Global warming and evolution, meet vaccines. The scientific community seems to be largely aligned on all of your sides: exists and needs to be dealt with; no controversy to be taught; and doesn't cause autism.

That won't stop the U.S. judicial system from being plagued by claims that what scientists have found through careful study is incorrect--and that restitution be delivered.

Apparently, a school board in Chesterfield County, Va., is ordering new textbooks and it's feeling the heat from community members, who are encouraging them to splurge and get books with a few extra pages on intelligent design.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims will host lawyers representing one of 4,800 children living with autism, whose families have filed claims alleging that vaccines are the causal culprit. This despite the Institute of Medicine, a part of The National Academies, releasing eight reports over three years on the subject. The final word was that there is no link between the development of autism and vaccines (specifically, measles-mumps-rubella and others that contained the organometallic, mercury-containing compound thimerosal).



From the description of the Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism:

...the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. The book further finds that potential biological mechanisms for vaccine-induced autism that have been generated to date are only theoretical.

According to an AP story on the lawsuit, one parent, who has filed a claim "believes those findings were preordained by the federal government."

Frankly, amidst charges of the government's sweetheart deals with firms like Haliburton and VaxGen, an untested, but well-connected company given a dubious anthrax vaccine contract in 2004, and its bending over to the whims of the Exxons, it's not hard to understand that parent's sentiment. For one, his son was handed a tough life to live--one that impacts his parents as well. Two, it's not entirely unreasonable to suspect the government of mischief or playing buddy to the pharmaceutical companies. But, this is a scientific consensus--one from a respected body, to boot.

Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a co-inventor of a vaccine for rotaviruses (which cause gastrointestinal issues), wrote a sort of pre-elegy to vaccines in the Boston Globe's "Ideas" this past Sunday. He rattles off stats about how many lives they've saved, and how they're our brightest hopes in fighting AIDS and bioterrorism.

He also makes a pretty salient point:

Finally, vaccine makers removed thimerosal from vaccines routinely given to young infants about six years ago; if thimerosal were a cause, the incidence of autism should have declined. Instead, the numbers have continued to increase. All of this evidence should have caused a quick dismissal of these cases. But it didn't, and now the court has turned into a circus. The federal and civil litigation will likely take years to sort out.

Looks like that time starts...now.