The Panic Virus
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147 The American Academy of Pediatrics was among the first: Martin Smith, “National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act,” Pediatrics 1988;82: 264–69.
147 vaccine-related tort claims: Mary Beth Neraas, “The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986: A Solution to the Vaccine Liability Crisis?,” Washington Law Review 1988;63(149): 149–69.
147 The panic that followed: Smith, “National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.”
148 The central feature of the NCVIA: J. A. Singleton et al., “An Overview of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as a Surveillance System,” Vaccine 1999;17(22): 2908–17.
148 A Special Master is someone: “Special Master,” Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute, n.d., http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/special_master.
148 The law also established the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System: “Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) Questions and Answers,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, n.d., http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines
/SafetyAvailability/ReportaProblem/VaccineAdverse
Events/QuestionsabouttheVaccineAdverseEvent
ReportingSystemVAERS/default.htm.
149 If there was one thing citizens, scientists, and safety monitors agreed on: Immunization Safety Review Committee, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine, Immunization Safety Review: Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004), http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10208.html.
149 the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an independent organization: “About the IOM,” Institute of Medicine of the National Academics, n.d., http://www.iom.edu/About–IOM.aspx.
149 “the significance of the issue in a broader societal context”: Immunization Safety Review Committee, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine, Immunization Safety Review: Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2.
149 the committee’s efforts led to invitations: Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 185.
150 a United Methodist Church conference center: “About Us,” The Lodge at Simpsonwood, n.d., http:www.simpsonwood,org/pages/details/1553.
150 Included among the dozens of participants: “Scientific Review of Vaccine Safety Datalink Information,” Simpsonwood Retreat Center, Norcross, Georgia, July 7–8, 2000, unpublished transcript.
150 “We who work with vaccines”: Ibid., 1–2.
150 Verstraeten opened his talk with a quip: Ibid., 31–32.
151 Since there was no definitive data: Ibid., 73–75.
151 he’d been unable to question: Ibid., 49–50.
151 There was also the indiscriminate list: Ibid., 31.
151 Verstraeten’s results were all over the map: Thomas Verstraeten et al., “Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance Organization Databases,” Pediatrics 2003;12(5): 1039–48.
152 Still, Verstraeten said, at the very least: “Scientific Review of Vaccine Safety Datalink Information,” unpublished transcript, 162.
152 Even if we put the vaccine in single vials: Ibid., 190.
152 “It is amazing”: Ibid., 229.
152 Lyn Redwood was among those in attendance: Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 131.
153 An extreme example of underreporting: JA Singleton et al., “An Overview of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as a Surveillance System,” Vaccine 1999;17(22): 2913.
154 Its Civil Registration System: Anders Hviid et al., “Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine and Autism,” Journal of the American Medical Association 2003;290(13): 1764.
154 Until March 1992, the three-part, whole cell pertussis vaccine: Ibid., 1763.
155 abstract “first principles”: Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Book I, Part 6.
155 Ibn-al Haytham, whose evidence-based experiments: David C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 58–59, 62–65.
155 through the theory of falsifiability: Karl R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (New York: Routledge, 1992), 40–42. First published 1959 by Hutchinson Education.
155 Karl Popper’s anecdote: Ibid., 27.
156 In 1697, a Dutch sea captain: Peter Young, Swan (London: Reaktion, 2008), 27.
156 Einstein became obsessed: Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 93.
156 a series of equations formulated: Ibid., 110–11.
157 In 1905, Einstein: Ibid., 92–93.
157 In order to reconcile this contradiction: Ibid., 137–39.
158 False conclusions are drawn all the time: Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (New York: Random House, 1996), 21.
CHAPTER 13: THE MEDIA AND ITS MESSAGES
PAGE
160 the BBC-TV news magazine show Panorama: Sarah Barclay, “MMR: Every Parent’s Choice,” Panorama, BBC-TV, February 3, 2002, transcript, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/
audio_video/programmes/panorama
/transcripts/transcript03_02_02.txt.
