A special court in Washington ruled Thursday that vaccine shots did not cause autism in three children whose families sought compensation from a federal fund.
The ruling is a major defeat to more than 5,000 families who have filed for compensation from a federal vaccine-injury fund. The claimants say their children developed autism-type symptoms after getting shots against measles, mumps and rubella.
The claims were reviewed by U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which sits on Lafayette Square across from the White House.
Michelle Cedillo, 14, suffers from severe autism. She can’t speak, has seizures and eats through a feeding tube. She needs 24-hour monitoring. Her family was one of the three test cases.
“I feel deep sympathy and admiration for the Cedillo family,” Special Master George L. Hastings Jr. wrote. “However, I must decide this case not on sentiment, but by analyzing the evidence.”
Hastings and the other two judges ruled that Cedillo and the other two cases failed to prove any linkage between the vaccines and autism.
Attorneys for the families said they were disappointed and might appeal.
“There was certainly no scientific proof that vaccines caused autism, but that’s not the standard; the standard is likelihood,” said Kevin Conway of Boston who represented the Cedillos. “We thought our evidence was solid.”
Doctors and the families who have filed petitions against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have been waiting for two years for the panel’s ruling. The health department issued a statement saying the that the medical and science communities have found no link between the shots and autism.
More than 5,300 complaints have been filed by families of autistic children seeking payment under the government’s $2.5 billion vaccine compensation program. Under the program, someone injured by a vaccine has to establish that vaccines sometimes cause that particular condition or injury.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
