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In advance of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee’s (IACC) August meeting, ICAN has submitted a comment urging them to prioritize work related to defining vaccine-induced encephalopathy (brain injury caused by vaccination). Establishing this definition is essential to ensuring that injured children receive appropriate medical care, families can seek compensation for injuries, and policymakers rely on accurate data when making public health decisions.
Federal authorities already recognize that vaccines can cause brain injury. “Encephalopathy or encephalitis” is listed on the Vaccine Injury Compensation Table for vaccines containing pertussis, measles, mumps, or rubella components. In addition, the manufacturers of many childhood vaccines list encephalitis and/or encephalopathy in Section 6.2 of the vaccine package insert, including DTaP (Infanrix), hepatitis A (Vaqta, Haverix), hepatitis B (Recombivax, Engerix-B), MMR (Priorix, MMR II), Tdap (Boostrix), and varicella (Varivax).
The comment submitted by ICAN’s attorneys to the IACC reminds committee members that despite being a recognized vaccine injury, there remains no accepted clinical guidance distinguishing vaccine-induced encephalopathy from autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Clear definitions can have critical impacts on diagnostic and treatment decisions by doctors, the ability of the parents to seek just compensation through the Vaccine Injury Compensation Court, and the funding of research on the root causes of autism.
ICAN urges the IACC members to make it a research priority to identify objective diagnostic markers and to establish a working group to develop clinical guidance. ICAN looks forward to the committee’s response and will continue advocating for clear clinical standards that improve patient care, advance research, and ensure families have access to justice.
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