And in related autism and vaccine news

CNN reports that the special vaccine court has ruled that autism isn't caused by vaccines, sortof.

A special court ruled Thursday that parents of autistic children are not entitled to compensation in their contention that certain vaccines caused autism in their children.

"I must decide this case not on sentiment, but by analyzing the evidence," one of the "special masters" hearing the case said in denying the families' claims, ruling that the families had not presented sufficient evidence to prove their allegations.

While I feel badly for the parents, most of whom probably believe that the vaccinations caused their childrens' autism, this sort of ruling is a good step. Judicial rulings should never be seen as settling any scientific question, but when there is very little evidence that vaccines cause autism the court should be ruling on the side of the scientific consensus.

While it may be valuable for scientists to continue to investigate all avenues to determine the factors leading to autism, including vaccines, any public, realistic response that weakens the relationship between the two in the public eye is probably a step in the right direction.

In Your Face, RFK Jr!

And Jenny McCarthy, among the seemingly vast hordes of people who think, despite all the evidence, that vaccines cause autism.

As per the Sunday Times

THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.

When I have been close to a scientific news article, or I when I am very familiar with the research, I notice mistakes and overstatements in much of the popular reporting. Since this matches up with most of the scientific consensus, though, I am inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt.

With any luck, this will help to further discredit the idea for parents who are looking for any possible treatment for autism, since that tends to go hand in hand with pseudoscientific woo. And, hopefully, it will make people less distrustful of vaccinations, which have so many benefits.

It is hard to measure the harm that something like this has caused, as it is not even responsible for many people's fear of vaccination, but certainly a step towards truth will help.