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An interesting (and largely unreported) story out of Italy has been making the rounds this past week, once again giving new life to the contentious autism-vaccine debate. In the Italian Court of Rimini, a child has been compensated with a fifteen-year annuity due to an “established” link between an MMR vaccine and autism-like symptoms.
According the report, the unnamed youngster received a prophylaxis trivalent MMR vaccine back in 2004 and developed adverse symptoms shortly thereafter. The child continued to regress the following year, and is now said to be “100% disabled.” The parents of the child were also awarded reimbursement for their court costs.
The case is now expected to be put before an appeals court as authorities are said to be concerned about the legal precedent this may set.
So far, reports of this story have been primarily confined to Italian and French news outlets, so it’s impossible to say just how accurate they are due to potential translation issues. However, if everything being reported is in fact true, this will no doubt create a new PR battle between vaccine safety advocates and the pro-vaccine lobby.
For those fluent in Italian, the full court judgment can be read here and the original news report published last month can be read here.
To be continued…
The vaccine industry has the backing of doctors, media, courts, autism ‘support’ organizations, and health care officials in every country. But the truth has become so horrific that even with the weight of all of these groups behind them, they’re having trouble keeping the lid on it.
Robin you are so right !
Vaccines beneficial ? Then why have the US with the highest number of childhood vaccinations, now 69, the highest infant mortality in the vaccinated world, 1 in 6 children with a diagnosable mental health problem according to their Surgeon General, and the world’s highest rate for autism
peaking at 1 in 29 boys in New Jersey ? They should be the healthiest with the billions of dollars spent on all these vaccines.
@John Hobbs
I disagree. Children are not dying of diseases that vaccines are available for unless they have not been vaccinated. High infant mortality rates probably say more about poverty among some sections of the population than about vaccination rates, which are dropping through the floor and putting children at very real risks from epidemics, mainly thanks to unscientific commentary about links to other diseases which have been proven wrong.
Mental illness is a separate issue. In that case there is evidence that the psychopharmaceuticals have little benefit and some evidence that they may be causing iatrogenic mental health problems, but that, again, is not about vaccines.
High rates of Asperger syndrome exist in many areas where you find good universities and/or high-tech industry. This is probably linked to geeks (with AS) meeting other geeks (with AS) and having offspring with AS for the simple reason that AS has a genetic cause. New Jersey, one notes, has a large proportion of scientific companies (including, sadly, many pharmaceutical companies, who I wouldn’t trust as far as I could throw) as well as Princeton University. You find similar clusters in Silicon Valley, Oxford and Eindhoven.
The fact that I distrust pharmaeutical companies does not mean I distrust vaccines. Vaccines (unlike many drugs) have been proven safe and effective. The judgement of the court in Rimini is perverse.
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full
The research linking MMR to autism was retracted over a year ago as it was deemed fraudulent.
There may appear to be a connection between the two, simply because the standard age for receiving MMR is a year or so before the average age of autism diagnosis. Just because there is a correlation does not necessarily mean there is causation.
I strongly believe as a mother of a child with Aspergers that the MMR vaccines are to blame. My son is 15 years old now and I have been through soooooo much as a single mom. I begged my pediatrician not to give him the 2nd MMR and she told me that it was found to be safe and assured me that he had to have it. shortly afterward there was a second detioration of his affect and behavior. (looking back through school records and pitcures it’s so easy to see.) After he had his 7th grade injections he developed a rash on his chest and back that took 6 months to heal and in the 8th grade he started calling me to pick him up from school all the time for various maladies. He would hide his face and withdrawl from everyone. Now he barely leaves the house has to be homeschooled and has to go to therapy and psychiatrists regularly. I had measles mumps and rubella as a child as most people did and i’m healthy. There is no family history of aspergers or autism so I don’t but the genetic crap. sorry I feel very strongly about this as it has been a very rough road. I guarentee my son won’t be getting any more immunizations! I work in the medical field and I know the power of the pharmacutical companies they stand to loose way too much to admit the possibility of causing harm. thats my opinion for what it’s worth the italian ruling gives me valadation. The damage has already been done and no amount of money could undo it.
The Wakefield study was publicly declared fraudulent but I believe the issue is far more complicated than that. I am interested in the findings that the exact measles strain used in the vaccine has been found in the gut of afflicted children. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388051/Scientists-fear-MMR-link-autism.html
I have personal interest in these findings because as a healthy 30 year old woman, I received the MMR. Two months later I became violently ill with a form of inflammatory bowel disease called Ulcerative Colitis. I am not a helpless child who cannot explain what is happening to her. I know my body. I felt the change. At the time, I felt it was related to the MMR injection. Low and behold, you can imagine my interest was piqued when I found this study.