Special Court Says Connection Between Vaccines and Autism is 'Scientifically Unsupportable'

March 12, 2010— -- In a major blow to parents who believe that their children's autism was caused by childhood vaccines, a special court ruled today that "the theory of vaccine-related causation is scientifically unsupportable" and in three separate cases, denied parents any compensation from the makers of the vaccine.

In one of the cases, George and Victoria Mead of Portland, Oregon argued before a special master appointed by the United States Court of Federal Claims that their son William's autism was caused by mercury in the vaccine preservative thimerosal. The couple's attorney claimed that these vaccines cause brain swelling that results in autism.

Dr. Richard Besser will have more on this story tonight on "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" on your ABC station.

Pediatricians applauded the ruling. "The rulings support the science and clinical evidence," said Dr. Ari Brown, an Austin, Texas-based pediatrician and co-author of the book "Baby 411." "It's pretty clear it is not the cause. I hope that these rulings give additional reassurance to parents and parents-to-be about the safety of vaccines."

"Vaccinations prevent often-serious infectious diseases and have been an important reason for improved disease-free survival of children in the modern era," said Dr. Shlomo Shinnar, professor of Neurology, Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y. "While no treatment is free of side effects, they have proven safe and effective."

Dr. Michael Wasserman, a pediatrician with the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, La., weighed in too: "It's great to learn that evidence, logic and science are prevailing in this case."

Groups who had argued there was a link between vaccines and autism expressed outrage. One of them, the Coalition for Vaccine Safety (CVS), said in a statement that it believed the Special Masters of the Court of Federal Claims "appear to have based their decisions on the government policy to protect the vaccine program rather than to fulfill their role to do justice by vaccine-injured children."

"The deck is stacked against families in Vaccine Court," said Rebecca Estepp, a CVS steering committee member and mother of a petitioner in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding, in the statement. "Government attorneys defend a government program, using government-funded science, before government judges. Where's the justice in that?"

"The government has its thumb on the scales of justice," said Laura Bono, parent of a child whose case was dismissed, in a statement issued by the advocacy group SafeMinds. "The process is dysfunctional and many families will not see justice done."