Did Hell freeze over in the NVICP?

A big step forward today before it thaws.

A ruling from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, aka The Vaccine Court shook the ground today. Maybe froze time for a bit.

Special Master Sanders ruled in favor of petitioners that their medical theory offered to show petitioners suffer from Premature Ovarian Insufficiency/Failure (POI) as a result of the Gardasil vaccination. click here to read the 24 page ruling.

This is not a final decision. Far from it. Just a ruling that allows a group of petitioners to move forward. Government will continue to try to derail not because of science but because of policy. To protect the vaccination program and not the people.

Specifically, in order to show causation in the Program, petitioners must meet the Althen standard. This three prong standard to establish a preponderance of evidence begins with;

(1) a medical theory causally connecting the vaccination and the injury;

(2) a logical sequence of cause and effect showing that the vaccination was the reason for the injury; and

(3) a proximate temporal relationship between vaccination and injury. (timing)

The ruling states that the petitions offered a credible medical theory to meet the Althen 1 prong test.

Petitioners have articulated a sound and reliable theory of how HPV vaccines could cause autoimmune POI via molecular mimicry. More specifically, Petitioners’ expert described how autoantibodies can attack multiple short peptide chains contained within proteins needed for normal ovarian function, when said peptides are also contained within viral proteins identified by the immune system for destruction.

And just as significant, the medical expert, Dr. Shoenfeld’s theories are credible. SM Sanders’s comment.

Although I find Dr. Shoenfeld presents a theory I believe is sound and reliable, I do not expect it to be applicable to every case submitted. Indeed, these are rare effects, and that will hold true even within the Program. Petitioners are still expected to establish it more likely than not that they suffer from autoimmune POI and that Dr. Shoenfeld’s theory is applicable to each of them. They must also provide preponderant evidence that molecular mimicry did occur and that there exists a temporal relationship between vaccination and injury. Each petitioner’s medical record should be analyzed to see if her claim can proceed to Althen prongs two and three in accordance with this Ruling.

This is a big step forward. Many more to go.

Keep learning, keep challenging yourself and always, always question authority.

Have a good day.