Vaccine Court's Deck Gets Stacked Some More

Before I get to the main story, for no extra charge here is a fascinating article which shows that children with Autism and Children with ADHD have a genetic mutation in the same genes. This fits in well with something I reported on three years ago......ADHD and Autism seem to be a spectrum of the same underlying condition, and the rates in both exploded at the same time.

Other research gives clues that our immune systems are more complex than the government bureaucrats can understand. Take for example this study which shows that people who get certain childhood diseases, including measles and chick pox, are significantly less likely to have heart problems later in life. By vaccinating against non-fatal childhood diseases, it could raise the risk of heart disease later in life.

But the main vaccine-related story that has my undies in a bundle is this one. It is told in a way to spin it as positively as possible for the vaccine court judge, or "Special Master" Laura Millman. The case they cover is a heartbreaking one. The DPT vaccine caused a young man to be horribly disabled- at least under the old rules. The cases got so numerous that the government changed the rules to make it even harder for a special master to rule that a vaccine caused a disability.

The way the fund is run lessens the financial pain vaccine makers feel when they let a bad vaccine stay on the market, since expenses are shared. In addition, the tougher standards of the vaccine courts now mean that more are turned down for payment from the vaccine-makers fund- and dumped on the taxpayers via Medicaid Disability payments. The article quotes "Special Master" Millman as saying "When I have to refuse an award, it's hard. But I know these children's basic needs are going to be taken care of either way. It's not like the ancient days, when they threw you off a cliff."

In other words, the costs for the vaccine-maker's mistakes are shifted unto the backs of the taxpayers while they keep the profits. Classic corporatism, but the circumstances of the young man in this story and the knowledge that there are others like him make it even more morally repugnant that normal.