160 Wakefield had worked on that paper as well: Andrew Wakefield and Scott Montgomery, “Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine: Through a Glass, Darkly,” Adverse Drug Reactions 2000;19(4): 1–19, http://www.whale.to/v/mmr16.html.
160 This new study: V. Uhlmann et al., “Potential Viral Pathogenic Mechanism for New Variant Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” Molecular Pathology 2002;55: 84–90.
161 Instead, the paper left out information so basic: Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 48–60.
161 It appeared as if the research team: Ibid., 56–60.
161 The for-profit lab at which they obtained their results: Ibid., 51.
161 raised questions as to whether widespread fraud: Ibid., 50–51; Transcript of record, Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 2026–29.
162 “He had the MMR and he’s autistic”: Barclay, “MMR: Every Parent’s Choice.”
162 in the weeks after the Panorama special aired: Ian Hargreaves, Justin Lewis, and Tammy Spears, “Towards a Better Map: Science, the Public and the Media,” Economic and Social Research Council (U.K.), 2003, 22.
162 Later that year, when researchers from Cardiff University: Ibid.
163 “Since most health experts”: Ibid., 25.
163 The net effect of this manufactured equivalence: Ibid., 41. See also: Justin Lewis and Tammy Spears, “Misleading Media Reporting,” Nature 2003;3: 913–18.
163 After analyzing the children: K. M. Madsen et al., “A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism,” New England Journal of Medicine 2002;347: 1477.
163 “It’s a sad day in America”: SafeMinds, “Statement of Mercury Policy Project and Safe Minds on the Homeland Security Bill’s Thimerosal Shielding Rider, Safe Minds’ Rebuttal to Senator Frist and Gramm’s Comments on Senate Floor 11-18-02,” November 19, 2002, http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/1415.
164 “Vaccine Health Officials”: SafeMinds, “Vaccine Health Officials Manipulate Autism Records to Quell Rising Fears over Mercury in Vaccines,” September 2, 2003, http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/
summary_0286-24247227_ITM.
164 SafeMinds released an “assessment”: SafeMinds, “Denmark Study on Autism and MMR vaccine Shows Need for Biological Research/Assessment of the Denmark MMR-Autism Study,” November 6, 2002, http://www.vaccineinfo.net/immunization
/injury/autism/DanishMMRAutismStudy.shtml.
165 The same week that the NEJM piece ran: Arthur Allen, “The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory,” The New York Times Magazine, November 11, 2002, 66.
165 In an effort to clarify his views: Neal Halsey, “Letter to the Editor of the New York Times (sent November 11—NYT declined to publish in favor of the above correction),” November 11, 2002, http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/Vaccines-no-autism.htm.
166 Once again, the conclus
ion: K. Wilson et al., “Association of Autistic Spectrum Disorder and the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine,” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2003;157: 628.
167 In August 2003, a comparison of children: Paul Stehr-Green et al., “Autism and Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: Lack of Consistent Evidence for an Association,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2003;25(2): 101–6.
167 In September and October, two other studies: Madsen et al., “A PopulationBased Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism”; Hviid et al., “Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine and Autism.”
167 a detailed analysis by Tom Verstraeten: Thomas Verstraeten et al., “Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance Organization Databases,” Pediatrics 2003;112(5): 1039–48.
167 Each individual study might have been: Donald G. McNeil, Jr., “Study Casts Doubt on Theory of Vaccines’ Link to Autism,” The New York Times, September 4, 2003, 21.
167 a December 29 Wall Street Journal editorial: “The Politics of Autism,” The Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2003.
168 the Journal felt compelled to respond: “Autism and Vaccines,” The Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2004.
