CDC's immunization safety director says it's a โpossibilityโ that vaccines rarely trigger autism but โitโs hard to predict who those children might be.โย (Theyโre not even trying.)
[This article was first published on Sept. 2, 2014]
A CDC senior epidemiologist stepped forward last week to say that he and his CDC colleagues omitted data that linked MMR vaccine to autism in a 2004 study. The scientist, William Thompson, said โI regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information.โ
A coauthor of the questioned study is Dr. Frank DeStefano, Director of the CDC Immunization Safety Office. In a telephone interview last week, DeStefano defended the study and reiterated the commonly accepted position that thereโs no โcausalโ link between vaccines and autism.
But he acknowledged the prospect thatย vaccines might rarely trigger autism.
โI guess, that, that is a possibility,โ said DeStefano. "Itโs hard to predict who those children might be, but certainly, individual cases can be studied to look at those possibilities."
It is a significant admissionย from a leading health official at an agency that has worked for nearly 15 years to dispel the public of any notionย of a tieย between vaccines and autism. Vaccines areย amongย the most heralded medical inventions of our time. Billions of people have been vaccinated worldwide, countless lives have been saved and debilitating injuries prevented. The possibility that vaccines may also partly be responsible for autism, in individual cases, is not somethingย public health officials are typically eager to address.
One such individual case is that of Hannah Poling.
Listen to Dr. DeStefano's interview
Hannah Poling
Hannah Poling was considered normal, happy and precocious until 19 months of age when she was vaccinated against nine diseases in one doctor's visit: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, varicella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and Haemophilus influenzae. Afterward, she developed high fevers, had screaming fits, stopped eating, didn't respond when spoken to and began showing signs of autism.
As vaccination has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry, children have gone from being inoculated against four diseases in 1953 to today's recommended schedule of shots for 16 diseases requiring 49 doses by age 6. The government and pharmaceutical industry have said evidence shows babies' systems can easily handle the immune boost.[/box]
In 2002, Hannah's parentsโher father a neurologist, her mother a nurse and attorneyโfiled a claim in a specially-created federal vaccine court in which the U.S. Department of Justice defends vaccine interests. Hannah was to serve as a test case to help decide the outcome of thousands of vaccine-autism claims.
The case was strong. In 2007, contemplating Hannah would win her claim, sources say the vaccine court analyzed what the broader financial impact might be. It found that a flood of similar vaccine-autism claims would quickly deplete the governmentโs vaccine injury compensation fund, which is supported by a small fee patients pay on each dose of vaccine.
But instead of allowing Hannahโs case to publicly serve as a precedent forย other possible victims, the government took another course: it quietly settled the case and sealed the results. Other families with autistic children were never to know. Hannahโs family petitioned the court to be allowed to reveal the findings but the government fought to keep the case sealedโand prevailed.
Still, news of Hannahโs case leaked out in 2008โalong with the medical explanation for her vaccine-related โautistic encephalopathy [brain damage].โ
In a court-submitted opinion, neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, Director of Medical Research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, stated that he had "personally witnessed [Hannahโs] developmental regressionโ following โvaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation." Zimmerman concluded that Hannah was vulnerable to vaccine injury because she had a metabolic disorder called mitochondrial dysfunction. While vaccines are safe for most children, in Hannah, they triggered a brain injury, according to Zimmerman.
Whether vaccines โcausedโ or โtriggeredโ Hannahโs autism, the result was the same: but for her vaccinations, Zimmerman said, โHannah may have led a normal full productive life.โ Instead, she suffers โsignificant lifelong disability.โ
A second underlying condition that was aggravated by vaccines,ย resulting in mental retardation and autism, is tuberous sclerosis or "TS," according to a 1986 vaccine court case. According to the National Institutes of Health, TS affects 1 in every 6,000 newborns.
Not all children who developed autism as a result of vaccineย injuries, asย determined byย vaccine court, had identifiableย pre-existing conditions. But I asked the CDCโs DeStefano whether it was worth trying to figure out what underlying conditions put kids at risk so they can be tested in advance and, if vulnerable, spared.
โThatโs very difficult to do,โ DeStefano told me. He said the CDCโs priorities are gaining a better understanding of the pathogenesis, genetics and biology of autism. โAnd then, I thinkโฆ itโd be more feasible to try to establish if vaccines in an individual case, say a person with a certain set of genesโฆif we ever get to that point, then that kind of research might be fruitful.โ
See CDC's recommended vaccination schedule
Not worthy of study?
