Guide Note
Some parents suspect that childhood
vaccines have precipitated
autism in their children.
Fast Facts
- 4900 families have claims currently pending with the U.S. Court of Claims1
- 5300 families have filed claims since 19871
- Approximately 560,000 people under age 21 have autism in the United States2
Hannah Poling Case
In March 2008, Hannah Poling was awarded compensation in a lawsuit in which her parents claimed that her autism was caused by nine vaccines she received in 2000. In the award, however, the decision was that the vaccines had aggravated a mitochondrial disease, which in turn led to her autism. It did not acknowledge that the vaccines themselves caused her autism. The general scientific community continues to maintain that there is no evidence proving the link.3
Quotes
"Parents have observed a time association between when their child got vaccinated and when they had a worsening of their clinical state...But just because two things occur at the same time, it doesn't mean that one caused the other."—Dr. Douglas Wallace, director of the Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics at the University of California, Irvine4
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