Experts will meet this week to discuss autism and vaccines, months after a young girl won a settlement from a special vaccine court, after the government conceded that vaccines could have played a role in her autism. This week’s Indianapolis meeting is being sponsored by the mental health institute, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the CDC, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Recently, the parents of nine-year-old Hannah Poling won a government settlement out of a federal fund that compensates those injured by vaccines. Hannah was 19 months old and developing normally in 2000 when she received five shots against nine infectious diseases. Two days later, she developed a fever, cried inconsolably, and refused to walk. In the next seven months, she spiraled downward; in 2001, doctors diagnosed autism. Both girls had mitochondrial disorders. (more…)