CHAPTER 14: MARK GEIER, WITNESS FOR HIRE
PAGE
170 After hearing rumors that the CDC: Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 346–50.
170 One if the committee recognized a link: Ibid., 356.
170 This eighth and final report: Immunization Safety Review Committee, Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004), http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10997.html.
171 The “flawed, incomplete” report: Joe Giganti, “SafeMinds Outraged That IOM Report Fails American Public,” SafeMinds, May 18, 2004.
171 “This report went beyond any other report”: Maggie Fox, “Study Says Vaccine Not Cause of Autism,” Reuters, May 19, 2004.
172 “I don’t think it was well described”: Marie McCormick, interview with author, February 27, 2009.
172 “I’ve seen what [autism] looks like”: Ibid.
173 began to refer to McCormick as “Church Lady”: Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 188.
173 “I am out for blood here”: Ibid., 188.
173 “Part of the criticism of the vaccine advisory panels”: McCormick, interview with author, February 27, 2009.
174 In support of its conclusions: Immunization Safety Review Committee, Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism, 6, 86–110.
174 In contrast, the evidence: Ibid., 6–7, 65.
174 A New York Times reporter who visited the Geiers’: Gardiner Harris and Anahad O’Connor, “On Autism’s Cause, It’s Parents v. Research,” The New York Times, June 25, 2005, 1.
174 Mark Geier had been a mainstay: David Geier and Mark Geier, “The True Story of Pertussis Vaccination: A Sordid Legacy?,” Journal of the History of Medicine 2002;57: 249–84.
174 “children with severe injuries”: Ibid., 272–73.
175 In a 1987 case, Geier testified: Talley v. Wyeth, No. 87-349-C (E.D. Okla., February 24, 1988).
175 as the result of his mistake: Graham v. Wyeth Laboratories, 666 F.Supp. 1483 (D. Kansas 1987).
175 “clearly lacks the expertise to evaluate”: Daly v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 1991 WL 154573 (Ct. Fed. Cl., July 26, 1991).
175 The following year, one judge questioned: Jones v. Lederle Laboratories, American Cyanamid Co., 785 F.Supp. 1123, 1126 (E.D. N.Y., 1992).
175 “Were Dr. Geier an attorney”: Aldridge v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, footnote, 9.
175 “seriously intellectually dishonest”: Marascalco v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 5.
175 “not reliable, or grounded”: Haim v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, footnote, 15.
175 a Special Master named Laura Millman wrote: Weiss v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, No. 03-190V, 2003 (Ct. Fed. Cl., October 9, 2003), review denied, 59 Fed. Cl. 624 (Ct. Fed. Cl., January 23, 2004).
176 Their procedures were “nontransparent”: Immunization Safety Review Committee, Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism, 7.
176 In one study, the Geiers claimed: D. A. Geier and M. R. Geier, “An Assessment of the Impact of Thimerosal on Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders,” Pediatric Rehabilitation 2003;6(2): 97–102.
176 the Geiers had relied on the U.S. Department of Education’s: D. A. Geier and M. R. Geier, “A Comparative Evaluation of the Effects of MMR Immunization and Mercury Doses from Thimerosal-Containing Childhood Vaccines on the Population Prevalence of Autism,” Medical Science Monitor 2004;10(3): 133–39.
176 The description for the former took all of seventy-six words: American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—III (Arlington, Virginia: American Psychiatric Association, 1980).
176 The latter required 698 words to explain: American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—III-R (Arlington, Virginia: American Psychiatric Association, 1987).
176 In another paper, the Geiers referred to figures: Geier and Geier, “An Assessment of the Impact of Thimerosal on Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders.”
177 They also claimed to have determined: M. R. Geier and D. A. Geier, “Thimerosal in Childhood Vaccines, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and Heart Disease in the United States,” Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 2003;8(1): 6–11.
CHAPTER 15: THE CASE OF MICHELLE CEDILLO
PAGE
178 the law established a specially formulated table: Derry Ridgway, “No-Fault Vaccine Insurance: Lessons from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,” Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 1999;24(1): 62.
