The Omnibus Autism Proceeding was a set of six test cases heard by
Special Masters of the
United States Court of Federal Claims
The United States Court of Federal Claims (in case citations, Fed. Cl. or C.F.C.) is a United States federal court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government. It was established by statute in 1982 as the United States Claims Court, ...
to examine claims of a causal link between vaccines and
autism
The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
.
Because there were so many
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, popularly known as "vaccine court", administers a no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims. These claims against vaccine manufacturers cannot normally be filed in st ...
(NVICP) cases that involve a claim that vaccines caused autism, over 5000 of them in fact, the attorneys for the plaintiffs and the Special Masters agreed to examine three test cases to determine if there were sufficient evidence to support a link between vaccines and autism. They directly confronted the claim of whether there is evidence of causality between vaccines and autism.
In 2002, the NVICP, in consultation with a Petitioners Steering Committee, set up the Omnibus Autism Proceeding to aggregate these cases. They decided to examine six test cases that made one or more of the following claims about the vaccines-autism link:
• Claims that center on vaccines containing thimerosal causing autism.
• Claims that MMR vaccines alone (with no mention of thimerosal) can cause autism.
Three Special Masters examined the evidence for each of those claims. In 2009, they handed down their decisions. For each claim, the three Special Masters concluded that there were no links between vaccines and autism.
References
Vaccine controversies
MMR vaccine and autism
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