Family Furious After Calumet City Police Shoot, Kill Boy With Autism

CALUMET CITY, Ill. (CBS) — Police in Calumet City were defending their actions Wednesday after officers shot and killed a 15-year-old boy, who has a form of autism, after he threatened them with a knife.

Stephon Watts’ family said he suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome — a high-functioning form of autism — and attention deficit disorder...[Full Article]

S. Korean Study Suggests Autism Rate May Be Much Higher
In rigorous survey, 1 in 38 children fell within the autism spectrum

MONDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- An estimated one in 38 South Korean children -- or 2.6 percent -- has an autism spectrum disorder, a new study says -- figures that experts believe could be similar in the United States.

Estimates of autism prevalence in the United States generally currently put the number at about 1 in 110 children, or less than 1 percent.

But those numbers may be underestimates because they rely on information about children who have been diagnosed with autism or who have autism symptoms noted in their medical records, explained Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for Autism Speaks, a New York City-based advocacy and research organization, which funded the research...[Full Article]

FoxNews: "Vaccine-Autism Correlation Coverup?"

CBS Asks: Vaccines, Autism and Brain Damage: What's in a Name?

Vaccines have saved untold millions of lives, and the vast majority of people who get them suffer no major problems.

But there's a trade-off: occasionally, vaccines cause injury or death. Very rarely, patients are left with what's known as "encephalopathy", the medical term for brain damage.

In fact, CBS News has found nearly 1,300 cases in which vaccine-related brain damage has been compensated in court over the past 20 years.

The debate over any links between vaccines and autism - a behavior problem triggered by brain damage - couldn't be more contentious. The great majority of medical opinion holds that vaccines don't cause autism. However, many of the same experts don't dispute that vaccines can, in rare instances, cause brain damage.

Family to Receive $1.5 Million + in First-Ever Vaccine-Autism Court Award

Learning From a Previous Vaccine-Autism Case...

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[Webmaster - 1,300 cases compensated in court over the last 20 years and the "medical experts" call that "rare instances"? Just image how many cases of brain damage resulted from vaccination, but they were misdiagnosed and they never made it to court.]

DOUBLETHINK: Autism-by-Vaccine Court Case and Government Study Compared

Family to Receive $1.5M+ in First-Ever Vaccine-Autism Court Award

Nine-year-old Hannah Poling is shown. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink)

The first court award in a vaccine-autism claim is a big one. CBS News has learned the family of Hannah Poling will receive more than $1.5 million dollars for her life care; lost earnings; and pain and suffering for the first year alone.

In addition to the first year, the family will receive more than $500,000 per year to pay for Hannah's care. Those familiar with the case believe the compensation could easily amount to $20 million over the child's lifetime.

Hannah was described as normal, happy and precocious in her first 18 months.

Then, in July 2000, she was vaccinated against nine diseases in one doctor's visit: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, varicella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and Haemophilus influenzae.

Afterward, her health declined rapidly. She developed high fevers, stopped eating, didn't respond when spoken to, began showing signs of autism, and began having screaming fits. In 2002, Hannah's parents filed an autism claim in federal vaccine court. Five years later, the government settled the case before trial and had it sealed. It's taken more than two years for both sides to agree on how much Hannah will be compensated for her injuries.

Read Sharyl Attkisson's 2008 report on Hannah Poling...

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[Webmaster - Want to see a blatant case of Orwellian doublethink? Check out the next article and compare it to the one above...]

No link found between vaccine mercury and autism

A new government study adds to the evidence that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative until recently found in many vaccines, does not increase children's risk of autism.

It shows kids who had been exposed as babies to high levels of the preservative -- through vaccines they received or their mothers received while pregnant -- were no more likely to develop autism, including two distinct subtypes of the condition.

"This study should reassure parents about following the recommended immunization schedule," said Dr. Frank Destefano, director of the Immunization Safety Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, and the study's senior author.

Concerns about a link between vaccines and autism were first raised more than a decade ago by British physician Andrew Wakefield.

His report, based on 12 children, has since been discredited and was retracted earlier this year by the journal that published it. In the meantime, it sparked a fierce worldwide debate among scientists and a health scare that caused many parents to shy away from recommended vaccines like the one against measles, mumps and rubella...

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[Webmaster - Now wait a minute! Let me get this straight! The government releases a report on a study...done by the government...the CDC...that says "no link between vaccinations and autism". Meanwhile...at the same time, the courts have just awarded, for the first time, $1.5million dollars in an "autism caused by vaccine" case which was SETTLED OUT OF COURT BY THE GOVERNMENT! ]

Scientists Find 'Baffling' Link Between Autism And Vinyl Flooring

Swedish children who live in homes with vinyl floors are more likely to have autism, according to a new study, but what's behind the link is unclear

Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit chemicals called phthalates, are more likely to have autism, according to research by Swedish and U.S. scientists published Monday.

The study of Swedish children is among the first to find an apparent connection between an environmental chemical and autism...

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