179 a unanimous Supreme Court ruling: Shalala v. Whitecotton, 514 U.S. 268 (1995).
179 The trade-offs for this relaxed evidentiary standard: Mary Beth Neraas, “The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986: A Solution to the Vaccine Liability Crisis?,” Washington Law Review 1988;63(149): 149–69.
179 Today, the court allows: “National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d., http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/.
179 By 1999, when the average number of cases: “NVICP Statistics Report, September 2, 2010,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, September 2, 2010, http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/
statistics_report.htm.
179 In 1999, a single autism case was filed: Ibid.
180 “Attorneys began to start focusing on it”: Lyn Redwood, interview with author, April 21, 2010.
180 On July 3, 2002, Gary Golkiewicz: Gary Golkiewicz, “Autism General Order #1,” 2002 WL 31696785 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr., July 3, 2002), 1.
180 By the end of 2004, a total of 4,321 autism cases: “NVICP Statistics Report, September 2, 2010.”
180 had agreed to address the “general causation” theories: Golkiewicz, “Autism General Order #1.”
181 “Michelle was a happy, robust baby”: Transcript of record, Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 223.
181 “We took her everywhere”: Ibid., 226.
181 On December 20, 1995: Ibid., 226–27.
181 she came down with a fever: Ibid., 227.
181 “talking less since ill in Jan.”: Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 6.
181 “It would appear that there was some neurological harm”: Ibid., 166.
181 a developmental psychologist gave the Cedillos: Transcript of record, Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 240–42.
181 “We were completely overwhelmed”: Ibid., 241.
182 she came upon the story of Cindy Goldenberg: Ibid., 242–43.
182 “incorporate life skills that lead to personal empowerment”: Cindy Goldenberg, “Cindy Goldenberg Clairvoyant Spiritual Psychic Author Speaker,” n.d., http://cindygoldenberg.com/.
182 Goldenber
g began a multiyear quest: “Mother Fights for Recognition of Vaccine and Autism Link,” Mothers United for Moral Support, n.d., http://www.nathan.com/momlink.htm. (Originally appeared in Vaccine Reaction newsletter, published by the National Vaccine Information Center.)
182 before she found Sudhir Gupta: Ibid.
182 intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG): Noah Scheinfeld, “Intravenous Immunoglobulin,” eMedicine from WebMD, June 22, 2010, http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/210367-overview.
182 she was not a candidate for IVIG: Transcript of record, Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 242–43.
183 when Theresa first heard about Andrew Wakefield’s theories: Ibid., 39–42.
183 the Cedillos had become convinced: Ibid., 37–42.
183 That December, they filed a claim: Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 17.
183 Since brain injuries (or encephalopathies): “Vaccine Injury Table,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d., http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/table.htm.
183 She alternated between bouts of extreme diarrhea: Transcript of record, Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 36–38, 48, 232–34.
183 potentially an attempt to attack the pain: Ibid., 40.
183 she’d stay up for twelve or eighteen hours: Ibid., 245.
183 her body produced so much saliva: Ibid., 247.
184 stretches as long as three days: Ibid., 256.
184 have a feeding tube permanently installed: Ibid., 262
184 Michelle needed two people to attend to her: Ibid., 273.
184 Preparing for each of the many trips: Ibid., 325–26.
184 along with “baby,” “mama,” and “daddy”: Ibid., 225.
184 “We tried”: Ibid., 235.
184 “It makes people uncomfortable”: Jane Johnson, interview with author, May 4, 2009.
185 “We both agreed that we didn’t ever want to”: Transcript of record, Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 241.
185 “I heard several presentations”: Ibid., 252.
185 By that point, the Cedillos: Transcript of record, Cedillo v. Sec’y of Health and Human Services, 40, 42–43, 252–54.
186 He suggested that Michelle: Ibid., 390–92.