Brilliant op-ed in the Washington Post:
The debate over vaccine litigation has thus shifted from a presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt. While the number of major studies that have failed to find any substantive link between vaccines and developmental disorders or autism is now in the double-digits (including a September 27th CDC study in the New England Journal), critics are effectively demanding that scientists prove that thimerosal does not cause illness — an impossible standard.The very success of vaccines has become their downfall. As Dr. Offit writes in Vaccinated, “When [vaccines] work, absolutely nothing happens¿Parents go on with their lives, not once thinking that their child was saved.”
(via PointofLaw.com)
Related posts:
- Vaccines and autism: The last word
- Vaccines: Rising costs are putting children at risk
- Adult vaccines
- Doctors are losing money providing childhood vaccines
- Half MD: Archaeologists discover witch doctor’s house
- Some vaccines that could be considered optional
- Vaccines and happy hour
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{ 22 comments }
Still another field where the lawyers use junk science to bamboozle juries and collect their jackpot.
I would like to hear feedback from a physician whose child has developed autism following immunizations…what would you do?
This very same lawyer industry will be filing bogus malpractice suits against the pediatricians of unvaccinated dead/damaged kids after the next polio, measles or diphtheria epidemic.
Ed Sodaro MD
The Most Bitter Debate
There is no greater rancor in medicine than the autism-vaccine debate, and this debate has reached the federal vaccine court where 5000 autistic kids and their families are requesting compensation for vaccine injury.
In California it is a illegal to inject newborns with the mercury containing vaccines (such as the thimerisol Hep-B Shot), and other states are considering similar laws.
Read more at:
Autism and Vaccines? by Jeffrey Dach MD
Jeffrey Dach MD
4700 Sheridan Suite T
Hollywood Fl 33021
954-983-1443
my web site
7;53, are you trolling for cases?
Do you have any science linking autism to vaccination? My kid got acne 12 years after his vaccinations, should I blame the acne on that too?
How many lawyers have “collected a jackpot” in this field?
11:16…no, I work with families whose children have been dx with autism following imms. I see the results. There are no jackpot awards-just sadness and the need for answers.
My mom’s 2 yr old dog received a lyme disease shot last month. He is now paralyzed. Any connection? Vet says no. Perhaps we need to study imms more carefully and if it takes class action to get us moving then so be it.
Apparently you’re trying to collect your jackpot CJD. A simple Google search of “vaccine litigation” brings you to the web pages of many of the bigger jackpot winners.
I’m sure you’ve seen kids with autism. I’m sure you’ve seen kids who had vaccines. I’m sure you’ve seen kids who had vaccines, then were found autstic, since the disease makes itself known over several years, which happens to be the years after routine vaccination.
What you haven’t seen is kids with autism caused by a vaccination.
Did you vaccinate your own children? Do you have anything resembling reasonable scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism? Since autism was first described before vaccines, I’d be interested in your scientific input, which seems to have eluded those who actually study the matter.
I do notice the Web pages of many of these law firms, they have announced they are no longer taking these autism cases. Federal legislation stopped their jackpot.
gain, still another human endeavor where government has seen fit to limit liability, despite claims that only physicians get this benefit. The government had to do this, lest your profession wipe still another productive industry off the map. No jackpot, no lawyer interest. File your own case, they’re not going to opinion-shop for Worker’s Comp rates. Interest in justice ends when the jackpot disappears.
Here people are confusing correlation with causation again.
“My mom’s 2 yr old dog received a lyme disease shot last month. He is now paralyzed.”
I am sorry about your dog, but can you show any evidence that Lyme vaccination in dogs causes paralysis? Just because one A happens after B doesn’t mean one A causes B. With millions of dogs that get vaccinated every year surely there’d be quite a few reports about it if it were the case?
Besides, dogs don’t have all the same deseases we do. Are you going to bring up VAS in cats as well?
I am not an attorney. I am a teacher of disabled children. Developmental pediatricians, physchologists and teachers are not in agreement as to the cause of autism. I hear it everyday even though some studies have been completed. There is a definite increase in the number of children that we’re treating. Yes, we could just be diagnosing more cases or it could be the environment, the toys or the food that the children are eating. No one really knows, yet. More studies need to be completed and children examined more closely. I ask medical researches and physicians to stop by a school and see the children affected. It is a mystery that needs solving. Compare data. Do more studies and don’t settle. A pediatrician has never visited our school unless, of course, their child is in our classroom.
Since imms are required for school it is extremely difficult to opt out of them even if you have 3 children dx with PDD in the family or the neighborhood. The families are now lying that it is their religious right to opt out when they know they will not be allowed in school. It seems to be the only acceptable answer. Parents do not question all of the children that are saved by being immunized because we trust. We are grateful for healthy children but also want answers as to why so many are suddenly impaired. Children have long been devalued and it’s time to change that.
Docs, please don’t just assume that you know everything because you don’t. Yes, we trust folks to do their jobs, make regulations and protect our children and until that happens advocates are needed to help those affected. Stop thinking about money and your battle with attorneys and start thinking about the kids!
“I am a teacher of disabled children. Developmental pediatricians, physchologists and teachers are not in agreement as to the cause of autism. I hear it everyday even though some studies have been complet”
Have you done the research yourself? It is not very hard. Go to pubmed on the internet. To get access to many of the journals you may have to do this at a University library/med school library, but many are freely available on the internet. I encourage you, no I expect you (given your profession and frankly naive comments here) to do this. Knowledge is power. Don’t expect somebody els to do your research for you. I personally would expect a teacher of disabled students who must get asked this question multiple times a year to have done this research long ago. There have been many (well over a dozen) studies completed that show NO CLEAR LINK between vaccines and autism. The one study that did (a lancet study I beleive) was found to be flawed after the fact. But I don’t expect you to believe me. I expect you to look up the research yourself and come to your own conclusion based on the evidence presented. Please save your pithy comments about doctors, lawyers, advocates, and kids for yourself as most doctors never claimed to have all the answers but on a daily basis have to make tough decisions that affect people. We don’t live in a isolated bubble you know.
