June 2012 – An Italian court has awarded compensation for a boy’s autism based on the “reasonable scientific probability” that MMR vaccine was the cause. The judgment states: “The medicolegal and auxiliary medicolegal assessments must be conducted according to their merits, which, based on an in-depth examination of the case in the light of the specialist literature to date, has conclusively established that the young child is suffering from AUTISTIC DISORDER ASSOCIATED WITH MEDIUM COGNITIVE DELAY ascribed with reasonable scientific probability due to the administration of the vaccine MMR”. Furthermore, “there is a permanent impairment of physical and mental integrity established”.
The child, Valentino Bocca, was developing normally prior to the vaccination injected when he was 15 months old. His parents, Antonella and Maurizio, told the UK’s Daily Mail that, about two weeks after the injection, Valentino was waking screaming 4-5 times a night and running around in circles during the day. Over one year later, after no let-up in symptoms and continuing medical denial of their suspicions that the vaccine could have been the cause, they began to do their own research. It was only then that they realized that their son might have autism. It wasn’t until Valentino was five years old that this was medically confirmed. Now, his mother relates, “He is nine, but cannot speak, and only sings a little to himself. He cannot hold a pencil. He has a special teacher at school to help him and finds it difficult to mix with other children. What the future holds for him, or for us, we do not know.”
The parents’ lawyer, Luca Ventaloro, told the Daily Mail, “This is very significant for Britain which uses, and has used, an MMR vaccine with the same components as the one given to Valentino. It is wrong for governments and their health authorities to exert strong pressure on parents to take children for the MMR jab while ignoring that this vaccine can cause autism and linked conditions.” In fact, the vaccine which Valentino Bocca received was MMR II, the same measles/mumps/rubella vaccine injected into Canadian children.
In 2011, a Pace Environmental Law Review found that there have been US cases of autism compensated without public disclosure for more than twenty years. It states: “This study found 83 cases of acknowledged vaccine-induced brain damage that include autism, a disorder that affects speech, social communication and behavior. In 21 published cases of the Court of Federal Claims, which administers the VICP, the Court stated that the petitioners had autism or described autism unambiguously. In 62 remaining cases, the authors identified settlement agreements where Health and Human Services (HHS) compensated children with vaccine-induced brain damage, who also have autism or an autism spectrum disorder.”
Valentino’s parents have been awarded the equivalent of £140,000 and may receive a further £800,000. The Italian judgment might ease similar compensation in other parts of the world. Given the certitude of the Italian judgment and the increasing numbers of autistic children, how much longer will financially-and emotionally-drained families be willing to wait for their time of justice; how much longer will other parents accept as gospel the medical denial of the vaccine/autism connection?
Further reading:
VRAN’s Autism section
VRAN’s MMR page