But it turns out the CDC has ruled out that sort of research. A CDC spokesman told me that the agency is not โcurrently investigating the relation between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Further, CDC does not have any planned research addressing vaccines and autism.โ
As of May, 2010 the government had compensated 1,296 vaccine brain damage (encephalopathy/encephalitis and seizure cases) but was not tracking how many of the brain-injured children specifically ended up with autism.ย
โCDC believes that this topic has been thoroughly studied and no causal links have been found,โ said the spokesman in an email. โCurrent CDC ASD related research focuses on determining how many people have ASD and understanding risk factors and causes for ASD,โ said the CDC.Seven years after Hannah's case settled, twenty-eight years after the TS case, it's impossible to know how many similar children, if any, are out there. And the government isn't trying to find out.
Above: click to hear Part 1 of Sharyl Attkisson telephone interview with CDC Director of Immunization Safety Dr. Frank DeStefano about the possibility of vaccines triggering autism, Aug. 26, 2014
ย Transcript:
(Part 1)
Attkisson: And is, is the posโthe current position that any potential link between vaccines and autism, secondary, any kind at all, has been entirely ruled out 100%?
DeStefano: I re, you know, I reโuh, I think every hypothesis thatโs been looked at has been, uh, ruled out.
Attkisson: But, I mean, are you, are you, can I say the CDCโs position is that if anybody thinks thereโs anything anymore, itโs a myth? Itโs all been disproven?
DeStefano: Wouldnโt say itโs a myth, Iโd say, you know, all the evidence, thus far, points to that thereโs not a causal association between vaccines and autism.
Attkisson: What about secondary?
DeStefano:ย SecโI donโt understand what do you mean โsecondaryโ?
Attkisson:ย What about not โcausal,โ but โas a result ofโ vaccines, as in the Poling case? The medical expert found, you know, as a result of the damages she had from the vaccines, she ended up with autism. And the distinction was made in the medical expert, โwell, thatโs not โcausalโ, itโs sort of a โbut forโ but itโs not a โcausal.โ
DeStefano: Yeah, I mean, I mean in that case, you know, she had a, I mean, you know, she had an underlying uh biological illness that uh either vaccination, or it couldโve been an infection that that would trigger some physiological stress in her, uh, seems to have, you know, couldโve, couldโve caused uh, um, manifestations that, characteristics of autism which, you, you know, appears to be what happened in her case.
Attkisson: But I mean doesnโt that, isโisnโt that a โlinkโ? Itโs not a โcausalโ link, but isnโt that a potential link between vaccination and autism if certain children with a โunderyling biological illnessโ can have a โtriggerโ through vaccination?
DeStefano: [Unintell] as you call it, a secondary link if you wanna call it that way, w-- in certain children, I mean riโI mean, I, maybe that, but, you know, then I guess, that, that is a possibility.
Above: click to hear Part 2 of interview with CDC's Dr. DeStefanoย
(Part 2)
Attkisson: Do you think thatโs an important area of study so we could figure out which kids might have that predisposition?
DeStefano: uh, [phone noise] Yeah, I mean, I think umโฆYou know, I think itโs something that, uh, well I mean, you know, in terms of uhโฆ I mean, Itโs hard, itโs hard to say, you know, I mean itโs like, umโฆI mean how how important that is. I mean, itโs a theoretical possibility, I guess the, the Poling case maybe suggested it could happen. Uh, but [unintell] cause itโs hard to predict who those children might be, but certainly, um individual cases, uh, can be studied to try to, uh, to look at those, uh, those possibilities.
Attkisson: Well I would just thinkโand then, then Iโll let you go in a few minutes unless you have more timeโbut as a parent, if my kid had whatever Poling had and we could figure that out, that would be one kid you would cull out [from vaccination] versus not worry about other kids if they donโt have that predisposition. But maybe you could identify the ones that would be vulnerable. But I havenโt seen that thereโs anyโis there an area of study trying to do such a thing within CDC or funded by CDC? Or NIH?
