VACCINE

CDC: “Possibility” that vaccines rarely trigger autism
September 2014
by Sharyl Attkisson
CDC’s immunization safety director says it’s a “possibility” that vaccines rarely trigger autism but “it’s hard to
predict who those children might be.” (They’re not even trying.)
A CDC senior epidemiologist stepped forward last week to say that he and his CDC colleagues omitted data that
linked MMR vaccine to autism in a 2004 study. The scientist, William Thompson, said “I regret that my coauthors
and I omitted statistically significant information.” A coauthor of the questioned study is Dr. Frank DeStefano,
Director of the CDC Immunization Safety Office. In a telephone interview last week, DeStefano defended the
study and reiterated the commonly accepted position that there’s no “causal” link between vaccines and autism.
But he acknowledged the prospect that vaccines might rarely trigger autism.
“I guess, that, that is a possibility,” said DeStefano. “It’s hard to predict who those children might be, but certainly,
individual cases can be studied to look at those possibilities.”
It is a significant admission from a leading health official at an agency that has worked for nearly 15 years to dispel
the public of any notion of a tie between vaccines and autism. Vaccines are among the most heralded medical
inventions of our time. Billions of people have been vaccinated worldwide, countless lives have been saved and
debilitating injuries prevented. The possibility that vaccines may also partly be responsible for autism, in individual
cases, is not something public health officials are typically eager to address. One such individual case is
that of Hannah Poling.
Hannah Poling
Hannah Poling was considered normal, happy and precocious until 19 months of age when she was vaccinated
against nine diseases in one doctor’s visit: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, varicella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus,
and Haemophilus influenzae. Afterward, she developed high fevers, had screaming fits, stopped eating, didn’t
respond when spoken to and began showing signs of autism. As vaccination has grown into a multi-billion dollar
industry, children have gone from being inoculated against four diseases in 1953 to today’s recommended schedule
of shots for 16 diseases requiring 49 doses by age 6. The government and pharmaceutical industry have said
evidence shows babies’ systems can easily handle the immune boost.
In federal “vaccine court,” the U.S. government defends injury claims on behalf of vaccine makers In 2002,
Hannah’s parents—her father a neurologist, her mother a nurse and attorney—filed a claim in a specially-created
federal vaccine court in which the U.S. Department of Justice defends vaccine interests. Hannah was to serve as
a test case to help decide the outcome of thousands of vaccine-autism claims. The case was strong. In 2007, contemplating
Hannah would win her claim, sources say the vaccine court analyzed what the broader financial impact
might be. It found that a flood of similar vaccine-autism claims would quickly deplete the government’s vaccine
injury compensation fund, which is supported by a small fee patients pay on each dose of vaccine.
But instead of allowing Hannah’s case to publicly serve as a precedent for other possible victims, the government
took another course: it quietly settled the case and sealed the results. Other families with autistic children
were never to know. Hannah’s family petitioned the court to be allowed to reveal the findings but the government
fought to keep the case sealed—and prevailed. Still, news of Hannah’s case leaked out in 2008—along with the
medical explanation for her vaccine-related “autistic encephalopathy [brain damage].” Vaccines prevent many
diseases that once routinely killed or harmed. But can vaccines trigger autism in a small subset of vulnerable
children? In a court-submitted opinion, neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, Director of Medical Research at
the Kennedy Krieger Institute, stated that he had “personally witnessed [Hannah’s] developmental regression”
following “vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation.”
Zimmerman concluded that Hannah was vulnerable to vaccine injury because she had a metabolic disorder called
mitochondrial dysfunction. While vaccines are safe for most children, in Hannah, they triggered a brain injury, according
to Zimmerman. Whether vaccines “caused” or “triggered” Hannah’s autism, the result was the same: but
for her vaccinations, Zimmerman said, “Hannah may have led a normal full productive life.” Instead, she suffers
“significant lifelong disability.”
A second underlying condition that was aggravated by vaccines, resulting in mental retardation and autism, is
tuberous sclerosis or “TS,” according to a 1986 vaccine court case. According to the National Institutes of Health,
TS affects 1 in every 6,000 newborns. Not all children who developed autism as a result of vaccine injuries, as determined
by vaccine court, had identifiable pre-existing conditions. But I asked the CDC’s DeStefano whether it
was worth trying to figure out what underlying conditions put kids at risk so they can be tested in advance and, if
vulnerable, spared.
“That’s very difficult to do,” DeStefano told me. He said the CDC’s priorities are gaining a better understanding
of the pathogenesis, genetics and biology of autism. “And then, I think… it’d be more feasible to try to establish
if vaccines in an individual case, say a person with a certain set of genes…if we ever get to that point, then that
kind of research might be fruitful.”
Not worthy of study?
But it turns out the CDC has ruled out that sort of research. A CDC spokesman told me that the agency is not “currently
investigating the relation between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Further, CDC does not
have any planned research addressing vaccines and autism.” As of May, 2010 the government had compensated
1,296 vaccine brain damage (encephalopathy/encephalitis and seizure cases) but was not tracking how many of
the brain-injured children specifically ended up with autism.
“CDC believes that this topic has been thoroughly studied and no causal links have been found,” said the spokesman
in an email. “Current CDC ASD related research focuses on determining how many people have ASD and
understanding risk factors and causes for ASD,” said the CDC. Seven years after Hannah’s case settled, twentyeight
years after the TS case, it’s impossible to know how many similar children, if any, are out there. And the
government isn’t trying to find out.
Attkisson: And is, is the pos—the current position that any potential link between vaccines and autism, secondary,
any kind at all, has been entirely ruled out 100%?
DeStefano: I re, you know, I re—uh, I think every hypothesis that’s been looked at has been, uh, ruled out.
Attkisson: But, I mean, are you, are you, can I say the CDC’s position is that if anybody thinks there’s anything
anymore, it’s a myth? It’s all been disproven?
DeStefano: Wouldn’t say it’s a myth, I’d say, you know, all the evidence, thus far, points to that there’s not a causal
association between vaccines and autism.
Attkisson: What about secondary?
DeStefano: Sec—I don’t understand what do you mean “secondary”?
Attkisson: What about not “causal,” but “as a result of” vaccines, as in the Poling case? The medical expert
found, you know, as a result of the damages she had from the vaccines, she ended up with autism. And the distinc-