New Vaccine Court Case Keeps Controversy Going

When the U.S. Vaccine Court made a ruling a couple of weeks ago against three families who claimed their children's autism was caused by vaccines, most reports acknowledged that, for those who believe strongly in an autism-vaccine connection, this would not be the end of the story. And indeed, today's News and Views folder has early reports on a successful Vaccine Court case that appears to draw a line from the MMR vaccine to pervasive developmental delay:

• Huffington Post articles by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (pictured at right at a rally last year) and David Kirby give details on the case of Bailey Banks, in which "Special Master Abell ruled that Petitioners had proven that the MMR had directly caused a brain inflammation illness called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) which, in turn, had caused the autism spectrum disorder PDD-NOS in the child."
  
  
• The organization Generation Rescue took out a full-page ad about the Banks case in USA Today; you can see it and download a .pdf on the blog Age of Autism.
  
  
• About.com Autism guide Lisa Jo Rudy looks at the article and the ad and writes, "If the allegations in today's Huffington Post are confirmed, the vaccine/autism debate -- believe it or not -- has only just begun."

There's likely to be more on this story, and I'll keep updating it in the News and Views folder. Look there for good reading on other topics of special-needs interest, too.

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