DeStefano: Well, in terms of like, you know, the area at CDC thatโs thatโs studying autism and possible causal relationships of autism, uh, you know, whatever they may be, uh, is in the Center the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disability, and they, they do monitoring for autism prevalence and they do have, uh, studies trying to go on, you know, going on to, to look at, uh, a number of factors that could be, uh, related to, uh, increasing the risk of autism or causing autism.
Above: click to hear Part 3 of interview with CDC's Dr. DeStefanoย
(Part 3)
Attkisson: I mean I think to sum up, youโre youโre saying what I, what I think is also the case just based on my own research: that while the government has ruled out any known โcausalโ link between autism and vaccines, it hasnโt ruled out the possibility, and in fact there seems to be at least one case where itโs acknowledged what I called a โsecondaryโ link, meaning not โcausalโ but uh โtriggered.โ And the result for the parent, you know, may--to them it may be one and the same. And they may be trying to figure out which kids, you know, might have that predisposition.
DeStefano: Yeah, but you know, thatโs very difficult to do. Thatโs almost circular reasoning, say, you know, kind of, you canโt, I mean, you know, the, the useful thing for parents who are clinically would be able to identify the kids who are gonna have, I mean, this way weโre identifying one certain child after the fact and say, you know, maybe in that one child, it was this or that that happened to him. But uh, itโs very difficult to make a causal link in in just one case.
Attkisson: Well, but isnโt that what you guys are supposed to do, figure it out? Thatโs a, as you know, autism is such a huge problem, even if a teeny percentage is perhaps triggered by vaccination, I would think thatโd be very, very important to, to learn and try to figure out. You guys are the best at it, Iโm sure somebody there can do it over time.
DeStefano: Yeahโฆ[unintell] I thinkโฆ[unintell] have a better understanding of uh of the pathogenesis of autism and the genetics and the biology and then, I think, I mean, and then, and then, with these individual cases, itโd be, you know, more feasible to try to establish if, uh, if, if vaccines in an individual case, say a person with a certain, certain set of genes or something, you know, if we ever get to that point, then that kind of research, uh, might be fruitful, you know.
National Vaccine Information Center
Dear Miss Attkisson,
Hello! I'm writing you from Valencia, CA. I am a huge fan of your work and your moxie! I am a Mom (4 year old Georgie Grace) and a business owner (Super People Inc.) and I feel like I'm caught in an Erin Brokovich movie! Help! You seem to be the only real journalist looking into vaccines (your last CBS interview with Diane Harper was amazing). As you know, SB277 has passed and now government is mandating we get all vaccinations or our children can't attend public OR private schools. I am not anti-vaccine, I am pro parental choice. I don't believe in rushing or sticking to the schedule and I sure as hell am not going to give my daughter Gardisil when it is added to the schedule next year. We parents are being "astroturfed!" in CA. (Can I use it as a verb?) They are demonizing us. Saying we are anti-science, don't vaccinate at all and are using other vaccinated children to protect our own. Like we're on a mission to bring back small pox. It's crazy making! I had HPV- I got a regular pap smear, got treated and have been fine for 25 years. This is not a disease that will spread at Disneyland! BUT, if I don't vaccinate my daughter for it, I will have to home school her. I don't get it (I mean I guess I do...it's all about big pharma money). What can I do to get the word out that we are not all just a bunch of rich, overprivileged people who don't care about the welfare of children? How can we get help? I keep using the word "crazy" because that's what it feels like. I feel so helpless and violated. Can you help bring light to this subject? Can you speak for us? If I sound a bit desperate...I guess I am! I cannot believe this is happening in the United States of America. Anyway, thanks for your time. Please feel free to e-mail at the above address or call me at anytime 323-578-9343. I know it' a long shot you'll even read this, but I am hopeful! There is no alternative. These are our children and we love them more than big Pharma loves their money.
I hope you will want to hear more about who we are and why we need help.
Thanks for your time,
Sue Nelson
I'm so appreciative of your investigative reporting. I am glad that you are looking at the vaccine issue. It took me a long time to connect the dots between health issues that my children encountered and the vaccines they received. My twins had a significant setback following the MMR vaccine given at 15 months. I was focused on their health and made many dietary changes. One of the twins eventually developed fibromyalgia following the hepatitis B vaccine.
So as a nurse I have begun doing my own study. It is interesting that it is documented that the rubella virus can cause autism, but autism caused by the rubella virus in the MMR is denied. http://carolvanderwoude.com/2015/10/rubella-virus-vaccine/
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