Vaccines don't cause autism, court finds

WASHINGTON - Thousands of parents who claimed that childhood vaccines caused their children to develop autism are wrong and not entitled to federal compensation, a special court ruled Thursday in three decisions with far-reaching implications for a bitterly fought medical controversy.

The long-awaited decision on three test cases is a severe blow to a grass-roots movement that has argued -- predominantly through books, magazines and the Internet -- that children's shots have been responsible for the surge in autism diagnoses in the United States in recent decades. The majority of the scientific establishment, backed by federal health agencies, has strenuously argued there is no link between vaccines and autism, and warned that scaring parents away from vaccinating their youngsters places children at risk for a host of serious childhood diseases.

The decision by three independent special masters is especially telling because the special court's rules did not require plaintiffs to prove their cases with scientific certainty -- all the parents needed to show was that a preponderance of the evidence, or "50 percent and a hair," supported their claims. The vaccine court effectively said that the thousands of pending claims represented by the three test cases are on extremely shaky ground.

'Gross ... misjudgment'

In his ruling on one case, special master George Hastings said the parents of Michelle Cedillo -- who had charged that a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused their child to develop autism -- had "been misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment."

Hastings said that he was deeply moved by the suffering autism imposed on families but that "the evidence advanced by the petitioners has fallen far short of demonstrating ... a link."

The ruling Thursday does not preclude appeals, and the lead lawyer in the Cedillo case has indicated they would appeal if they lost.

Two other special masters reached similar conclusions in their cases. The three cases suggested different mechanisms by which vaccines might have caused autism.

In December 2007, the Minnesota Department of Education identified 11,314 students younger than 21 who qualified for special-education services under the criteria for autism spectrum disorder.

More research needs to be done, said Brad Trahan, founder and executive director of RT Autism Awareness Foundation, and father to an 8-year-old with severe autism.

"I do know this, that until Reece got his MMR shots, he would say Mama and Dada, he was looking at the camera," said Trahan of Rochester. "After that, we lost him. Are Joanie and I going to come out and say that's the cause? No. However, it certainly warrants a lot more research. It would not surprise us someday, when we learn what the cause is, that there might be multiple factors. There still needs to be a lot more done to find out the facts."

What's more important than a court ruling at this point, he said, is that scientists continue to look for causes and treatment strategies, and for families affected by autism to get the support they need.

Debate won't likely die

Those convinced their child's disorder was triggered by a shot in the arm are both passionate and vocal, and thoroughly convinced that the sizable amount of research disproving a connection between vaccines and autism is either biased or scientifically flawed.

"It's a profound verdict, but I don't know that it will hit the hearts of everyone," said Wendy Murphy, director of therapeutic schools for Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago. "I think there's such a deep-rooted need to know what happened. And I would imagine that the families that really, wholeheartedly believe the vaccine is the reason will continue to believe that."

Staff writer Maria Baca and the Chicago Tribune contributed to this report.