of the "special masters" hearing the case said in denying the families' claims, ruling that the families had not presented sufficient evidence to prove their allegations.
The science is in, people. Instead of wasting your time and money (and the government's time and money, actually) continuously insisting that your child's autism was caused by vaccination, why don't you expend that energy in finding out what really causes autism? Or perhaps lobbying for the support and treatment programs that gives you and your family the support you so desperately need?

IT'S OVER. VACCINATION DOES NOT CAUSE AUTISM.

Move on, for everyone's sake. Please.

12 comments:

Nathan said...

I wish I had paid more attention, but I'm pretty sure I heard a story on the news this morning about some published anti-vaccine-"scientist" having the journals retract all of his articles because they found he'd falsified much of his research.

Anyone else hear about this or am I suffering brain-flatulence?

Janiece said...

That would be the charlatan Andrew Wakefield, I believe. Details can be found over at Science Based Medicine.

So no brain flatulence today.

vince said...

Dam, Janiece, you beat me to it.

Janiece said...

Vince, no one deserves a beatdown like Andrew Wakefield, so really - feel free to pile on.

Some dude stuck in the Midwest said...

Yey, for science! Finally another stupidity is done and over with.

Although, "master specialists" sounds a bit fishy. Couldn't they just call them "Experts" or "Science Dudes"?

Janiece said...

Konstantin, I have no idea where that term came from. It may have some special standing in administrative law that I'm not aware of.

If Eric stops by, perhaps we can pick his brain.

But I like "Science Dudes."

In any case, anti-vaxxers have never let fact or scientific evidence convince them before, so I doubt this particular idiocy is actually over, more's the pity.

John the Scientist said...

It's a term for court-appointed experts who are not expert witnesses.

Janiece said...

Thanks, John.

Jim Wright said...

Well, not to be a wet blanket, but you know this isn't over, right?

This was never about science, it's about belief. I know a few parents of autistic kids and what they want more than anything is somebody to blame. Part of it is anger, and some of it is the fear that people will think they either did something wrong or that they're defective.

I'm not saying all parents of autistic kids are this way, but the ones I know sure as hell are - and they are representative of the vaccines cause autism crowd.

Janiece said...

Jim, I do know.

"In any case, anti-vaxxers have never let fact or scientific evidence convince them before, so I doubt this particular idiocy is actually over, more's the pity."

John the Scientist said...

Jim, there's another dynamic at work here, too, and I'm going to write about that, soon.

Jim Wright said...

Yep, and the headlines are already on the street.

Parents dispute vaccine ruling! Nothing will ever convince these people.

But the simple truth is that if the MMR did actually cause autism, well, the percentage of autism in the general population would be one hell of a lot higher.