“Teacher of disabled children”, why don’t you blame the autism on the phases of the moon. There’s about as much evidence associating autism with astrology as there is with vaccines.
So fine, the case goes to court, a lawyer shops around for a real minority opinion, bamboozles a jury, tugs on the heartstrings, brings in the child, the jury makes still another award, and my vial of vaccine costs hundreds of dollars.
It is so expensive that I can’t afford to stock it. I can’t afford any “shrinkage” of missed billing or outdated drug because of how much it costs. The cost is medicolegal for the old vaccines.
So……I send my patients to the health department. They’re protected because the state limits it’s own liability. My patients ask why they have to go to the health department for their shots, and once again, I make sure they know where the fault lies…..the tort bar.
“A simple Google search of “vaccine litigation” brings you to the web pages of many of the bigger jackpot winners.”
Again, show me one “jackpot” winner of a vaccine case. Can you? If you can’t, then perhaps you should pipe down, which is good advice when there aren’t facts to back up your rantings.
“but on a daily basis have to make tough decisions that affect people. We don’t live in a isolated bubble you know.”
Don’t kid yourself. Everyone has a bubble. Yours is limited to the immediate addressing of your patient’s medical issues. You have little concept of what goes on in the rest of their lives.
“My patients ask why they have to go to the health department for their shots, and once again, I make sure they know where the fault lies…..the tort bar.”
You mean you don’t tell them that your complete lack of knowledge on the subject is the real reason? Why do you lie to them?
I tell them the truth. Litigation over life-saving vaccines based on junk science is why vaccines cost so much. So if you don’t like going to the health department for your vaccines, blame the trial bar.
I save lying to the lawyers, you do it so well on a daily basis, day in and day out, I wouldn’t dare intrude on your expertise.
As to who got the vaccine jackpot, google the pages, find the names right there. I don’t care to name specific names and get slimeballs like you sniffing around. Go chase another ambulance. Since there’s no science behind autism and vaccines, any penny collected was based on a lie. Jackpot.
Since these sites seem to be advising clients to file their own claims, it seems the government cracked down on this jackpot. Just as they did with the sleaze behind silicosis and asbestosis. Judge Janis Jack deserves praise.
I’m sure you’ll find another ambulance to chase. Sorry you didn’t get a chance to cash in on this one.
The 99% of sleazy lawyers gives that 1% of honest lawyers a bad name.
” Litigation over life-saving vaccines based on junk science is why vaccines cost so much.”
Can you point me to one successful vaccine case in the last decade? Just one.
If you had a clue what you were talking about, you’d know that most, if not all, vaccine cases go through the VICP. But you don’t know what you’re talking about, because you haven’t bothered to get informed, because that might cause you to have to reexamine your preconceived opinions. Thinking must not be your style.
That must be why a Google of “vaccine litigation” brings you to law firm sites. Because no one litigates vaccine cases. And VCIP is paid for with money from trees.
I wish there was a way we could keep vaccines from lawyers families. Maybe if you actually saw some of these vaccine-preventable diseases you might actually get a clue.
Jackpot data is here:
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statistics_report.htm
It’s broken down to payments and attorney fees for cases compensated, as well as attorney payment for cases dismissed. You win either way, no surprise.
Some cases go to litigation outside VCIP, but they don’t have data on those awards.
Looks like there was a boomlet in autism claims in 2003, there must have been a junk science loophole discovered and closed. I’m sure there will be another one found soon.
Ruined pants or something.
How much should those lawyers have made? This is the VCIP, which is similar to the health courts you guys claim to want, isn’t it?
The truth is you just want all the people you injure to disappear, and somehow think your insurers are just itching to pay those who are injured by malpractice. And somehow, you think they’ll pay if they represent themselves, in between their regular jobs, and taking care of their injured child. Of course, your insurer will still have its lawyers, right?
So you know of not a single successful vaccine claim outside the VICP?
“The truth is you just want all the people you injure to disappear, and somehow think your insurers are just itching to pay those who are injured by malpractice”
Are you unable to critically read the scientific literature? Did you even bother reviewing it before your uninformed (again) statement. There is no (let me repeat NO) objective evidence to support autism and vaccines. NONE. ZERO. NADA. Clear? Comprende? How can docs want to make kids injured by vaccines to “go away” when there is no evidence to support vaccines/autism in the first place (I am not talking aboutthe 1 in a million other side effects caused by vaccines here). Your reasoning is underwhelming.
Every penny awarded in an autism claim was based on a lie.
There is no evidence supporting the contention that vaccines cause autism.
You might as well blame the autism on lawyers. Maybe you should be sued every time a kid develops autism. There’s just as much evidence.
Jackpot.
How much money has been paid in an autism case? How much has been spent?
Do you know anything about which you speak?
” There is no (let me repeat NO) objective evidence to support autism and vaccines. NONE. ZERO. NADA. Clear? “
No kidding, that’s why I didn’t make the claim there was. Reading is not your strong suit.
“You should also study the effect of visiting the pediatrician’s office on the development of autism. I am certain that there is a correlation here, too.”
It’s the same correlation as there is between tort “reform” and reduced insurance rates and reduced healthcare costs. You believe that wholeheartedly, so I’m surprised you didn’t swallow the autism-vaccine link as well.
“Some cases go to litigation outside VCIP, but they don’t have data on those awards.”
So in other words, you’re pontificating without the facts? I thought you said only lawyers did that. Hypocrite.
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